Baker Mayfield's H.S. coach is going to bat for his ex-QB after the Browns superstar torched Hue Jackson ... saying Baker was just doing what he thought was best for his team.
Of course ... Mayfield's been met with a lot of critics after he went scorched earth on his former head coach THREE separate times, accusing Hue of being "fake" for joining the Bengals.
Hank Carter -- Baker's old coach at Lake Travis H.S. in Texas -- tells TMZ Sports Mayfield's comments were just his way of standing up for his Cleveland teammates.
"Baker loves his team and loves that coaching staff there and they believe in one another, and I think that's what it is -- it's showing support for the Browns is what he was trying to do."
Guys like Jim Brown and Deion Sanders have disagreed with Baker's response to the whole feud ... but Hank says they've just got to get used to Mayfield's straight-shooting approach.
"Different people maybe don't like how that's come out but, yeah, Baker's never really worried about that. He's trying to do what's best for his football team."
Bottom line ... if Baker didn't think Hue hurt his football team, the beef would've never gone down.
"I don't think you would ever find a coach that didn't love coaching him in anything ... he was easy on coaches. If they were all like that, our job would be a lot easier."