SportsTalk1400: “All the preseason publications I read, and hearing people talk they all say: ‘TEXAS IS FINALLY BACK!’ and ‘They’re going to contend for a National Championship!’
Baker Mayfield: “They said that a couple years ago when they beat Notre Dame and won like three games after that. I’m sick of that crap.”
SportsTalk1400: “But Sam Ehlinger proclaimed at the Sugar Bowl last year that Texas was back! So, I’ll just ask you, is Texas back??”
Baker Mayfield: “He couldn’t beat Lake Travis so I don’t really care about his opinion on anything with winning. Westlake is a great program but the two best quarterbacks to come out of there are Drew Brees and Nick Foles. Sam can stay down there in Texas. I’ll stir the pot, he doesn’t like me and I hope he knows I don’t like him either.”
Former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield and current Texas Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger have been linked in the media this month after Ehlinger responded to a dig Mayfield made at him June 19th in an appearance on a local OU radio station in Norman, OK.
Mayfield, who is an Austin native much like Ehlinger, said he’s ‘sick of that crap’ when asked about Texas’ chances at winning a National Championship this season, and added ‘I don’t like him’ in a colorful interview about the Longhorns quarterback that many have tabbed as a Heisman Trophy dark horse. Mayfield brought up their two rival high schools in Texas and how Ehlinger's school never beat his.
Mayfield beat Ehlinger in a head-to-head matchup on October 14th, 2017, when Mayfield’s no. 12 ranked Sooners defeated Texas 29-24 in the Red River Shootout. Both QB’s lit it up with Mayfield throwing for 302 yards and two touchdowns, while Ehlinger throwing for 278, and also adding 106 yards on the ground.
Ehlinger responded Tuesday in an appearance on The RJ Young Show in surprisingly innocuous fashion, considering he once threatened West Virginia players who dropped the ‘horns down’ after WVU’s heroic victory over Texas in Austin last November.
“Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to it. I think that blocking out the external noise is something that is more important to our program right now and more important for me. There’s hype. There’s hate. There’s a lot of different things, and the moment you start letting that infiltrate your mind and infiltrate your thoughts that when you start going down the wrong path. So being able to block that out is what I focus on.”
This also came on the heels of former Super Bowl champion quarterback Terry Bradshaw saying of Ehlinger ‘he ain’t that good.’
Ehlinger currently sits at 40/1 odds to win the Heisman, with Texas set to face Mayfield’s Sooners October 12th.