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OUDAILY
For 100 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma
SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY
Senior wide receiver Dede Westbrook celebrates in the end zone during the second quarter of the Bedlam game Saturday. The Sooners won the game 38-20 and are back-to-back Big 12 champions.
STILL THE CHAMPS
Sooners win ninth straight game to earn Sugar Bowl berth
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i t h t w o e a r l y l o s ses squashing playoff dreams and an injury list that seemed to grow by a starter per week, Oklahoma was on the ropes. Beaten, bruised and backed into a corner, the Sooners looked up and still had nine rounds left in the season and a Big 12 championship up for grabs. So they started swinging. “We’ve been through a lot this year,” linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo said. “We keep fighting. That’s like the M.O. of this team, you know. We’re fighters. We want a dog fight every week. Before the games we watch boxing videos, we watch stories. That’s how we see it. We’re ready to go into a slug match with anybody. That’s not what we want to do, but if need be we’re ready. We’re going to swing until somebody falls.” In a microcosm of its season, No. 9 Oklahoma (10-2, 9-0 Big 12) overcame a slow start to knockout No. 10 Oklahoma State, 38-20. The Cowboys (9-3, 7-2 Big 12) couldn’t hold up against a team whose coach had decided to motivate his players with
JESSE POUND • @JESSERPOUND boxing classics, showing them videos of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard before games. “Bob’s message through all that is it’s a personal battle, oneon-one,” defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. “We feel like we have 15 series a game. You better fight each one of them. If you win more than you lose, you’re usually going to win the fight. And that was kind of the message behind all that.” The win sends the Sooners to the Sugar Bowl — a New Year’s celebration in New Orleans that seemed so distant when the team was 1-2. “I’m just really proud of this group — to endure what we’ve had to endure all year, for everybody to tell you everything we’re not,” Mike Stoops said. “But we are Big 12 Champs again, so that’s for all the naysayers or whatnot. This was a challenging year for a lot of different reasons that people will never understand, but our kids, I couldn’t be more proud of them to overcome all of that and do it in the fashion they did. All the credit goes to them.” The Sooners lost star wide
receiver Dede Westbrook to a concussion in the second quarter, but they absorbed that blow like all the others, scoring touchdowns on three straight drives to
“I’m just really proud of this group — to endure what we’ve had to endure all year, for everybody to tell you everything we’re not. But we are Big 12 Champs again, so that’s for all the naysayers or whatnot.” MIKE STOOPS, DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
separate from the Cowboys. “That’s just our mentality as a team,” wide receiver Geno Lewis said. “No matter how the fight’s going, if it’s going back and forth,
we’ve just got to keep fighting until the end, and we prevailed in the end.” It was Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ 10th conference title in 18 years, but he said this one was his most gratifying. The team that stumbled early became the first Big 12 team to go 9-0 in conference play. The Sooners’ defense had been a target for criticism all year, allowing big rallies and career days for opposing quarterbacks early in the season. But after bottoming out against Texas Tech, Oklahoma picked themselves up off the mat, improving week by week until it held Cowboy quarterback Mason Rudolph to 186 yards on 11-25 passing. “For us to overcome so many things that we’ve had to overcome that the normal person wouldn’t understand, and everybody just constantly berates you and belittles you, and it’s hard ,and our players didn’t say anything,” Mike Stoops said. “They just stayed with it, and we know we’re capable of playing better. Like I said, this has been a challenging year, and I just think it makes it feel that much sweeter
to have that kind of vindication on your home field against our rivals and to out-play them in a lot of ways, that’s what it’s all about.” The final bell brought elation — and a turn to the future. Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield — who was masterful, even when star receiver Dede Westbrook left with a concussion in the second quarter — announced after the game that he would return for his senior season. The Sooners, adorned with their championship hats, celebrated in their locker room, still-under construction, in the south end of Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, “I wanted the seniors to have a piece of it, a taste of it, what they’ve left behind,” Bob Stoops said. “So we had a nice celebration in the new locker room. Hopefully we didn’t damage any walls that need to be re-done. “We’ve won back-to-back championships out of a trailer, and nobody’s ever bellyached about it and had a negative thing to say about it.” Jesse Pound
jesserpound@gmail.com
Mayfield leads Sooners to Big 12 championship Confident quarterback throws for three scores in Bedlam win SPENSER DAVIS @Davis_Spenser
By all accounts, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is the heart and soul of the nowBig 12 Champion Sooners. After Dede Westbrook went down with a head injur y in the second quarter, Mayfield took over and made sure the Sooners’ offense never missed a beat. He’s the quarterback, but he’s also the team’s emotional
leader. “He’s the core of this team,” senior receiver G eno L ewis said. “We play off of Bake, and Bake — no matter what happens, no matter who goes down — he keeps that same mentality of next man up, let’s keep going, let’s keep grinding. We folBAKER low his lead each MAYFIELD and every time. I’m just grateful and humble to have him as my quarterback and as a captain.” But when the clock inched toward double zeros on No. 9
Oklahoma’s (10-2, 9-0 Big 12) tenth Big 12 Championship, Mayfield enjoyed a moment of peace. He walked away from the line of scrimmage and launched the ball high into the air as the rest of his teammates went toward the middle of the field. For a few seconds, Mayfield was alone as he stared into the s ky i n s i d e Gay l o rd Fa m i l y Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. “It feels good,” Mayfield said. “I’ll be honest, it feels really good. “I made a promise after the Ohio State loss that we were going to win the Big 12 and we were going to go on a run and I was going to push this program
harder,” Mayfield said. “I kept that promise, and I’m proud of our guys.” Mayfield said he was confident that his team would get the job done against Oklahoma State, and he doubled down on that. After the win, he revealed a custom undershirt that said “Back-to-back Big 12 Champions.” Running back Samaje Perine said he talked about the shirt “all week,” though OU head coach Bob Stoops denies knowledge. The shirt expressed the sort of confidence that Mayfield has been displaying ever since he stepped onto OU’s campus. “Typical Baker,” Perine said.
“There’s nothing wrong with being confident and he has all the confidence in the world. He has more confidence than you need … it’s him.” Other players made key contributions. Dede Westbrook got things started with a 69-yard touchdown. Joe Mixon iced the game with a 79-yard run after Oklahoma State launched an errant field goal attempt. Samaje Perine controlled the game in the second half, rushing for 239 yards on 37 carries. But it was Mayfield’s day. He threw for 288 yards and three
see BAKER page 2