Oklahoma to honor former QB Baker Mayfield with $90K statue

March 10 (UPI) -- The University of Oklahoma plans to unveil a statue for former Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield during the team's spring game on April 18 in Norman, Okla.

Sooners coach Lincoln Riley announced the honor Monday. The Sooners have an area called Heisman Park outside of Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, which has statues of five other Oklahoma greats to commemorate their Heisman Trophy wins. Mayfield won the award in 2017.

The statues are typically unveiled during smaller ceremonies outside of the stadium. More than 52,000 fans attended the Sooners' 2019 spring game.

"We are going to unveil Baker Mayfield's Heisman statue in a little bit of a new approach," Riley said. "We are actually going to unveil it in the stadium. It will be part of the game."

Riley said more details will be released later. The school has yet to announce plans for Kyler Murray's Heisman statue. He won the trophy a year after Mayfield. The Sooners recently paid Hanlon Sculpture Studio nearly $90,000 each for statues of Mayfield and Murray, according to the March agenda from the OU Board of Regents.

"It's going to be a pretty cool and historic moment for this program and add to all the great things we are going to have going on around our spring game," Riley said.

Mayfield ranks second in Sooners history with 12,292 passing yards and 88 touchdown passes, trailing only Landry Jones. He completed 70.5 percent of his throws for 4,627 yards, 43 touchdowns and six interceptions during his senior season, before becoming the No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Mayfield was impressive in his first season with the Browns, completing 63.8 percent of his throws for 3,725 yards, 27 scores and 14 interceptions in 14 games. He struggled in 2019, completing 59.4 percent of his throws for 3,827 yards, 22 scores and 21 interceptions.