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Top 10 Oklahoma Sooners football players of all time. Mike's list of the greatest college football players ever from the University of Oklahoma.
10 Best Oklahoma Sooners Football Players Of All Time
When I was first approached about this piece, I knew it would be tough narrowing a list down to 10 for any school, let alone one that had played football for 130 years. The university was playing football before Oklahoma was even a state! Oklahoma owns the longest winning streak in college football history (47 games from 1953 to 1957). The crazier part is that Oklahoma had a 31-game winning streak earlier in Bud Wilkinson’s tenure, which was broken by Bear Bryant and Kentucky.
So, who makes a top 10 list like this? Jimmy Harris made 25 starts during that 47-game winning streak (there were no ties in that streak, making it all the more impressive). Only Chuck Ealey of Toledo has started more FBS games at quarterback without losing one. Harris may not even be a top-25 player in school history! We’ll also leave off those who only had one season in Norman, no matter how impressive it was (sorry, Kyler Murray).
Do we go with the best NFL players from Oklahoma? Some of them made the list, but not all of this list went on to successful careers in the NFL. The university boasts seven Heisman Trophy winners. Not even all of those made this list. Oklahoma has 23 players in the College Football Hall of Fame. Of course, not all of them can make this list. Not all of Oklahoma’s single-game heroes are on here either. Quentin Griffin’s six touchdowns against Texas in the 2000 game weren’t enough to get him on the list. Neither was Roy Williams’ “Superman” play in the 2001 Red River Shootout.
It would have been impossible to narrow down to 10 just for the Oklahoma players in my lifetime, or ones that I have watched since becoming a college football fan in Oklahoma in 1984. Unfortunately, a lot of great players were left off this list. The ones that made the cut were truly great.
10. Billy Vessels, RB (1950-52)
It’s hard to measure past stats against the current crazy numbers being put up, but there needs to be a spot for Vessels on this list. He was Oklahoma’s first Heisman Trophy winner in 1952. He was also the first Heisman winner ever to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season.
That’s crazy to think about now, but that was football in the 1950s. Vessels ran for 1,072 yards and 18 touchdowns in 10 games (that’s all they played in those days). He also hauled in seven passes for 165 yards and threw for 209 yards and two more touchdowns that year. Vessels was drafted second overall in the 1953 Draft by the Baltimore Colts. He was part of the first big Oklahoma winning streak (31 games) that ended in the 1951 Sugar Bowl against Bear Bryant’s Kentucky team.
9. Samaje Perine, RB (2014-16)
You won’t find Perine on many of Oklahoma’s all-time lists. That’s completely unfair. Perine holds the NCAA FBS record for most rushing yards in a game. He ran for 427 yards against Kansas in 2014 despite not playing the final 12 minutes of the game. Melvin Gordon held that record for exactly one week. Perine is Oklahoma’s all-time leading rusher with 4,122 yards compiled in just three seasons. He has bounced around a lot in the pros, but Perine was one of the best to ever grace Owen Field.
8. Ryan Broyles, WR (2008-11)
If pro careers counted, this spot would go to CeeDee Lamb, and it wouldn’t be close. This is only about the college stats, though. Broyles is by far the most decorated WR in Oklahoma history. His 349 receptions are 116 more than second place (Sterling Shepard). He has the top two single-season reception totals in Sooners history (131 in 2010 and 89 in 2009). The 4,586 career receiving yards for Broyles is 1,104 yards ahead of Sterling Shepard. His single-season mark of 1,622 yards is 96 yards more than Dede Westbrook’s 2016 season.
7. Steve Owens, RB (1967-69)
Oklahoma had a long run of great running backs starting with Owens and continuing all through the 70s, ending with Spencer Tillman in 1985. Owens was the second-ever Heisman winner for the Sooners, running for 1,523 yards and 23 touchdowns in 1969. His 1968 season was nearly as good. When Owens departed Oklahoma for the NFL in 1970 (a first-round pick of the Detroit Lions), he was the first Sooner to rush for over 4,000 yards (4,041, still fifth in Oklahoma history), the career leader in rushing touchdowns with 57 (it still stands), and the single-season rushing touchdown leader. Someone else higher on this list tied his 1969 mark.
6. Sam Bradford, QB (2007-09)
It feels weird to have Bradford on here since he only played two full seasons. After a historic 2008 season in which he threw for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns with a sparkling 180.8 QB rating, Bradford got hurt in the opening game of the 2019 season. We only got three games out of him that season, and he was clearly not at his best. As a freshman, Bradford, a local Oklahoma City kid, lived the dream by starting for the Sooners. In a little over two seasons, Bradford amassed 8,403 passing yards (third in school history) and 88 touchdown passes (third).
