00:00Baker Mayfield and Cliff Kingsbury's feud
00:02low-key occurred by happenstance.
00:05A walk-on true freshman paired with a first-year head coach
00:08sounds like a recipe for disaster,
00:10but Mayfield and Kingsbury shocked the nation
00:13as Texas Tech shot up the rankings early in the 2013 season.
00:17But when an injury sidelined Baker
00:19and the losses started to pour in,
00:21their relationship soured into a drama-fueled spectacle
00:24filled with an ugly transfer,
00:26some not-very-nice words from a spurned fan base,
00:30and a lot of beef.
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00:54Baker Mayfield landing at Texas Tech
00:56was impressive in itself.
00:57Despite being a championship-winning quarterback
01:00in the football-obsessed Lone Star State,
01:02Baker was a three-star recruit without many major offers.
01:06Now, he still had opportunities and could've taken them,
01:09but with the support of his dad, James Mayfield,
01:12who played college ball at the University of Houston,
01:15Baker bet on himself and walked on at Texas Tech.
01:18Florida Atlantic for sure caught a stray,
01:21but Baker's roll of the dice hit at the right time.
01:24Anticipated Red Raiders starting QB,
01:26Michael Brewer got hurt before the season,
01:28opening the door for Mayfield to snatch the role.
01:31In week one, Baker made history
01:33as the first true freshman walk-on in FBS
01:36to start a season opener at quarterback.
01:39He dropped numbers in his debut
01:40and kept it rockin' over the next four games,
01:43leading Tech to an impressive 5-0 start.
01:46Journalists believe Tech was poised
01:47for a breakout season behind the walk-on.
01:49The problem with that, for Tech, Baker,
01:53and all the folks caught up in this web of beef,
01:55the trouble began when Baker injured his knee
01:58in that fifth win.
01:59In his absence, Tech won two games
02:02and came crashing down with a five-game losing streak.
02:05Baker, despite being healthy earlier,
02:08didn't return to action until the third of those losses.
02:11Purposely sitting your QB who won ya multiple games
02:14in a row certainly seems like a choice,
02:17but journalists believe head coach Cliff Kingsbury
02:20earned the decision to do so.
02:22He was the latest boy genius.
02:24As a former Tech signal caller himself,
02:26Kingsbury shattered school records
02:28during his time in Lubbock.
02:29After college, Kingsbury bounced around in the pros
02:32before deciding he was better fit for a headset
02:35and holding a play sheet.
02:37In just a few years of coaching,
02:39Kingsbury proved to be one of college football's
02:41top offensive minds, developing relatively unknown QBs
02:44into showstoppers, like University of Houston's Case Keenum
02:48and transforming Texas A&M's first-year starter,
02:51Johnny Manziel, into a Heisman Trophy winner.
02:54When the head coach gig opened up at Tech in 2013,
02:57Kingsbury got the call to return to his alma mater.
03:00Just 33 years old at the time of his signing,
03:03some media members believe Kingsbury lacked the experience
03:05to lead a program where former coaches he worked under
03:09praised his knowledge of the game.
03:10In his first year at the helm,
03:12he was immediately thrust into action
03:14with the decision to start a walk-on true freshman.
03:18As Baker lit up opposing defenses,
03:20journalists further praised Cliff's penchant
03:22for helping young quarterbacks thrive.
03:24Media members couldn't help but gush over the energy
03:27that Cliff brought to revitalize Tech.
03:29But once Baker went down, things got kinda weird.
03:34Kingsbury revealed the issue wasn't severe
03:36and the team would take things a day at a time.
03:39The head coach didn't allow freshmen
03:40to talk to media members,
03:42but Mayfield seemed to be taking the setback in stride.
03:45Two weeks later when Tech was set
03:47to face off against West Virginia,
03:48it seemed odd that Kingsbury wouldn't name a starter
03:51leading up to the game,
03:52but said all three of his QBs were available.
03:55Baker eventually returned to the starting slot,
03:57but after a week 11 loss,
03:59Kingsbury didn't necessarily give a glowing review
04:02of his quarterbacks room.
04:03It didn't help that his defense allowed opposing teams
04:07to drop an average of 44 plus points on their head
04:10over the final three games.
04:12But yeah, Baker started the last two matchups of the season
04:15with both losses,
04:17and when Kingsbury declared a three-way competition
04:19for their bowl game, the messaging was clear for Baker.
04:23He didn't feel welcomed.
04:25Baker remained tight-lipped,
04:26citing miscommunication issues as a reason for his transfer,
04:30but a month after his initial announcement,
04:32he let it all fly going right at his former coach
04:35and school.
04:36In an interview with ESPN,
04:39Baker felt his coach left him out to dry,
04:41not giving him a heads up
04:42when he was healthy enough to play.
04:45When he did get back to the field,
04:47Baker could feel the pressure from his coach
04:49thinking he could get benched at any moment.
04:52The lack of communication with Kingsbury
04:54led Baker to the door,
04:55but Tech refusing to offer him a scholarship
04:58pushed him over the threshold.
05:00Baker felt grateful for the opportunity Kingsbury gave him,
05:04but said his former coach was shocked
05:05to hear about him dipping.
05:07Baker didn't buy it.
05:08If Kingsbury truly believed in him,
05:11Baker thought Cliff could have expressed that sentiment
05:13during the season.
05:15The dude felt wronged
05:16and was well within his right to transfer,
05:19but Baker made things messy with his decision.
05:22He wanted to transfer to the University of Oklahoma,
05:25which presented unique problems.
05:28Firstly, the NCAA had a rule stating that any player
05:31who hadn't yet graduated but planned to transfer
05:34had to sit out a year before returning to game action.
05:37Baker would be in the same conference as his old school,
05:40and the Big 12 had its own set of bylaws.
