Oklahoma football: Ranking the top-5 Sooner defensive backs of modern era

Oklahoma football: Ranking the top-5 Sooner DBs of modern era

By Chip Rouse | Jun 6, 2020

1 Jan 2001: Roy Williams #38 of the Oklahoma Sooners jumps to catch the ball as teammate J.T. Thatcher #15 and Robert Morgan #87 of the Florida State Seminoles are next to him during the Orange Bowl Game at the Pro Players Stadium in Miami, Florida. The Sooners defeated the Seminoles 13-2.Mandatory Credit: Eliot J. Schechter /Allsport /

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(Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /

No. 4 — CB Ricky Dixon (1984-1987)

Ricky Dixon was another of the many Texas high school stars who decided to go north and play for Oklahoma. Born in Dallas, Dixon played four seasons at OU and was a member of the 1985 Oklahoma national championship team as well as the Sooner team that played in the 1987 national championship game but lost to the University of Miami.

Dixon is easily one of the best defensive backs to wear the Sooner uniform. A consensus First-Team All-American his senior season in 1987, Dixon also won the Jim Thorpe Award that year as the best defensive back in college football. He had nine interceptions his senior season, which was a single-season program record.

He was a two-time First-Team All-Big Eight selection and played on four consecutive Big Eight championship teams. Oklahoma was 42-5 in the four years Dixon was there. He had 17 interceptions in his Sooner career, second to only Darrell Royal in school history.

Dixon was a first-round selection of the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1988 NFL Draft. He played five seasons in Cincinnati and one with the Los Angeles Raiders.

In 2019, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

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