Baker Mayfield, a former Oklahoma quarterback, tops yet another ESPN list.
Mayfield is once again ranked first when ranking the top 80 college quarterbacks since 2000; six other Sooners also made the list.
Bill Connelly, an ESPN writer and expert in statistics, updates his ranking of the top 80 college football quarterbacks since 2000 each year.
And Baker Mayfield takes the top spot once more this year.
According to Connelly, “ranking the college quarterbacks of the 2000s gets a little trickier with each passing season.”
There will be some shaking up with the addition of a player like 2023 Heisman champion Jayden Daniels and “a fun new batch of quarterbacks finishing their college careers in 2023.”
but not at the very top.
Deep ties to Oklahoma are shared by one member of this year’s list, Caleb Williams, who comes in at number 21. He played one season at OU, leading the Sooners in the Alamo Bowl after thrilling comeback victory over Texas on the road against Baylor and Oklahoma State.
Not on Connelly’s list is another former Sooner quarterback, whom many fans still see as their number one pick among OU quarterbacks of this century because he is still the only one to win a national championship. Josh Heupel, who didn’t rank in Connelly’s top 80, led Oklahoma through its darkest moment and onto their seventh national championship. Bob Stoops just declared Josh Heupel to be the team’s best leader and most valuable player.
Connelly’s OU entries and his reflections on each are listed below:
43. Jones, Landry (2009–12)
Although it was difficult to see Jones’s consistent performance in the moment, by the time he graduated, he had created a four-year statistical resume that no one had even come close to matching in the nearly ten years that had gone.
36. From 1999 to 2004, Jason White
White’s legacy was somewhat tarnished by BCS title game defeats, but his remarkable transition from an agile dual-threat to a statuesque ball-distributor after suffering knee problems was astounding. It was no coincidence that he finished third in one Heisman race and won another.
27. Jalen Hurts, OU, 2016–19, 2019
Hurts led three CFP bids, averaged 2,900 passing yards and 1,036 running yards each season as a starting for three years. In 2018, he also assisted in saving a CFP bid as Tua Tagovailoa’s backup. As a freshman, he was the SEC’s offensive player of the year; as a senior, he finished second in the Heisman Hunt. What a profession.
23. Caleb Williams at OU from 2021–2023, 2021
When you rank only 11th in Total QBR and average just 303 passing yards, you know you set the bar high. Williams’ career did not finish flawlessly, but his 2022 campaign, which included 4,537 throwing yards, a 42-5 TD-INT ratio, six games with a total QBR of 90 or above, and one Heisman Trophy, should be kept in a museum.
Sam Bradford, from 2007 until 2009.
The greatest spread attack in history at the time was the OU offense from 2008. The Sooners won six straight Big 12 games that year with at least 58 points scored, led by Bradford’s 4,720 yards and 50 touchdown passes. He might have easily been in the top 10 here, only to be denied by an injury sustained in 2009 and two missed goal lines in the 2008 national championship game.
7. Kyler Murray at OU, 2015–18 and 2016–18
Despite being selected in the first round of the baseball draft, Murray chose to play one final season of NCAA football in 2018. It was better for all of us. After Baker Mayfield left OU, he ran for 1,478 yards and completed 54 passes for touchdowns. Within a year. And in a subsequent draft, he was selected in the first round.
1. Baker Mayfield (Ole Miss, 2013–17, 2014–17)
He started it all by walking on at Texas Tech, where he soon gained the starting position and made his debut throwing for 413 yards. Due to an injury, he had to trade up and ended up at OU. He guided the Sooners to three consecutive conference titles, three top-five finishes, and two College Football Playoff bids. The Sooners hadn’t won an outright title since 2010. He finished his incredible career earning the Heisman Trophy and taking OU to the brink of the national championship game after throwing and running for 4,938 yards and 48 touchdowns. Despite his non-prototypical size, he was so good that the Cleveland Browns were forced to select him with the first overall pick in the 2018 draft.
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