Baker Mayfield shouts out Caleb Williams on Twitter after big play
Baker Mayfield gave Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams a nod on Twitter after a big play against Kansas on Saturday. It wasn’t the start Sooners fans hoped for, but Williams made up for it with a big second half.
Perhaps the biggest play of the game came with the Sooners up 28-23 late in the fourth quarter. They were facing 4th-and-1 and decided to go for it with 3:20 remaining. Williams handed it off to running back Kennedy Brooks, who was stuffed before reaching the first down line.
But the true freshman quarterback was unfazed. He saw what was happening and thought quickly to grab the ball out of Brooks’ hands and race past a dumbfounded Kansas defense for the first.
There was much debate afterward regarding the legality of the play, and the Big 12 even released a statement after the game.
“The reviewable aspects of the play were position of the ball in relation to the line of scrimmage and if possession was ever lost by the offense,” Big 12 officials coordinator Greg Burks said. “The ball never crossed the line of scrimmage and there was never a loss of possession, not a fumble, so this play was a forward hand-off behind the line of scrimmage.
“That action is allowed under Rule 7-6-a which states: ‘A Team A back may hand the ball forward to another back only if both are behind their scrimmage line and the player handing the ball forward has not had their entire body beyond the neutral zone.’”
To add insult to injury, the Sooners went on to score on the drive and put the game out of reach with less than a minute remaining.
Williams, who earned his first career start last week against TCU, finished the game 15-of-20 passing for 178 yards and three total touchdowns. It certainly wasn’t as prolific a performance as last week, and that can be attributed to a rough first half.
The Sooners failed to score through the first two quarters and found themselves down 10-0 at halftime. They did not take their first lead until 12:35 left to play on a touchdown run from Brooks.
Caleb Williams also likely impressed Baker Mayfield with his 40-yard touchdown run to put the Sooners up two scores with just under eight minutes remaining.
After escaping an upset in Lawrence, Oklahoma returns home to take on Texas Tech at 2:30 p.m. CT next Saturday.