Oklahoma football: Ranking the Sooners’ top 10 players entering 2018 season
By Chip Rouse
No. 3 — Junior wide receiver Marquise Brown
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Oklahoma’s Big 12 championship season a year ago was the spectacular play of wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown.
Brown electrified not just Sooner fans in 2017 but fans all around the Big 12 with his tremendous speed and big-play, deep-ball, pass-catching ability. His 1,095 receiving yards on 57 receptions led the nation’s No. 1 offense and ranked eighth in OU single-season history.
The speedy 5-foot, 10-inch receiver, who transferred to Oklahoma after one season at College of the Canyons in California, had four games last season in which he caught six or more passes for more than 100 yards. His breakout performances in Big 12 play a year ago, particularly in the Bedlam series contest with in-state rival Oklahoma State, earned him the nickname “Hollywood” from FOX play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson, referring to Brown’s hometown of Hollywood, Florida.
In the high-scoring shootout with the rival Cowboys, Brown torched the OSU secondary with nine catches for a career-high 248 yards and two long touchdowns (one of 84 yards and another of 77 yards).
Brown caught a team-high eight passes for 114 yards and a touchdown against the Georgia defense in last season’s College Football Playoff.
With two more years of eligibility remaining, Brown will be a primary receiving target for the Sooners in 2018.