Lincoln Riley helped turn Baker Mayfield into a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma, but apparently coaching the quarterback to slide was no easy task. Riley found a hilarious way to point that out recently.
Riley tweeted a funny video on Sunday that showed a young boy messing with his baseball coach by walking toward home plate in slow motion after the coach told him to run fast. Riley said that is just how he felt trying to teach Mayfield to slide when Baker first got to Oklahoma.
Exactly how I felt in 2015 trying to coach @bakermayfield to slide… pic.twitter.com/jPiRSHIFnE
— Lincoln Riley (@LincolnRiley) May 16, 2021
Mayfield isn’t exactly denying it. He acknowledged to Riley that anything the QB did “had to be my own idea.”
You know it had to be my own idea….
— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) May 16, 2021
Like many athletic college quarterbacks, Mayfield had a tendency to put his body on the line while trying to extend plays. Coaches would rather see that than a player being lazy or timid, but quarterbacks need to protect their health. It took Riley a while to drill that into Mayfield’s head.
Riley and Mayfield have always had a great relationship. The coach reminded us of that with the awesome tweet he sent after Mayfield’s NFL debut. That doesn’t mean Mayfield never frustrated him, and sliding seems like it may have been a sore subject at one point.
Browns fans! It’s Baker’s team in Cleveland. This Cleveland Bakers shirt is a perfect gift for you or a friend. You can buy it here.
