There is certainly some debate about which school has produced the greatest quarterbacks in the NFL, but with four Heisman trophy-winning quarterbacks and three No. 1 overall NFL draft picks, the evidence points to the Oklahoma Sooners. OU is QBU and these are the players who set the gold standard at the quarterback position in Norman.
In the past, playing quarterback at Oklahoma meant running the ball. That’s what won Barry Switzer three national championships, and what drove Troy Aikman to UCLA. Bud Wilkinson won his three championships while barely asking his quarterbacks to do anything more than hand the ball off.
Things have changed since then, Bob Stoops brought the forward pass to Norman in 1999 and another national title in 2000. Especially from the end of Bob Stoops’ tenure to Lincoln Riley’s run from 2017-21, Oklahoma had outstanding quarterback play which carried the Sooners to four College Football Playoff appearances.
That excellence didn’t end when Riley took Caleb Williams with him to USC because Brent Venables got Dillon Gabriel in the transfer portal. Gabriel’s time in Norman is over, so it’s time for five-star Jackson Arnold to take over as a true sophomore next year. Could he be the next to join this lineage of great quarterbacks at QBU and overtake his predecessor on this list?
Oklahoma: 2022-23
Passing yards: 6,828
TD: 55 INT: 12
NFL: N/A
Gabriel started as a true freshman at UCF in 2019, and his career in college football still isn’t over. Gabriel spent three seasons at UCF, but in his third year, he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. Following the 2021 season, Gabriel transferred to Oklahoma and put together two prolific years for the Sooners.
Oklahoma went 6-7 in 2022 behind Gabriel but improved to 10-2 with him at quarterback in 2023. His greatest moment as a Sooner came in the Red River Rivalry. He threw for 285 yards and a touchdown on 23 of 38 passing and ran for another 114 yards and another score. Many of those yards and his only TD throw came on a heroic final drive with the Sooners trailing Texas 30-27. He led a five-play 75-yard touchdown drive for the 34-30 win.
Oklahoma: 1973-75
Passing yards: 1,973
TD: 21 INT: 17
NFL: N/A
Barry Switzer wasn’t too interested in his quarterback throwing the ball. Instead he ran the wishbone offense and Steve Davis was at the heart of it. In his career, he didn’t surpass 2,000 yards passing, but did add 2,058 yards and 27 touchdowns on the ground.
Davis led the Sooners to back-to-back national championships in 1974 and 1975. He didn’t go on to play in the NFL, but in a different way than the prolific passers, he adds to the legacy of QBU.
Oklahoma: 1985-88
Passing yards: 2,154
TD: 21 INT: 14
NFL: N/A
Holieway is cut from the same cloth as Steve Davis, just 10 years later. Holieway did surpass 2,000 yards in the air, but barely. On the ground, he rushed for 2,699 yards and 56 touchdowns across three seasons.
In 1985, his first year as the starting quarterback for Barry Switzer’s team, Holieway led the Sooners to the fifth national title in program history with 861 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns. That would hold as his career high output on the ground. Holieway only got the job as a freshman because of an injury to Troy Aikman.
Coming from a run-first offense, Holieway could not find a job in the NFL.
Oklahoma: 2009-12
Passing yards: 16,646
TD: 123 INT: 52
NFL: 2013-17
For all the great quarterbacks to play at Oklahoma, it may come as a surprise that Landry Jones is actually the program’s all-time leading passer. In his first year on campus, Jones redshirted and backed up Sam Bradford, but in 2009 Bradford injured his shoulder early in the year and Jones took over as the team’s starting quarterback for the next four seasons.
Jones posted three straight seasons with over 4,000 passing yards from 2010 to 2012. Across those three years, Oklahoma went 32-8 with a win in the Fiesta Bowl in 2010 and a loss in the Cotton Bowl after the 2012 season.
Jones started his NFL career as a backup to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, but unlike Bradford, Big Ben never stayed injured long enough for Jones to get a shot as the starter. He started five games and went 3-2.
Oklahoma: 1999-2000
Passing yards: 6,852
TD: 50 INT: 29
NFL: N/A
Like Dillon Gabriel, and many others on this list, Heupel had an unconventional path to Norman. He began his collegiate career at Weber State before suffering an injury and transferring to Snow College in Utah. After spending 1998 at Snow College, Bob Stoops, who had recently taken the Oklahoma job, came calling and Heupel transferred to play for the Sooners.
Heupel’s better statistical year at Oklahoma was 1999, but in 2000, he led the Sooners to a national championship and finished as the runner-up for the Heisman trophy. He was taken in the sixth-round of the 2001 NFL draft, but did not make an NFL roster.
Now, Heupel has built a quarterback-friendly offensive system to Knoxville as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, Oklahoma’s future SEC rival.
