Looking Back At Kliff Kingsbury’s Biggest Mistakes
Going To Battle With Baker Mayfield
There is no more hated figure in the minds of Texas Tech fans than Baker Mayfield. His departure from the program after 2013 turned ugly and as a result, Kingsbury’s public perception took a huge hit.
Mayfield is the master at playing the victim and he somehow convinced the nation that Kingsbury was not going to put him on scholarship in 2014. That simply was not true but the sob-story of the former walk-on caught fire and the national media quickly sided with the seemingly mistreated Mayfield over Kingsbury.
Where Kingsbury erred was not in letting Mayfield leave but in trying to enforce a Big 12 rule that players transferring within the Big 12 would forfeit a year of eligibility. When Texas Tech petitioned the Big 12 to deny Mayfield’s waiver for an extra year of eligibility at OU, Mayfield’s father called Kingsbury a “scoundrel” and that comically outdated term played poorly for Kingsbury in the national headlines.
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Ultimately, Kingsbury and Tech caved and decided not to push the Big 12 to deny Mayfield’s request as it was apparent public perception and the other Big 12 schools were not on Tech’s side.
Kingsbury didn’t need Mayfield. He had two further NFL draft picks in the fold with Davis Webb and Pat Mahomes and the Texas Tech offense was one of the best in the nation over the past three seasons even without Baker Mayfield.
Plus, Mayfield left the program before the 2013 Holiday Bowl after he lost a December QB competition with Webb. The reality is that Mayfield wanted to go to greener pastures and he had his eye on Oklahoma before he ever set foot at Texas Tech. He used Tech as a stepping stone and turned on the only Power 5 coach in the country to give him a shot.
But in trying to hold Mayfield accountable to the Big 12 rules in place, Tech (and specifically Kingsbury) became the villain in a public spat against a former walk-on who is a master at manipulating perception in a way that makes him a sympathetic figure.
As Mayfield went on to star at OU and win the Heisman, Kingsbury became a punching bag as the “coach that would not give Mayfield a scholarship” which was far from true. But the truth is not as important as a good story and Kingsbury became the unwilling antagonist in a feel-good story that everyone but Texas Tech fans seemed to embrace.