Baker Mayfield is talking about everything except the College Football Playoff semifinals

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield had much to say at Monday’s news conference ahead of Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal matchup against Clemson. Very little about seemed to be about the game itself.

Instead, Mayfield brought up just about everyone who he feels slighted him on his way to being named Big 12 offensive player of the year this season.

Enemy No. 1: the TV announcers from last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl, which saw Clemson trounce Oklahoma, 40-6. Mayfield told reporters that he and his teammates don’t watch the game to suss out the Tigers’ tendencies, but rather to listen to the announcers slam the Sooners.

“We listen to the commentating,” he said, via Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman(who provides all the quotes listed here). “It motivates us … how disrespectful it was. They said it was like the scout team versus the varsity, and that it was embarrassing for Coach (Bob) Stoops.”

Enemy No. 2: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal columnist Don Williams, who wrote a recent column alleging that Mayfield and his father are engaging in some revisionist history when it comes to his transfer from Texas Tech, where Mayfield started his college career as a walk-on, to Oklahoma in 2014. The Mayfields say Baker unjustly lost a season of eligibility because Red Raiders Coach Kliff Kingsbury didn’t sign off on his transfer, and a number of high-profile commentators have called upon the NCAA to right this supposed wrong. Williams pointed out that longstanding NCAA and Big 12 rules say that any player who transfers from one school to another in the same conference must give up a year of eligibility, and that the Mayfields knew this to be the case.

“Mayfield knowingly threw away a year of eligibility by the path he chose,” Williams wrote. “The transfer rules have been in place for years, a sensible deterrent to every disgruntled player having carte blanche to skip from one program to the next each offseason.”

But according to Baker Mayfield, Williams is “absolutely ignorant.”

“Some people there [in Lubbock], they’re still hung up on that,” Mayfield continued. “I’ve moved on. Kingsbury has moved on. The players, everybody’s moved on, besides the [Avalanche] Journal people. It’s ridiculous. It’s been over two years now.”

Enemy No. 3: TCU Coach Gary Patterson, who Mayfield says dragged out the recruiting process to the point where he had no choice but to go to Texas Tech as a walk-on.

“They told me they were going to offer me a scholarship and kind of drug it out,” he said. “I told other schools that I wasn’t interested because I thought I was going there. I truly believed they were going to offer me because they told me that. They disappointed (me). They kinda hung me out to dry right before signing day.

“[Patterson] doesn’t like me and I have no comment about that.”

Patterson disputed nearly all of that to Bonnie Bernstein as he prepared for the Horned Frogs’ Alamo Bowl matchup with Oregon, taking a shot at Mayfield’s father in the process:

“I like Baker Mayfield. I think he’s a good kid and that’s what disappoints me.

“If Baker Mayfield wants to blame TCU for 128 BCS schools not offering him a scholarship, that’s fine. But ask Kliff Kingsbury why he didn’t offer him a scholarship at Texas Tech. Ask about Baker’s dad [James]. He’s an arrogant guy who thinks he knows everything. If people knew the whole story, they might not have a great opinion of Baker or his father.”

“Remember what was going on then. Casey Pachall was in alcohol rehab, we already had Trevone [Boykin], Tyler Matthews was an early commit. When we knew we were getting Casey back, there just wasn’t a need. This stuff happens all the time.”

Patterson also told Bernstein that TCU suspected Mayfield was helping Oklahoma steal the Horned Frogs’ signals during their 2014 matchup. Mayfield played for TCU offensive coordinator Sonny Crumbie at Texas Tech 

Read the full article here