05:43Not only would he have to sit an entire season,
05:46but Baker would lose an entire year of eligibility
05:49on top of that.
05:50That loss could be weighed by the player's former school,
05:53but Tech wasn't having it.
05:55Get this, Baker had zero talks
05:59with any of the coaches at Oklahoma.
06:01His father had connections with the Sooners,
06:03often taking Baker to games as a kid,
06:05so he wanted to suit up for his childhood squad.
06:08Later, when questioned about the whole ordeal
06:10at Big 12 media days,
06:12Kingsbury defended his program,
06:13saying he and Tech simply followed protocol.
06:16Kingsbury also denied Baker's scholarship accusation,
06:20saying he talked with Baker and his family,
06:22but he'd already jumped ship.
06:24It's a classic game of he said, he said,
06:28but Baker's dad inserted his two cents as well,
06:31saying Cliff, and only Cliff,
06:33was the reason the situation spiraled into what it did.
06:36But if you ask fellow Big 12 coach Gary Patterson,
06:40who tried to recruit Baker to TCU out of high school,
06:43Patterson believed Baker's dad
06:45was a gigantic pain in the ass,
06:47which Cliff maybe didn't want to air out himself.
06:50Tech eventually relented and waived the transfer protocol,
06:53allowing Oklahoma to open an extra scholarship slot
06:56for Baker, but it came after a long, drawn-out process.
07:00Still, per NCAA rules,
07:03Baker wasn't allowed to hit the field for the 2014 season,
07:06minimizing any chances of beef between the lines.
07:10But that didn't stop Tech fans from entering the equation.
07:13When Oklahoma visited Lubbock
07:15for their road matchup that season,
07:17Baker was booed and kicked out of a restaurant
07:19just trying to have a meal with his new squad.
07:22Tech supporters clearly wanted smoke with Baker,
07:25but he seemed to take it on the chin,
07:26understanding that's just a part of college football.
07:29At least, at that moment he did.
07:32The following season, Baker again did the unthinkable,
07:35earning the starting job for Oklahoma,
07:37meaning he finally got the chance
07:39to square off against Kingsbury.
07:41Leading up to the game,
07:42other than Baker happily recounting the exact moment
07:45he told Cliff he was outta there,
07:47the two dodged any questions regarding their beef.
07:50Come game time, that wasn't the case.
07:53Oklahoma dragged Tech,
07:55and every time Baker hit on a big play,
07:58he made sure to look Cliff's way in disgust
08:00as if to remind his former coach,
08:02you might've fucked up.
08:04It's that type of pettiness
08:06that makes beef so special.
08:08But by that moment,
08:09it was hard to expect anything less from Baker.
08:12He again defied the odds against him
08:14and played with a Texas-sized chip on his shoulder,
08:17thriving off hate,
08:18using any slight toward him as motivation.
08:21This was a dude who kept a handwritten list
08:24of some of his worst criticisms.
08:27That's just who Baker was,
08:28and Kingsbury played a huge influence
08:31putting a battery in his back early.
08:33Although, after that matchup,
08:36the two appeared to bury the hatchet.
08:38Headed into the 2016 season,
08:40Baker became the poster boy for walk-ons
08:42as the Big 12 reversed their previous ruling.
08:45Later that year, during conference media days,
08:47Kingsbury acknowledged his past run-ins with Baker,
08:50but had nothing but praise for his former QB,
08:52confirming that Tech voted in favor of the rule change.
08:56The two were even spotted shaking hands and cheesing
08:58during those same media days.
09:00As their yearly matchup approached in 2016,
09:04Baker seemed to be over the whole revenge narrative.
09:06He admitted to using that as fuel
09:08for last season's showdown,
09:10but other than expecting an erotic crowd
09:12in his return to Lubbock,
09:13Baker viewed it as just another Big 12 game.
09:16Except Tech fans were ready for war.
09:20The student section came out rockin'
09:22as they donned T-shirts that read Traitor on them.
09:25As the Sooners pulled away on a classic 66-59 shootout
09:28over Patrick Mahomes and the Red Raiders,
09:31fans showered Baker with a parade of pleasantries.
09:41After the game,
09:42man's had to have a security escort off the field
09:45because folks were launching full water bottles at him.
09:49Sure, Baker fed off their energy
09:51and tonneted the crowd during the game,
09:53but putting players at harm is super O.D.
09:57Kingsbury felt the same and took it to the fan base.
10:01The coach was all in favor of an amp atmosphere,
10:04but thought the university was represented poorly
10:06with all the antics.
10:08Baker and Cliff are now new paths
10:09in their careers and the pros.
10:11Cliff reflected on how he could've handled things differently
10:14but felt confident in the relationship
10:16he and Baker had formed since.
10:18Baker agreed, saying time and conversations
10:21between the two healed all,
10:24which appeared to be a new wrinkle
10:25for a dude famously known for holding grudges.
10:29But it's honestly not so surprising
10:31seeing how this beef fell in place from the jump.
10:34Cliff gave Baker his first opportunity in college
10:37and maybe none of this happens if Baker never got hurt.
10:41Once Baker transferred,
10:42maybe there was a little credibility
10:45to his pops meddling around like Patterson said.
10:48Things ultimately worked out for both dudes.
10:51Baker got what he wanted at Oklahoma
10:54and Cliff reloaded perfectly fine at QB.
10:57They had no need to be at each other's throats any longer.
11:00But when this feud got set in motion,
11:02it had already taken a life of its own among fans.
11:06Kingsbury may have put down his sword,
11:08but the people of Lubbock were ready
11:09to pick up the fight in its place.
11:11And Baker, being Baker, was ready to answer the call.
11:15Once you squeeze beef out the tube,
11:18then there ain't no putting it back.
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