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

By Chip Rouse

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
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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Quarterback Chris Simms #1of the Texas Longhorns scrambles with the ball as he is sacked by Roy Williams #38 of the Oklahoma Sooners. Mandatory Credit: Ronald Martinez /Allsport
Quarterback Chris Simms #1of the Texas Longhorns scrambles with the ball as he is sacked by Roy Williams #38 of the Oklahoma Sooners. Mandatory Credit: Ronald Martinez /Allsport /

No. 2 — S Roy Williams (1999-2001)

Safety Roy Williams played on the last Oklahoma team to go undefeated, the 2000 national championship team that finished that season with a perfect 13-0 record.

The following season, in 2001,Williams won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the best defensive player in college football and the Jim Thorpe Award as the best college defensive back.

Nicknamed “Superman” while at Oklahoma, Williams is best remembered for a play he made in the 2001 Red River Shootout rivalry game with Texas.

With the Sooners holding on to a precarious 7-3 advantage late in the fourth quarter in the Cotton Bowl and Texas backed up on its own five-yard line, Williams came blitzing in from his safety position from the blindside, vaulted up over a Texas running back and in the face of Longhorn quarterback Chris Simms, who barely had time to pull back from center. The resulting disruption jarred the ball loose and up in the air, landing in the waiting hands of OU linebacker Teddy Lehman, who took two steps into the end zone, stretching the Sooner lead to 14-3.

Williams was a consensus First-Team All-American in 2001 as well as Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and First-Team All-Big 12 (2000 and 2001).

He declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season and was the first-round pick, No. 8 overall, of the Dallas Cowboys. He played seven seasons in Dallas, where he was a five-time Pro Bowler, and two with the Cincinnati Bengals.

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