Where OU's Baker Mayfield got the boulder-sized chip on his shoulder

NORMAN, Okla. — It’s always something. Or there’s always something. No matter how dubious, how unintentional, how slight. Baker Mayfield hears it, or hears of it — and he thumbs another entry into the Notes app on his iPhone.

“It’s anything that comes to mind,” Mayfield says — and there’s always something coming to mind, another reminder of people who doubt him, another chunk of fodder for the fire that fuels Oklahoma’s quarterback.

No. 14-ranked Oklahoma hosts No. 4 Ohio State on Saturday, a marquee nonconference matchup at any time. But this year, despite Oklahoma’s loss to Houston in the season opener, there are College Football Playoff implications. And perhaps because of that loss to Houston, there’s a quarterback with a batch of new entries on “the list.”

By now most college football fans know Mayfield’s story, how he went from overlooked high school standout to walk-on at Texas Tech to starter as a true freshman to transfer to Oklahoma’s star quarterback. Along the way, he collected enough affronts, real or perceived, that he characterizes the chip on his shoulder as something more like “a pretty big-sized boulder.”

“He definitely feeds off people doubting,” says Clayton Brady, a friend of Baker’s since their days at Lake Travis High School in suburban Austin, Texas. “If you want to lose at something to him, just tell him he can’t beat you.”