The most successful college football coaches are most often judged by how many games and/or championship teams they produce. Those two measurement criteria certainly go hand to hand in identifying the best of the best in the coaching profession
But to measure and evaluate a college football coach solely on the basis of wins and losses is missing another vitally important and valued aspect of the job: talent recruitment and subsequent player growth and development.
Read more: Building the ultimate all-time Oklahoma football coaching staff
Head coaches in college football are not compensated or necessarily evaluated on the number of players who advance to play at the next level. From the players' perspective, however, that can be an equally important factor in choosing a college program and the head coach to play for.
According to the OU athletic department, a total of 461 former Oklahoma football players have been selected in the 91-year history of the NFL Draft. More than half of that total played under the tutelage of three legendary Sooner head coaches.
OU coaches that produced the most NFL talent
1. Barry Switzer (1973-88)
Between 1973 and 1988, Barry Switzer's Oklahoma teams sent 106 players to the NFL Draft, the most of any Oklahoma head coach. That number includes 14 first-round selections and three No. 1 overall picks: DE Lee Roy Selman (1976), RB Billy Sims (1980) and LB Brian Bosworth (1987 supplemental draft). Thirteen players from the 1988 OU team, Switzer's final season as the Sooners' head coach, were selected in the 1989 NFL Draft, the largest draft class of the Switzer era.
2. Bob Stoops (1999-2016)
Bob Stoops' Oklahoma teams (1999-2016) produced 82 NFL Draft picks, second-most by a Sooner head coach. Thirteen of the 82 OU players taken in the draft on Stoops' watch were selected in the opening round, including four in 2010, when three of the top four players taken overall in the draft were from Oklahoma: Sam Bradford (No. 1), DT Gerald McCoy (No. 3) and OT Trent Williams (No. 4). The Sooners also had a fourth first-round selection that year, as TE Jermaine Gresham was selected with the 21st overall pick.
Read more: Best in-state recruits Bob Stoops thankfully kept in Oklahoma
3. Bud Wilkinson (1947-63)
Bud Wilkinson's Oklahoma teams (1947-63), which were responsible for putting Oklahoma football in the national spotlight, didn't produce as many NFL players as the number under the two other OU head-coaching giants, but that historic era of Sooner football did deliver 62 players to the NFL Draft. Eight former Sooners who played for Wilkinson were first-round selections.
The Sooners' largest NFL class during the Wilkinson era was seven in 1957. Oklahoma did not have any No. 1 overall picks under Wilkinson, but twice had the No. 2 overall selection: RB Billy Vessels in 1953 and Max Boydston in 1955.
Great coaches must also be able to develop, not just recruit talent
Although the number of NFL draft selections produced by each of the top three Oklahoma head coaches of the modern era are well below the all-time coaching leaders -- Joe Paterno of Penn State (251 in 46 seasons), Bobby Bowden of Florida State (184 in 34 seasons) and Nick Saban (173 in 28 seasons), most notably of Alabama -- when you take an average of the number of years involved, the Oklahoma numbers are very comparable.
As we all know from our own experience and learning and following sports, the individuals with the most raw talent and physical attributes are not guaranteed a direct lifeline to success in their given sport, and more often than you might realize, those individuals don't fulfill their true potential. This is where the best college football coaches earn their money, finding and developing the diamonds in the rough alongside the ones with more God-gifted abilities.
Much like teachers in the traditional academic setting, most every head football coach at the collegiate level will tell you, in no uncertain terms, that prime emphasis of their job and the staff they oversee is to teach specific skills, strategies and performance techniques in the sport of football, looking over time for comprehension, consistency and improvement and the mastery of those skills.
All of this with the end goal of helping the players, individually and as a team, achieve their full potential, both athletically and as upstanding young men and citizens in society.
Many players who are fortunate and talented enough to play college football are hoping to fulfill a childhood dream of playing professional football. Only a select few, of course, ever realistically achieve that aspiration, but those who do can both directly and indirectly attribute that good fortune to the coaching, inspiration and personal development and support they received along the way.
Oklahoma's reputation over the years as a top producer of NFL-quality talent, regardless of coaching changes, is one of the many factors that emboldens Oklahoma football as one of the country's premier college programs.
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