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Baker Mayfield says TCU 'hung me out to dry'

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Baker Mayfield's media session Monday morning could've been summed up appropriately with a series of fire emoji.

Among other topics, the Oklahoma Sooners quarterback's rise from walk-on to Heisman contender was heavily revisited by the press corps in town for the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl. One reporter asked Mayfield who disappointed him the most during his recruiting process.

Mayfield's response? TCU.

"They told me they were going to offer me a scholarship and kind of drug it out," he said. "I told other schools that I wasn’t interested because I thought I was going to go there. I truly believed that they were going to offer me because they told me that. They disappointed me and kind of hung me out to dry right before signing day."

As a follow-up, Mayfield was asked if he and TCU coach Gary Patterson had spoken since.

“No," Mayfield said. "He doesn’t like me, and I have no comment about that.”

Mayfield also could've been referring to last year's game at TCU. At halftime of that game Patterson told the Fox broadcast crew that Mayfield, who was sitting out the season but had traveled to Fort Worth on his own to be with the team, was stealing the Horned Frogs' signals. Mayfield and TCU co-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie were together at Texas Tech.

“Old Baker Mayfield was on the sidelines and calling out every freaking signal we had," TCU QB Trevone Boykin said afterward, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "So shout out to Baker Mayfield and OU for that."

Mayfield also generated a buzz on Monday by noting that the Sooners were using the ESPN broadcast of last year's Russell Athletic Bowl as motivation.

"There's a lot in that broadcast where they take shots at us," Mayfield said of ESPN commentators Mike Patrick and Ed Cunningham. "We take that as disrespect. That motivates us."