Baker, Emily Mayfield surprise Oklahoma Sooners walk-on WR with scholarship

USA Today

3 days ago

Being a walk-on player in college football is a tough gig. There are no guarantees that you'll have a spot on the roster from year to year, and there are even fewer guarantees that you'll ever see the field.
The Oklahoma Sooners have college football's most famous and most successful walk-on player of all-time as one of their alumni, former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Baker Mayfield. He began as a walk-on at Texas Tech and then Oklahoma, before the Sooners put him on scholarship in 2014. On Wednesday morning, Mayfield showed some love to one of the Sooners' current walk-ons in a surprise announcement.
OU's team meeting on Wednesday featured a video message from Mayfield and his wife Emily. They were handing out the first of two Baker and Emily Mayfield Foundation Walk-On Scholarships. This scholarship awards a walk-on player at OU with a $10,000 scholarship.
The Mayfields shared a personalized message to walk-on wide receiver Jakeb Snyder, telling him that he had been awarded the scholarship.
"We wanted to say congratulations,' Emily said. "Your hard work and mindset really stood out to us and truly spoke volumes. Staying late, running extra routes, studying film, and showing up every single day.'
"As a former walk-on, I know the grind,' Baker said. "No promises, just work. That's why I'm proud to name you, Jakeb Snyder, OU receiver, Oklahoma native and first-ever recipient of the Baker and Emily Mayfield walk-on scholarship.'
Snyder is entering his third season with the Sooners in 2025. He had played defensive back for each of the last two seasons before making the switch to WR this offseason. Snyder made two game appearances as a redshirt freshman in 2024, playing on special teams against Temple and Maine.
Prior to walking on in Norman, Snyder helped lead the Bixby High School Spartans to three consecutive state championships. During his senior season, he led Bixby with 53 receptions for 459 yards and six touchdowns while adding 55 tackles, including three for a loss, and four interceptions on defense. Snyder chose a walk-on role at Oklahoma over a scholarship offer from Navy.
The role of the walk-on player is still being defined in the NIL/transfer portal age of college football. Originally, it looked like roster limits were going to be capped at 105 total players beginning this year, before a new policy was put in place that allowed walk-ons already on the roster to be grandfathered in during the transition period. However, those roster caps will eventually be in place, limiting the number of walk-on players that teams can carry each year.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is heavily in favor of keeping more walk-ons on the team, and he told reporters in a press conference earlier this summer that some of his walk-ons practiced with no promise of a roster spot once the season started. They've now been grandfathered in, but not every walk-on across the country was that fortunate.
Players like Snyder and the other walk-ons the Sooners have on their current 111-man roster decided to stick around, despite there being no guarantees, and they were rewarded with the grandfather policy. Snyder now heads into the new season on scholarship, a testament to what hard work can accomplish.
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