Mayfield voted AP Player of Year

Baker Mayfield is the Associated Press college football Player of the Year, becoming the fourth Oklahoma quarterback to win the award since it was established in 1998.

In voting results announced Thursday, Mayfield outpointed Stanford running back Bryce Love and Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, who were second and third, respectively.

The three players are the finalists for the Heisman Trophy, which will be presented Saturday night.

Mayfield received 51 firstplace votes from the 56 AP college football poll voters in the Player of the Year balloting, and a total of 157 points. Love (83 points) and Jackson (39 points) each received two first-place votes and Penn State running Saquon Barkley got one firstplace vote and came in fourth.

For Love, the day was not a total loss. He won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back after averaging 164.4 yards per game while rushing for 1,973 yards this season. He needs 47 yards against TCU in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 to break the school record set by 2015 Heisman finalist Christian McCaffrey.

Toby Gerhart (2009) is the only other Stanford runner to win the Doak Walker Award.

Mayfield — who also was awarded the Walter Camp and Maxwell Award as player of the year as well as the Davey O’Brien Award as the top quarterback during an awards show in New York — joins Josh Heupel (2000), Jason White (2003) and Sam Bradford (2008) as Player of the Year winners from Oklahoma.

Among other awards announced in New York: Alabama strong safety Minkah Fitzpatrick won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defensive player;

Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver won the Outland Trophy as college football’s top interior lineman;

Oklahoma State’s James Washington won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver; Coaches: Tennessee hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt as its head coach. He replaces Butch Jones, who was fired Nov. 12 after going 34-27 in five seasons.

Former Oregon State head coach Mike Riley is returning to the Beavers as an assistant on head coach Jonathan Smith’s staff. Riley was recently fired as head coach at Nebraska.