Much-needed, hard lesson learned, maybe?
While he was subjected to a lack-of-class moment by Kansas in the pregame and then a couple of questionable hits during this past Saturday’s game, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield showed his backside by very graphically grabbing his front in a heated response. While he truly apologized in the postgame aftermath, OU announced Monday that the Heisman Trophy front-runner will not start this weekend’s regular-season finale against West Virginia.
Not only that, Mayfield was stripped of his captaincy for that finale. On Senior Day, his last-ever game in Norman no less.
That latter aspect of the punishment proved to be almost too much for Mayfield to deal with, with the quarterback becoming visibly emotional when discussing with the media his lost captaincy Monday night.
“Playing at OU was something that I always dreamed of,” Mayfield said. “Not starting, it is what it is.
“But not being a team captain is so much more. It would be hard if it were a regular game or not, but it being my last one here ever, it means a lot more. It’s going to be tough, because Saturday was going to be -- without all of this -- an emotional one. It’s going to be hard to handle, but ... it’s going to be hard.”
Baker Mayfield getting emotional about not being a captain on Oklahoma senior day pic.twitter.com/pXEK1VpFNe
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 21, 2017
OU has already secured one spot in the Big 12 championship game, most likely against TCU. The Sooners are also ranked fourth in the most recent College Football Playoff Top 25 and will earn one of the four semifinal slots if they win their next two games.