Oklahoma football countdown: Twenty-eight days until season opener
By Chip Rouse
The countdown has now reached 28, as in days before the official kickoff to the 2021 Oklahoma football season.
The Sooners began fall preseason practice on Friday, and we continue our countdown series highlighting interesting facts, figures and stories from Oklahoma seasons past and present.
The number 28 evokes thoughts and images of one of the greatest running backs in recent memory and Oklahoma football history. We’re talking about Adrian Peterson, if not the greatest player in Sooner history to wear that number then certainly the greatest offensive player.
Three-time Oklahoma All-American linebacker George Cumby (1977-79) also wore that jersey number.
Peterson, who played at Oklahoma from 2004 through 2006, is fourth on the OU career rushing list with 4,045 yards in three seasons as a Sooner highlight reel. His very first year in a Sooner uniform he set an NCAA and Oklahoma freshman record for rushing yards with 1,925, almost half of his career total.
Peterson, from Palestine, Texas, was the most highly recruited running back in the country in the 2004 class. Although the University of Texas was hot on his trail, he ultimately narrowed his choice down to USC and the Sooners (which has an interesting side story that we’ll touch on in a moment).
His sensational freshman season earned him an invite to New York City as a 2004 Heisman finalist. USC quarterback Matt Leinart won the Heisman that year, but Peterson was the runner-up in the voting. Oklahoma finished the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record and a No. 2 ranking in the national polls.
That earned the Sooners a spot in the BCS national championship game against Leinart and No. 1 USC Sooner fans are painfully aware of what happened in that game. The Trojans steamrolled the Sooners to the tune of 55-19, rolling up 525 points of total offense in the process.
So it turned out that Peterson’s second choice of where he wanted to play his college football held the star Sooner running back to 82 total yards on the ground on 25 carries, an average of 3.3 yards per attempt.
Injuries limited Peterson’s playing time his his sophomore and junior seasons at OU, but he still managed to exceed 1,000 yards rushing both years.
The three-time All-Big 12 First-Team performer was also involved in another classic Sooner postseason game. Oklahoma’s surprising loss in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl to Boise State — heard and seen many times over since throughout the college football world — was Peterson’s last collegiate game. He was credited with 77 yard on 20 carries and two touchdowns in the game.
The OU All-American was selected seventh overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2007 NFL Draft. He spent first 10 NFL seasons with the Vikings, during which he won three NFL rushing championships and was voted to the Pro Bowl seven times. The last four seasons, Peterson has been with four different teams (New Orleans, Ariziona, Washington and Detroit).
Peterson’s 14,820 rushing yards in 14 NFL seasons ranks fifth all-time.
While the 42-year-old former Oklahoma star’s playing days are nearing the end, his remarkable accomplishments both as a college player and as a pro, coupled with his incredible durability and physical resilience, will live on forever.