Oklahoma’s Mayfield finally meets the media
By The Associated Press
The Baker Mayfield drama is over. Maybe. The Oklahoma quarterback will play against Georgia in the Rose Bowl, and the media finally heard it straight from his hoarse mouth.
Mayfield, the Heisman Trophy-winning Sooners quarterback, had missed all his media sessions this week and was going to miss another one Saturday morning. It already had been announced that Mayfield was too sick to attend.
But after about 15 minutes Mayfield himself strode into the room, having decided on his own to show up.
“I’m not dying. But I don’t feel 100 percent right now,” said Mayfield, who said he’s been dealing with flu-like symptoms. Mayfield’s voice was very raspy. He said he got sick around Christmas, but hasfelt better in recent days.
“I’m feeling a bit better,” Mayfield said. “Yesterday I felt great. The best I’ve felt in a while.”
Mayfield answered simply “no” when asked if it would have any effect on his performance Monday night in Pasadena, Calif.
Mayfield has been absent from previous team functions this week, other than practice, including a media session Saturday, when every player and assistant coach is available.
Mayfield said he was watching the event on the television in his hotel room, and when he saw that the first question to coach Lincoln Riley was about the sick quarterback, he decided it was time to answer questions himself.
“Obviously I would have liked to have been here earlier, but I realized that players, teammates, these coaches would have to answer questions on my behalf,” Mayfield said.
N.C. State
The Wolfpack will soon find out if coach Dave Doeren’s multiyear work to strengthen the program’s depth has the team prepared to handle some big personnel losses after the team’s most successful season in decades. “Top 25 is the standard we want for this program and it’s where we want to live and this senior class got us to that point,” Doeren said Friday after a 52-31 win against Arizona State in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
Northwestern
Ten days after announcing he would return for his senior season, Clayton Thorson, Northwestern’s winningest quarterback, got carted off the field. Thorson was injured catching a 24yard pass from Jeremy Larkin on a trick play as the No. 20 Wildcats beat Kentucky, 24-23, Friday in the Music City Bowl. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said that a preliminary exam indicated no serious injury and the school is waiting on an MRI to confirm that.