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Lincoln Riley Pokes Fun at His Old QB, and of Course Baker Mayfield Responds

Using a funny video on pee wee baseball, the Oklahoma coach trolled his former quarterback for his unwillingness to slide.
John E. Hoover|
Lincoln Riley Pokes Fun at His Old QB, and of Course Baker Mayfield Responds
Lincoln Riley Pokes Fun at His Old QB, and of Course Baker Mayfield Responds

Lincoln Riley coached Baker Mayfield to countless achievements and career heights at Oklahoma.

Sliding, apparently, wasn’t one of them.

That was presented for argument Sunday when Riley tweeted a hilarious video of a young baseball or tee ball player making his way home at his own slow-motion pace, then delicately "sliding" into home plate.

Riley added a little context: “Exactly how I felt in 2015 trying to coach Baker Mayfield to slide…”

A few hours later, Mayfield responded to Riley’s tweet with a pointed reply: “You know it had to be my own idea….”

The hyper-competitive Mayfield always did things his own way. He was, at first, reluctant to give himself up on scrambles and often fought for extra yardage when running with the football — to Riley’s chagrin.

Mayfield eventually figured out when to take chances and when not to before winning the Heisman Trophy in 2017 and becoming the No. 1 overall draft pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2018.

But Mayfield’s unwillingness to slide away from contact on some of those early runs are what allowed him to become the first player in major college football history with 14,000 career passing yards and 1,000 career rushing yards.

Anyway, Mayfield — also an accomplished baseball player at Lake Travis High School — clearly knew HOW to slide as a scrambler. He just didn’t always agree with WHEN to slide.

He has apparently added to his repertoire since joining the Browns, both when scoring touchdowns, and for touchdown celebrations.

Going back to the wishbone days, when Barry Switzer's option quarterbacks never slid and routinely took a pounding, Oklahoma quarterbacks sliding out of danger has long been a conversation piece for Sooner Nation.

Sam Bradford and Landry Jones never quite figured it out. A position was specially created for Blake Bell to NOT slide. Kyler Murray made it into an art form. And Jalen Hurts almost never slid, choosing instead to scramble as if he were playing a game of chicken with opposing defenders.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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