Oklahoma football: ESPN lists 6 former Sooners in top 75 college QBs of 2000s
By Chip Rouse
Sooner fans have known that the Oklahoma football program has been blessed with a revolving door of outstanding college quarterbacks in the 2000s.
Quarterback performance is a giant reason the Sooners have won 80 percent of its games (245-60, .803) since the 2000 season. Largely for that reason, Oklahoma has become known as the QB-U of college football, and while Lincoln Riley was associated with the program it became the place to go if you wanted to win or at least be in high consideration to win the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback as well as become a top NFL Draft pick.
We have reached the point in the college sports calendar — in between spring practice and preseason training camp — when college football news is few and far between except for a narrowing of scholarship offers among top targets and a smattering of recruiting commitments for the next one or two recruiting cycles.
In the meantime, sports media like ESPN fill the void with manufactured news like early top-25 projections and current and all-time top 10, top, top 50, and so forth, rankings. One such feature was published this week by ESPN+ and staff writer Bill Connelly, ranking the top 75 college quarterbacks of the 21st century (since 2000).
Oklahoma is highly prominent on the list with six former Sooner QB listed among the top 75. That’s the most of any college program and one more than Alabama and Ohio State and two more than Georgia.
Three of the top 15 quarterbacks played at Oklahoma, which also leads all schools. Best of all, the No. 1 quarterback on the list is Baker Mayfield. Kyler Murray is No. 7. Keep in mind that Connelly based his ranking of what these players accomplished in starting roles during their careers. As such, it’s impressive — and some, I’m sure, would go as far as to say absurd — to think that Connelly and, by extension, ESPN value Mayfield’s college accomplishments ahead of other outstanding college QBs like Tim Tebow, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Matt Leinart, Johnny “Football” Maniel and even Patrick Mahomes, just to name a few.
Here is the complete list of former Sooners who made the top-75 and where they ranked:
No. 1 — Baker Mayfield
No. 7 — Kyler Murray
No. 15 — Sam Bradford
No. 25 — Jalen Hurts
No. 32 — Jason White
No. 39 — Landry Jones
Observant Oklahoma football fans are probably wondering why Josh Heupel is not on the list. After all, he is the only OU quarterback this century to deliver a national championship. Heupel’s final season at Oklahoma, though, was 2000, and Connelly’s list actually begins with college quarterbacks who played in 2001 and after.
It’s interesting to point out that the only Sooner quarterbacks who have come and gone since the 2001 season, started at least five games for OU and did not make the list were Nate Hybl (2001-02), Rhett Bomar (2005), Paul Thompson (2006), Blake Bell (2013), Trevor Knight (2013-14). And, of course, Spencer Rattler (2020-21) and Caleb Williams (2021), who transferred out of Oklahoma and are playing collegiately elsewhere, and Dillon Gabriel.