Mayfield mania: Sooners' top five most hyped quarterbacks
Baker Mayfield is causing quite a stir among optimistic Oklahoma fans who believe the transfer quarterback could restore order to the Sooners' offense.
Few quarterbacks who have never taken a snap for their team have entered a season riding such a significant wave of hype as Mayfield. Stranger still is that Mayfield has yet to officially wrest the starting job from incumbent Trevor Knight.
Even so, the expectation is that Mayfield will win the job and inject instant excitement into the Sooners' new Air Raid offense, something he's a tad familiar with after running it as a freshman walk-on sensation at Texas Tech in 2013.
All of the hype got The Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson thinking about the most ballyhooed quarterbacks in OU history before ever taking a snap. She came up with five. Spoiler alert: Not all lived up to the hype.
1. Jack Mildren: Even though he played in the pre-internet days, no quarterback was more revered by the time he arrived at OU. Mildren was the nation's top recruit in 1968 and the focus on a lengthy Sports Illustrated piece that fall. His legend was so great that even though he was ineligible for the varsity as all freshmen were in those days, Sooner fans flocked to the freshmen games to see him play.
2. Rhett Bomar: He was widely considered the best quarterback in the 2004 recruiting class, which made him a big deal. He might've been an even bigger deal had he not arrived in Norman at the same time as Adrian Peterson. As it was, Bomar had plenty of hype since Sooner fans could find plenty of his highlights on the internet.
3. Eric Mitchel: Another top recruit nationally. He drew comparisons to Turner Gill and Spencer Tillman. He considered UCLA, Florida, Arkansas and others. But he ultimately landed at OU in 1985, and many thought his sprinter speed would make him an option superstar. Mitchel's athleticism, though, was beat out by Jamelle Holieway's precision.
4. Cale Gundy: The Midwest City product wasn't as big a deal nationally as Mildren, Bomar or Mitchel, but he was still a Parade All-American. And being local, the hype was significant. He was in the news often, and as the younger brother of Mike, who had great success up the road at Oklahoma State, he arrived at OU in 1990 with great expectations.
5. Chad Davis: He was an Oklahoma kid who moved to California right before he started high school. He went on to set the national career passing record, so when he chose to come back to Oklahoma and play for the Sooners in 1993, everyone thought he'd be the perfect fit for the more wide-open passing attack ushered in by Gundy. But after one season, Davis was gone, transferring to Washington State.
(h/t The Oklahoman)
Photo Credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images