Cowboys Savor One Last Chance at Baker Mayfield in Bedlam

Baker Mayfield is a lot like Donald Trump.

Love him or hate him, it’s hard to deny that for a couple of years you have been truly invested in him. And that those years have felt more like a couple of decades full of insane, wild moments. He wears his emotions as proudly as he wears crimson on his chest, and all of the Cowboys interviewed for this story said they aren’t tired of him yet.

“You can’t ever get tired of playing against a good player and competing,” Mason Rudolph said. “… Nobody wants to play against a scout team quarterback.”

Mayfield is like Rudolph in only two ways.

Rudolph is the perennial “good guy.” Mayfield is the world-class flag twirler. Mason almost annoyingly balks at the spotlight, as he did several times Tuesday, passing it off to other Oklahoma State players. Baker grows mustaches just to get attention and pumps the crowd up before every opening drive on the road.

But both play quarterback (at an extremely high level), and both seem to have been in college for at least six or seven years.

Mayfield has only played in two Bedlams, and he is 2-0 in them. After the first, in Stillwater, he was jumping into the crowd and campaigning for his team to be in the playoff and for himself to be in New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation.

Many of the same big players were in place in 2015, they were just less seasoned. Rudolph was there, kinda. He played backup to J.W. Walsh while recovering from a broken foot. He came in for a drive and threw an interception. Mike Gundy was there and looked more like 2005 Gundy than 2017 Gundy. Time has passed since that night in 2015, the forgotten Bedlam, it seems. But had the Cowboys won that night, they would have clinched the Big 12 title.

Then Mayfield’s second Bedlam, last season, OSU traveled to Norman for a redemption shot at a conference crown, what would have been their first since 2011. With new uniforms, a new Rudolph and a mulleted Gundy, the odds seemed better than the year before despite playing on the road. By the end of the game, Baker was taking his shoulder pads off and revealing a “Back To Back” shirt he was wearing underneath the whole time.

Even still, the Cowboys aren’t done. Ramon Richards is probably OSU’s version of Baker in terms of popularity and forthrightness, and he said there are a lot of guys on the team who are the same way emotionally.

“Mason, James, I line up next to McGruder,” Richards said. “I see that every day. It’s nothing new to me.”

Unfortunately for Cowboy fans, OU winning Bedlam has also been nothing new recently. When the conference title or a shot at the championship game has been on the line, OSU is 1-4 in such games since 2010. Luckily for the Cowboys, this game wouldn’t technically qualify. Projecting Bedlam as a pseudo-Big 12 Championship Game in the preseason and re-introducing the title game in this season, the scheduling committee didn’t want to have Bedlam in back-to-back weeks. So they play it a month earlier than normal this year.

Still, the chess pieces are on the table, and they’re even better this year. This game will undoubtedly have a major impact on who will be represented in the title game and ultimately, who wins it. And Tre Flowers said playing this game against a player like Mayfield is all you could want as a player.

“It’s not every year you get to go play against somebody that great,” Flowers said. “I played him my senior year of high school so it is going to be six years in a row I am playing against him. I am just ready for it. He is a great player.”

“He’ll make you miss,” added Glenn Spencer. “He’s a tremendous ball player. He’s hard to tackle, can throw on the run, makes great reads, he’s tough, doesn’t back down from a challenge. If you’re down the street in the park picking sides on Saturday, he’s your first pick. You know what he can do. You know what he’s capable of first-hand. He makes you look silly. You have a lot of respect for a guy like that.”

Baker certainly has the Cowboys’ respect. Although he prances after wins, has been arrested in what could be considered glorious fashion and embodies everything a college “bro” is supposed to be, his name rests up there with the likes of Sam Bradford and Landry Jones in OU history. And OSU has one last shot at him on Saturday in BPS.

Asked #OKState’s Glenn Spencer about Baker Mayfield — “if you’re down the street in the park picking sides on Saturday he’s your first pick” pic.twitter.com/1JPx4WT2qd

— Nate Feken (@TheGreat_Nate) November 1, 2017