default-cbs-image

Oklahoma's fresh start on offense will include a fresh face under center.

According to reports from both the Oklahoman and Tulsa World, one-time Texas Tech transfer Baker Mayfield will be named the Sooners' starting quarterback. Mayfield has been battling two-year junior starter Trevor Knight and sophomore Cody Thomas, who started the final three games of the 2014 regular season.

The Sooners made it official Monday afternoon:

Mayfield was named the Big 12's Offensive Freshman of the Year in 2013 after winning the Texas Tech starting job as a freshman walk-on, then throwing for 2,315 yards with a 12-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He elected to transfer out before the Red Raiders' bowl game, eventually choosing Oklahoma despite the acrimonious circumstances of an intra-conference transfer.

The Sooners offense is undergoing a makeover this offseason following Bob Stoops' decision to replace offensive coordinator Josh Heupel with East Carolina play-caller Lincoln Riley. A former Mike Leach assistant who runs a system modeled on the same Texas Tech Air Raid used by Kliff Kingsbury, Riley is expected to lean more heavily on the pass than previous Sooners' attacks have -- a positive for Mayfield's chances, and perhaps a negative for the more mobile Knight.

3 things to know about Mayfield's ascension to the starting job:

1. It's not a surprise. Though Stoops has been adamant that Mayfield and Knight have been neck-and-neck throughout the offseason, few Sooners observers expected anyone other than Mayfield to be crowned the starter. Even putting aside that Mayfield seems a much snugger fit for Riley's offense and is already far more familiar with it than his competition, his 2014 season was spent being named the scout team MVP while the Knight-Thomas tandem put up a team QB rating in Big 12 play better than no one's other than Kansas and Iowa State. He's not just the best quarterback for Riley's offense; there's a good chance after Knight's two roller-coaster seasons that he's just the best quarterback on the roster, period.

2. Oct. 24 is circled on a lot of calendars. Suffice it to say that Mayfield and Kingsbury parted on less than the friendliest of terms, with Mayfield saying the Red Raiders failing to deliver on a promised scholarship and Tech initially denying Mayfield's release to Oklahoma despite his walk-on status.  

“The driver and the scoundrel behind all this is Kliff,” James Mayfield, Baker's father, told the Oklahoman amid an NCAA appeal on his son's behalf. “He is so focused or hellbent on punishing Baker.”

The Red Raiders visit Norman this October. Rest assured you'll hear plenty more about this then.

3. Mayfield's quite the dancer. Enjoy, even if you've already enjoyed before: 

Baker Mayfield threw for 2,315 yards in 2013. (USATSI)
Baker Mayfield threw for 2,315 yards in 2013. (USATSI)