His 50 touchdowns in 2008 are by far the most of an Oklahoma quarterback in a single season. Kyler Murray had 42 in 2018. Landry Jones came two yards shy of his 2008 yardage total. Bradford was the first great Oklahoma passing quarterback. When you think of those who have succeeded him, it’s impressive that he still holds two school records,
5. Brian Bosworth, LB (1984-86)
The legend of “The Boz” goes something like this. Barry Switzer walked into the MacArthur High School lunchroom in Irving, Texas while recruiting Bosworth and yelled in the room full of students “I’m here to see the Boz!” That persona took on a life of its own in Bosworth’s three years in Norman. Oklahoma has only had four consensus All-Americans. Bosworth was one of those four — and he did it two of his three seasons. Bosworth set the school record for tackles in a game with 22 against Miami in 1986. He was also the only college player to ever win the Butkus Award twice.
Oklahoma likely would have been back-to-back champions in 1985 and 1986 if The Boz weren’t banned from the Orange Bowl for steroid use (he claims they were prescribed by the team doctor). That was the beginning of the end of the Oklahoma dynasty. Bosworth, openly critical of the NCAA on many occasions, pulled off his football jersey on the sidelines of the 1987 Orange Bowl displaying a t-shirt that read “NCAA” National Communists Against Athletes.” This resulted in Switzer dismissing him from the team since he was going pro anyway. 18 months later, Bosworth wrote a tell-all book that helped the NCAA’s claims against Oklahoma that ultimately led to Switzer’s dismissal and sanctions that set the program back several years. This is about what Bosworth did on the field. He was one of the best to ever play the position.
4. Baker Mayfield, QB (2015-17)
Mayfield finished in the top 5 of the Heisman voting in all three of his years as a starter, winning the award in 2017. Oklahoma won three conference titles under Mayfield and made the CFP twice (we won’t talk about that). One of the most baffling stats of Mayfield’s career is that the three conference titles were more than home losses (two) suffered by Mayfield in three years. Mayfield’s 12,292 passing yards trail only Landry Jones (a four-year starter) in school history. He is also second in school history in touchdown passes, still holding the single-game record for the 2016 battle royale with Patrick Mahomes and Texas Tech.
He threw seven touchdowns in that game. Mayfield also holds two of the three top yardage games in Oklahoma history (598 against Oklahoma State in 2017 and 545 against Texas Tech in 2016). Mayfield may not be the most talented quarterback to play for the Sooners, but he definitely had the “it” factor. His legendary trash-talking is still the reason Kansas hates Oklahoma, even though they are no longer in the same conference.
3. Lee Roy Selmon, DE (1972-75)
His older brothers Lucious and Dewey were great players in their own right, but the youngest of the three Selmon brothers was arguably the best defensive lineman in college football history. Selmon’s 40 sacks are still by far the most in school history. His 18 sacks in 1974 (these are not official statistics; “sacks” weren’t an official statistic until 1980) are still a Sooners record. Selmon has the hardware to back it up. He was a two-time consensus All-American, won two National Championships, won the 1975 Outland Trophy, Lombardi trophy, and Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year.
Barry Switzer once called Selmon “the best player I’ve ever coached.” Legend has it that Lee Roy Selmon was never knocked off of his feet in four years at Oklahoma. That’s amazing, if true. Selmon parlayed his college success into success in the NFL. Selmon shined for the Tampa Bay team. He made the Pro Bowl six times, was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1979, and was a five-time All-Pro. Selmon is in the Buccaneers’ Ring of Honor, and his number 63 is retired by the team.
2. Billy Sims, RB (1975-79)
Sims really only played two years for the Sooners. He carried the ball just 18 times combined in 1975 and 1976. He only carried 65 times in 1977. Sims racked up 3,268 yards and 42 touchdowns in 1978 and 1979. He won the 1978 Heisman Trophy and finished second to USC’s Charles White in 1979 despite a much better yards-per-carry average and four more touchdowns.
Sims was also a two-time consensus All-American in 1978 and 1979. His school record of 4,118 rushing yards stood until Samaje Perine broke it in 2016. His 1,896 rushing yards in 1978 are second in school history to Adrian Peterson’s freshman season. Sims scored 53 rushing touchdowns, which is also second in school history to Steve Owens.
1. Adrian Peterson, RB (2004-06)
Peterson might be the best athlete to ever play for the Sooners. The bad part is that he peaked in college as a freshman. Peterson carried 339 times for 1,925 yards as a true freshman but carried just 221 times as a sophomore as the Sooners tried to lighten the load on their prized back. His final season was cut short by a shoulder injury, but he still racked up 1,012 yards in seven games. Peterson finished second to USC’s Matt Leinart in the 2004 Heisman voting, and likely would have won the award if the committee still weren’t adhering to the unwritten rule that a freshman couldn’t win the Heisman.
Peterson’s 4,045 rushing yards are fourth in school history. His freshman season of 1,925 rushing yards is still the most by any Oklahoma player and was a freshman record at the time (Ron Dayne would have had the record if the NCAA counted bowl stats in 1996). That record stood until Jonathan Taylor broke it in 2017. Peterson continued his success in the NFL. He ran for 2,097 yards in 2012 (second in NFL history) and set the NFL record for rushing yards in a month that season (861 yards in December 2012). Peterson is fifth in NFL history with 14,918 rushing yards, trailing only Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, Frank Gore, and Barry Sanders.
