Oklahoma football: 5 biggest busts of the modern recruiting era

Tommy Grady, quarterback – Class of 2003

The 2003 Oklahoma football quarterback room had a wierd dichotomy. On one hand have: Jason White  (Heisman Trophy winner and one of the greatest signal callers in the history of the program) and Paul Thompson (OU folk hero who led the Sooners to an improbable 2006 Big 12 title under strenuous circumstances).

On the other you have Brent Rawls and Tommy Grady, two of the biggest recruiting busts in program history.

Grady’s early story reads like a movie. From Huntington Beach Calif., the 6-foot-6, 215-pound stud was going to come to Oklahoma after turning down scholarship offers from Florida State, USC, Miami and UCLA and lead a blue blood Sooner program to the promised land.

Unfortunately the real world didn’t have quite the same plan for Grady, who meandered behind Heisman winner Jason White for two years. He saw spot time in several games in 2004, subbing in for White when the Sooners were customarily up by a ton of points in the second half, but after Oklahoma signed No. 1 prep quarterback Rhett Bomar Grady decided to try his luck back out west in Utah. He finally became the starter in 2007 and finished with a 4-2 record with the Utes.

Grady has gone on to become one of the most prolific passers in the Arena Football League. He’s a two-time AFL MVP and owns the league single-season record for touchdown passes (142), passing yards (5,807) and completions (507). He also has the single-season record for touchdown passes in a game with 12.