Oklahoma Sooners Football: As expected, Baker Mayfield is a Heisman Trophy finalist

As expected, the most efficient quarterback in college football history — Baker Mayfield — has been invited to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York, where he will be joined by Louisville QB Lamar Jackson and Stanford RB Bryce Love. The ceremony will take place on 7 p.m. CT.

The starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners leads the nation in completion percentage (.710), passing efficiency rating (203.8, which would be an NCAA record if he stays on pace), yards per attempt (11.8), yards per completion (16.6) and pass of plays of 20-plus yards (75). He also ranks second in passing touchdowns (41).

His fellow finalists are outstanding in their own right, but neither are expected to come too close to winning the award this season. Jackson, who won the award last season, has thrown for 3,489 and has completed 60.4 percent of his passes on the season. Additionally, Jackson has rushed for 1,443 yards and 17 touchdowns. However, Jackson has a couple of things working against him — his team’s four-loss record and the fact that he won the award a year ago.

Love, who backed up Christian McCaffery a year ago, has rushed for 1,973 yards and has averaged an incredible 8.3 yards per carry. But, like Jackson, his team has four losses. Additionally, Love plays on the West Coast and sometimes flies under the radar.

Don’t expect any name other than Baker Mayfield to be called on Saturday evening. Talking heads at ESPN will try to argue for other candidates, but that’ll only serve the purpose of taking up time on a broadcast. You’ll hear reports of voters leaving Mayfield off the ballot on account of his “antics”, but those people will be outliers. In short, we should be very surprised if Oklahoma doesn’t have a sixth Heisman Trophy winner this weekend.