What the TCU Horned Frogs say about Baker Mayfield’s Heisman chances

After his two performances against them this season, Baker Mayfield has the TCU Horned Frogs’ endorsement for the Heisman Trophy.

The Oklahoma quarterback is the favorite for the most prestigious award in college football, to be presented Saturday, after leading the Sooners to the Big 12 championship with a 12-1 season and producing the nation’s No. 1 offense.

“He looks like the Heisman,” TCU quarterback Kenny Hill said Saturday after the Big 12 championship game, in which Mayfield threw four touchdown passes in a 41-17 victory at AT&T Stadium. “He’s put up numbers all year, played outstanding. He’s one of the best in college football, so to me, he looks like the Heisman.”

Mayfield could be the first quarterback with an NCAA pass efficiency rating over 200. He is ahead of Sam Bradford as the school leader in pass efficiency for a career going into the Jan. 1 national semifinal game against Georgia at the Rose Bowl.

“His play speaks for itself,” TCU linebacker Travin Howard said. “You can’t take anything away from him. Like Kenny said, he comes out every week and balls. You can’t take anything away from him. He’s a good football player.”

Including one start for Texas Tech in 2013, Mayfield threw 12 touchdown passes in five games against the Horned Frogs. He led the Sooners to three Big 12 titles in three years since transferring from Lubbock.

“You’ve got to give Baker credit,” said TCU coach Gary Patterson, who two years ago traded barbs with the quarterback over a claim that he denied a promised scholarship. Since then, he and Mayfield have spoken more respectfully of each other.

“He hasn’t just done it one year, he’s done it three years,” Patterson said. “There shouldn’t be anything that TCU should say that should take away from anything he’s done because he’s had a great career, and he finished the regular season with a championship, like champions do.”

The Big 12 runner-up Horned Frogs meet Stanford in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 11:04 AM with the headline "What the TCU Horned Frogs say about Baker Mayfield’s Heisman chances."