WACO, Texas -- Ten months ago, Bob Stoops faced questions he had never faced before, maybe because he was asking them. Oklahoma had just gone 8-5 and lost a non-New Year's Day bowl by five touchdowns. He had gone two years without winning the Big 12, something he had never done in 16 seasons in Norman.
Stoops' defense couldn't keep up with the conference's fast-break attacks. His offense stopped itself as often as opponents did.
Stoops' legacy as a coach was secure. He already had passed Hall of Famer Barry Switzer for the most wins in Sooners history. But in an era when success in college football seems easier to gain and harder to hold onto, when future Hall of Fame coaches slip a step behind and never catch up, you had to wonder if Stoops and Oklahoma could regain their status as a perennial national power.
You don't have to wonder anymore.
"We're one of those teams that has a chance at everything," Stoops said Saturday after No. 12 Oklahoma came into McLane Stadium and knocked off No. 6, then-undefeated Baylor, 44-34 in the Bears' first loss in their two-year-old palace.
Nothing captures the way life in the Big 12 has turned on its head better than the realization that Oklahoma, the league's legacy power, upset Baylor, the conference's longtime sparring partner.
"They've kind of whipped us up and down the field two years in a row," said Baker Mayfield, the quarterback with a law firm of a name and a story that becomes more implausible every week. "That's huge for us to come in here and get a victory."
To refresh your memory, Mayfield walked on at Texas Tech and won Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year in 2013. He left Lubbock and walked on at Oklahoma, the team he cheered for as a child, and two years later, he just might be the best quarterback in college football.
"There's something special about him," Stoops said. "He just has that tenacity, that toughness, that competitiveness and talent. A bunch of coaches missed the talent. He's got an incredible arm. He has a great ability to be athletic out of the pocket when he doesn't look to be that athletic. If you timed him in the 40, you probably wouldn't think he was that athletic. But he just finds a way."
On Saturday, Mayfield threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 76 yards and another score. Time and again, he bought time by moving behind the line, including on the 7-yard touchdown pass to Dimitri Flowers that sealed the victory.
Mayfield faked a handoff to running back Samaje Perine, who wheeled into the left flat by himself. By the time Mayfield saw him, it was too late. He took a couple steps to his right, stopped, then moved to the right again. As safety Terrell Burt closed in on him, Mayfield delivered the ball to Flowers in a small window.
"I'm just out there playing backyard football at that point," Mayfield said. "That's something I take pride in. I'm able to react and make plays with my feet sometimes. At other times, I settle in and make plays. They do a great job of playing with me."
The Sooners didn't have Mayfield when they lost to the Bears by a combined score of 89-26 the past two seasons, and they barely had wide receiver Sterling Shepard. He played only one quarter of the past eight against Baylor, and he more than made up for it, with 14 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night.
Shepard outshone Baylor wide receiver Corey Coleman, who came into the game as a Heisman candidate and left with three catches for 51 yards. You can blame the havoc the weather and defensive pressure wreaked on freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham -- or you can acknowledge the job corner Jordan Thomas did on Coleman.
If the ESPYs create a category for Best Performance By A National Contender After An Embarrassing Loss, Oklahoma joined Alabama as a nominee. The Crimson Tide have won seven straight since committing five turnovers in a home loss to Ole Miss. The Sooners, since losing to archrival Texas 24-17, have won five straight.
Stoops didn't come out of the past season pretending nothing was wrong. He made changes. Out went four assistant coaches, including offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, who quarterbacked Stoops' national championship team in 2000. In came new blood on both sides of the ball.
The results of the changes could be seen Saturday night. Oklahoma still must beat No. 15 TCU and No. 8 Oklahoma State before it can stake a claim to a playoff berth.
But the Sooners, after a couple years on the outside, are once again among the national elite.