If You Could Only Choose One: Sam Bradford or Jamelle Holieway?

What if we lived in a world in which there was only one right answer to every question or challenge we faced. To take that a step further, what if you had to choose between having Sam Bradford as your one and only OU quarterback or Jamelle Holieway? Who would you go with?

Without knowing the supporting cast you had around either of these former Sooner quarterbacks, it would be difficult to choose, but for the sake of this hypothetical fantasy exercise, let’s simply say that this is a draft auction and these are the only two quarterbacks to choose from in building your dream Sooner team.

To begin with, the strengths and style of play of these two highly talented quarterbacks couldn’t have been more different.

Aug 23, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (8) warms up before the game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Holieway played in a triple-option Wishbone attack in which he was one of three different fleet-footed, breakaway options to run with the football. Bradford, on the other hand, made his mark on the game throwing the football, and was one of the best in the game the three seasons he played, from 2007-09.

Two decades separated the two quarterbacks, but both quarterbacked top-5-ranked Oklahoma teams in the years that they played.

Holieway played at a time when the Wishbone formation was one of the most prolific, high-scoring offenses in the college game. A passing game was completely anathema to the Sooners’ playbook under Barry Switzer. With Bradford at the QB position, OU relied on spread formations with up to four receivers split out wide, forcing opposing defenses to cover the entire field. Bradford’s uncanny accuracy separated him from him contemporaries on other teams at the time he played.

Here is what both players bring – or brought – to the table:

Jamelle Holieway, OU Starting Quarterback (1985-88)

Holieway, from Carson, Calif., ended up at Oklahoma, but he was high on the radar of a number of major college programs, including Notre Dame, Colorado and Nebraska in the Big Eight and Oregon, in addition to OU. Most experts thought Oregon would ultimately win the recruiting battle for Holieway.

Ironically, Holieway might never have had the opportunity to star at Oklahoma were it not for the broken ankle suffered by a guy named Troy Aikman in the fourth game that season. Aikman, an Oklahoma native and now an NFL Hall of Famer and winner of three Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, never played again for the Sooners, transferring instead to UCLA for his final two collegiate seasons.

Holieway was the guy who came in as Aikman’s replacement, and he hit the ground running. The Sooners lost the game with Miami, but did lose another game that season. With Holieway at quarterback, OU defeated Penn State in the Orange Bowl, finishing off an 11-1 year and earning the school’s sixth national championship.

The Sooners ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for 18 weeks over the next two seasons with Holieway leading the offense at quarterback. Holieway rushed for over 800 yards in three of his four seasons at OU. In the 1986 season, he was second in the then Big Eight with 17 rushing touchdowns and he finished third in total yards rushing (807).

As accomplished a performer as Holieway way carrying the football in the triple-option system, he was not very good throwing the football, which fortunately he did not have to do very often. When he did attempt a pass, he completed just 45 percent in his college career and just 114 total in four seasons (no more than 37 in a season).

Three of Oklahoma’s 44 conference championships were won in Holieway’s first three seasons as the starting QB (1985-86-87). The Sooners never ranked lower than No. 14 in the country while Holieway was the quarterback, and that was where Oklahoma finished in the final 1988 AP poll, which also was Switzer’s final season as the Sooners’ head coach.

Sam Bradford, OU Starting Quarterback (2007-09)

Much like what is going on with the Sooners this season, Bradford was engaged in a three-way competition in the for the starting quarterback spot his redshirt freshman season in 2007. The battle was between Bradford, the local kid from Oklahoma City, Michigan State transfer Keith Nichol and junior Joey Halzle.

Needless to say, Bradford won the job, and he was an instant success from the moment he first stepped on the field as the Sooner starter. He completed 21 of the first 23 passes he threw in his first game as a Division 1 quarterback for 363 yards and three touchdowns, and followed that up with a five-touchdown, 19-for-25 performance in his second game, a blowout win over the Miami Hurricanes.

That was just the beginning of what would become a Heisman Trophy-winning year his sophomore season, as Bradford led the Sooners to an 11-1 regular season, the Big 12 championship and into the BCS national championship game against another Heisman winner, Tim Tebow, and the Florida Gators.

Bradford had a career year in 2008, finishing second in the country in passing efficiency (180.8) and passing touchdowns (50) and capturing the Davey O’Brien and Sammy Baugh awards, along with the Heisman, as the nation’s top quarterback that season.

After forgoing the 2009 NFL Draft to return for another season and the hope of again challenging for a national crown, Bradford’s 2009 season was cut short in the very first game of his redshirt junior season. He was knocked out of the season-opener that year, suffering a shoulder injury late in the opening half against BYU.

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The winner of the Heisman the season before missed the next three games before reinjuring the shoulder in game No. 6 that season, against hated-rival Texas, which ended his season and his college career. Despite seeing action in only three games in 2009, completing just 56 percent of his passes for 562 yards and a meager two touchdowns, Bradford was still the No. 1 overall selection in the 2010 NFL Draft, going to the St. Louis Rams with the top pick.

Bradford ended his short two-plus-year career in an Oklahoma uniform as the career NCAA leader in both passing efficiency (175.6) and yards per play (8.7).

Who Would You Choose?

So, back to the original premise of this article: If you were starting up a team from scratch and you had the selection of either Holieway or Bradford in their prime as your quarterback, which Sooner all-time great would you take?

I grant you this is a tougher question than it appears at first. A lot would depend on what kind of offense you wanted to run and, of course, the fill-in talent chosen to fill those roles.

We could make it a little less complex by asking which team do you think would win a game between Barry Switzer’s 1985 national championship Sooners and the OU team. led by Bradford, that went 12-1 before falling to Florida in the BCS national title game (more on this later). But that might not be the best measure by which to pick between these two uber-talented but very different quarterback types.

Bradford is now in his sixth, mostly injury-plagued season as a starting QB in the National Football League; Holieway went undrafted, most likely because running quarterbacks have a very short life span and are not a profile for success in the NFL.

Here is what it comes down to for me: Holieway led the 1985 Sooners to a national championship in his first season, taking over for Aikman in the one game they lost that season and going 8-0 the rest of the way – winning all eight games by no fewer than 13 points. OU’s combined record the first three seasons with Holieway at the quarterback controls was an exceptional 33-3 and 21-0 in the conference (the Big Eight). Moreover, Oklahoma finished all three seasons ranked no lower than No. 3 in the national polls (No. 1 in 1985).

Bradford’s 2008 team did make it all the way to the BCS national championship tilt, but the Sooner teams in Bradford’s three seasons as the starting QB were a less spectacular 33-10 overall, with an 18-6 record against Big 12 teams. Discounting Bradford’s injury-shortened final season, OU put together a much more respectable record of 23-5 overall in his two full seasons and 13-3 in the league. Those two full seasons also included back-to-back Big 12 championships.

My choice: Sam Bradford. It is my believe that you can build a running game around him, but it is considerably more difficult to find a quarterback with high decision-making skills who is both athletic and extremely accurate putting the football in the hands of his receivers in both the long and the short passing game.

Who would you select?

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