Oklahoma: 1999-2004
Passing yards: 7,922
TD: 81 INT: 24
NFL: N/A
After Heupel ran out of eligibility and left for the NFL draft, Jason White dealt with injuries and was beat out by Nate Hybl.
Eventually White took over at quarterback and had an even more prolific career running Stoops’ offense than Heupel did. He won the Davey O’Brien Award as the best quarterback in the country in 2003 and 2004, as well as the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year award in both of those seasons and in 2003 won the Heisman Trophy.
In that 2003 season, White threw for 3,846 yards with 40 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. Yet, he became just the third player in history to win the Heisman trophy and not be drafted into the NFL, joining Charlie Ward who chose the NBA, and Pete Dawkins who enlisted in the military.
White’s knees damned his career in professional football. He is a legendary college quarterback, but his lack of NFL success holds him back in terms of defining QBU.
Oklahoma: 2017-18
Passing yards: 4,720
TD: 45 INT: 7
NFL: 2019-current
After transferring from Texas A&M, Kyler Murray spent 2017 backing up Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma and playing baseball. Murray was selected by the Oakland A’s with the ninth overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft, but opted to play his final season of college football before deciding on a career in the NFL or MLB.
Waiting was the wise choice for Murray and it cost Oakland. In 2018, Murray threw for 4,361 yards and 42 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, ran for 1,001 yards and 12 more touchdowns, and led Oklahoma to a 12-2 record and a loss in the College Football Playoff.
Murray won the Heisman trophy and went on to be selected first overall in the 2019 NFL Draft. With the Arizona Cardinals, Murray won the 2019 Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Oklahoma: 2007-09
Passing yards: 8,403
TD: 88 INT: 16
NFL: 2010-18
In 2008, as a sophomore, Sam Bradford led the Oklahoma Sooners to the BCS National Championship Game against Tim Tebow and Florida and beat out Tebow for the Heisman Trophy. He threw for 4,720 yards that season and 50 touchdowns with only eight interceptions that season.
Bradford returned to Oklahoma in 2009 for his junior year, but suffered an injury early in the season and only played three games. Unfortunately injuries were the story of Bradford’s NFL career after getting selected No. 1 overall in the 2010 draft by the St. Louis Rams.
Bradford won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2010, but never led a team to a winning record. His career ended due to repeated knee injuries, but at his best in 2015 with the Vikings, he threw for 3,877 yards and 20 touchdowns while completing 71.6% of his passes.
As the program’s second Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and first Sooners quarterback to be the No. 1 overall pick, Bradford began to truly establish Oklahoma as QBU.
Oklahoma: 2019
Passing yards: 3,851
TD: 32 INT: 8
NFL: 2020-current
Jalen Hurts did not win the Heisman trophy at Oklahoma, he did not win a national championship, and he only played one year as a Sooner. However, Hurts defines QBU by proving how great of a place to play quarterback Oklahoma was under Lincoln Riley, and by his NFL career.
Hurts began his career at Alabama, but was eventually supplanted as the starter by Tua Tagovailoa, so in 2019, with one year of eligibility remaining, Hurts transferred to replace Kyler Murray as Riley’s starting quarterback. Hurts threw for 1,000 more yards than his best year at Alabama, which came as a freshman and finished the year with 3,851 yards passing and 1,298 yards rushing.
At first it seemed that Hurts’ revitalization proved that anyone could contend for the Heisman trophy in Riley’s offense, but after Hurts took over as the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles and led them to the Super Bowl as an MVP candidate, it became clear that Riley brought a great talent to Oklahoma, maximized his ability and built a foundation for success at the next level.
The way that Hurts saved his football career at Oklahoma defines what QBU is all about. From Josh Heupel transferring from Snow College to Kyler Murray transferring from Texas A&M and leaving a baseball contract on the table. QBU is about all the different ways to build a great quarterback and all the different places that they come from.
Oklahoma: 2015-17
Passing yards: 12,292
TD: 119 INT: 21
NFL: 2018-current
Baker Mayfield didn’t receive a scholarship offer from a Power Five school out of high school, so he went to Texas Tech as a preferred walk-on. Immediately he defied the odds, winning the starting job and becoming the first true freshman walk-on to start an FBS season opener at quarterback.
As a freshman at Texas Tech, he threw for 2,315 yards and 12 touchdowns in eight games, but transferred after the year. Mayfield grew up as an Oklahoma fan, so he decided to transfer to Norman and again walk-on.
Mayfield started at Oklahoma for three years, leading the Sooners to the College Football Playoff twice and became the first former walk-on to win the Heisman trophy when he did it in 2017.
Mayfield was taken with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns, and led the Browns to their first playoff win since 1995, beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the 2020 wildcard round.