Hey, friends and fans. It’s the day before the College Football Awards show where there will be at least a few chances for the Oklahoma Sooners to bring home some fine hardware. The headliners for the Sooners include Baker Mayfield, who is a finalist for the Maxwell and the Davey O’Brien, and Orlando Brown, who is up for the Outland. Tune in for all of that and more at 6 p.m. CT tomorrow on ESPN.

This just in: Mark Andrews has become the first Sooner to win the John Mackey Award for the nation’s best tight end! Congratulations, Mark!

For Hot Links today, you’ll find out how you can help Conner McGinnis win Holder of the Year, learn which single play heavily shaped Oklahoma’s playoff outlook, watch what Sooner commit Spencer Rattler can do on the hardwood and much more!

OU Links

• A student at the University of Oklahoma has started a petition that asks for Baker Mayfield’s inevitable statue in Heisman Park to be modeled after his iconic planting of the OU flag. As of writing this, the petition has nearly 2,500 signatures. Time will tell if this petition will influence the powers that be. Personally, I’m in favor of this, wholeheartedly.
• OU’s Connor McGinnis is a finalist for the Mortell Holder of the Year Award! If you haven’t voted for Conner yet, there’s still time! Voting ends tomorrow, so hurry and do it now!

• Baker Mayfield has never been shy of the spotlight, and now he’s poised to win the ultimate award an individual can earn in sports. Check out Joe Buettner’s awesome piece about all the ups and downs of Mayfield’s journey from Lake Travis High to Norman.
• Since Bob Stoops first arrived in Norman, every OU offensive coordinator has eventually become a head coach. With Josh Heupel taking over at UCF, that list of OCs to HCs grows to 8. If you want to be a head coach someday, and you’re the offensive coordinator at OU, you’re well on your way.
• Lincoln Riley received a package while on a recruiting trip in The Sunshine State. Still can’t get over how awesome this will be next season. Them Sooners are going to look slick:

• If you’re a stats geek like I am, and you also think Baker Mayfield is the best college QB ever like I do, then you are going to dig this article about just how phenomenal Mayfield has been this season, statistically speaking.
• Mayfield has a chance to be the first Heisman Trophy winner to wear number 6, and he also has a chance to win by the biggest margin in Oklahoma’s Heisman history.
• Not one, not two, not three, but four Sooners made Pro Football Focus’ All-Big 12 First Team Offense. Congratulations, guys! PFF is well known for detailed grading and evaluating.

• DB Will Johnson’s end zone interception in the third quarter of Bedlam is considered one of the singular plays that shaped the College Football Playoff. It was an amazing play that definitely helped the Sooners take control of one of the biggest games in 2017.
• The Oklahoma Sooners are not only exciting for OU fans to watch, they rank as the most exciting team to watch in the country, period. Rose Bowl opponent Georgia also makes the list of the top ten most watchable teams in college football.
• Oklahoma’s recruiting has taken off ever since Lincoln Riley took over as head coach. Now Coach Riley has even more to sell in his recruiting pitch: conference championship, playoffs, Jordan Brand, the list goes on and on.
• Speaking of recruiting, 2019 Oklahoma QB commit Spencer Rattler can throw the ball and dunk the ball:

National Links

• A tale of two sports:

• Florida State has officially moved on from the Jimbo Fisher era after hiring Oregon’s Willie Taggart. Taggart coached the Ducks for one season, but has done increasingly well at every program he’s undertaken. In my opinion this is an exceptional hire because Taggart is a native Floridian who knows the area and gets the most out of his talent.
• SMU head coach Chad Morris appears in line to take over the opening at Arkansas. Morris is known for his explosive offenses, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can bring that with him against the rest of the SEC West division.
• Oh, how the times have changed. I don’t blame Herm Edwards though, because it’s still a little weird for me to see how small the jerseys look when players aren’t wearing them.
• Golden State Warriors’ guard Steph Curry has been ruled out for at least the next two weeks with a sprained right ankle. Curry battled several serious ankle injuries early in his career, so one would hope this doesn’t derail him for very long.
• A Montana girl’s high school basketball team beat another team 102-0. How does something like this happen? It may be unbelievable for you, but once you take into account the circumstances, you’ll soon understand why.

Stick to Sports!

• This is what is happening about 90 minutes from the Rose Bowl. It’s almost straight out of a set from a movie, which is a coincidence considering it is Hollywood. Hopefully they can extinguish all the fires and nobody gets hurt.

• With a little persistence and the help of 10,000 retweets, SB Nation’s Ryan Nanni has fulfilled a dream. Have no fear, Bloomin’ Onion Man is here.

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