Heisman Winner Praises God After Being the First Walk-On to Win Award

Nick Kangadis | December 11, 2017
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The fiery, history-making quarterback from the University of Oklahoma (OU) did it -- and before all others, the first of his many thanks went to the Lord above.

OU quarterback Baker Mayfield realized a dream Saturday evening at the Playstation Theater in New York, N.Y. when he became the first player in college football (NCAA) history to win the Heisman Trophy award after beginning his college career as a walk-on.

The Heisman Trophy is the most prestigious award in college football and is awarded to the best player in the country. A walk-on is a player that joined their team as a non-scholarship student.

The first of Mayfield's very humble thank you’s went to someone that we’ve heard fewer and fewer players thank over the ever-growing secularly progressive years.

Here’s Mayfield’s opening comments:

This is unbelievable for me, being up here among these greats. It’s something that words can't even describe. God has put me in this position that I'm so blessed, and a lot of times I wonder why. But it's such an honor to be up here. It's unbelievable.

The extremely competitive Mayfield continued on to thank many others, including a heart-warming moment between the player and his parents.

“There were times we had to move,” Mayfield said to his parents with tears welling up in his eyes. “You guys made sacrifice after sacrifice just so I could chase my dreams. Wouldn’t be here without you. Love you.”

Mayfield beat out two exceptional players for the Heisman: Last year’s Heisman winning quarterback from the University of Louisville Lamar Jackson and standout running back for Stanford University Bryce Love.

As exceptional as Jackson's and Love’s seasons were, Mayfield was so good in 2017 that the first-place voting wasn’t even close. According to ESPN, “Mayfield yielded the third-highest percentage of possible points (86 percent) since 1950.” Mayfield received 732 out of a possible 854 first-place votes. The voters are comprised of sports writers, past Heisman winners and one vote going to the sponsor Nissan, who allows the fans to chose who Nissan uses its one vote on.

Here are some of Mayfield’s achievements during his time at OU, according to ESPN:

  • Tenth player in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history to throw for 14,000 yards in a career.
  • First player out of those 10 to also run for 1,000 yards.
  • FBS record holder for career passing efficiency.
  • Fifth player in history to finish in the top four of the Heisman voting three times.
  • FBS record holder for yards per passing attempt (11.8 yards/per).
  • 2017 Davey O'Brien Award winner (best quarterback), 2017 Maxwell Award winner (player of the year), 2017 Associated Press Player of the Year, 2017 Walter Camp Award winner (player of the year.)

Mayfield admits that sometimes his competitive nature gets the best of him. But, even though Mayfield has seen his share of troubles during his college life — particularly in the past year — he has come through the other side as a seemingly humble man.

To hear Mayfield acceptance speech, watch below:

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