Oklahoma showed up all over ESPN’s all-time jersey number rankings, with four Sooners earning the top spot for their numbers and 12 more finishing right behind them.
The headliners are a pretty good snapshot of Oklahoma football across different eras: Baker Mayfield at No. 6, Caleb Williams at No.
13, Tommy McDonald at No. 25 and Ricky Dixon at No. 29.
ESPN’s panel of experts put together the list by choosing the best college player ever for each jersey number from 0 to 99, a deep and subjective exercise that naturally sparked plenty of debate.
Mayfield’s case is hard to miss. He played at Oklahoma from 2015 to 2017 after transferring from Texas Tech, helped lead the Sooners to College Football Playoff trips in 2015 and 2017, and finished his college career with numbers that still jump off the page: second in FBS history in passing efficiency rating at 175.4, third in passing yards per attempt at 9.7, fourth in career touchdowns with 131 and fifth in total offense with 15,690.
Williams’ Oklahoma run was shorter, but it was enough to leave a mark. He started his college career in 2021 in Norman after being recruited by Lincoln Riley, and as a freshman he set school records with 1,912 passing yards and 21 touchdowns. He later finished at USC, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 in his final season.
McDonald represents one of the most dominant stretches in Oklahoma history. The halfback was a two-time All-American, played on national championship teams in 1955 and 1956 under Bud Wilkinson, and never lost a game during his three seasons with the Sooners.
Oklahoma went 31-0 while he was there, right in the middle of the program’s record 47-game winning streak. He also won the Maxwell Award in 1956.
Dixon gives the list a defensive edge. The safety played for Barry Switzer from 1984 to 1987, piled up 170 total tackles and 17 interceptions, and came within one of the school record.
His nine interceptions in 1987 remain the program’s single-season standard. Oklahoma went 42-5-1 during his four seasons, including the 1986 Orange Bowl win over No.
1 Penn State that delivered the Sooners’ sixth national championship.
Oklahoma’s presence didn’t stop with the four players ESPN picked as the best for their numbers. Twelve more former Sooners were listed as the first runners-up, giving the program a strong footprint across six different decades.
That group included Kyler Murray at No. 1, Jason White at No.
18, Adrian Peterson at No. 28, Greg Pruitt at No.
30, Billy Vessels at No. 35, Steve Owens at No.
36, Roy Williams at No. 38, Rod Shoate at No.
43, Jerry Tubbs at No. 53, Ryan Broyles at No.
85, Tony Casillas at No. 92 and Lee Roy Selmon at No. 93.
The players ESPN selected ahead of them were Larry Fitzgerald, Archie Manning, Marshall Faulk, Mike Rozier, Doc Blanchard, Chris Spielman, George Rogers, Tony Polamalu, Randy Gradishar, Jim Seymour, Reggie White and Ndamukong.
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Kellan Hall is already looking like one of the marquee defensive line names in the 2028 class, and Oklahoma has put itself squarely in the mix early. The Christian Academy of Louisville standout has picked up more than 25 offers and has drawn attention from a national group that includes Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ohio State, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Miami and Kentucky, a sign that his recruitment is going to be anything but quiet.
For the Sooners, the appeal is obvious. Hall has been in Norman multiple times, and those visits have helped keep Oklahoma in a strong position as the race develops. He is expected to trim his list with a top 10 in August before laying out his next round of visit dates, which should give the Sooners a better sense of where they stand in a battle that is only just starting to heat up. [Read more 🡒]
Sooners Fans Have Every Reason To Watch Keldrid Ben Right Now
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Ben is set to make a new announcement about his recruitment, and the setting points to something more celebratory than dramatic. The expectation is that the moment will play out with his local community in Montgomery, Texas, giving Oklahoma fans another reason to watch closely as one of their top commitments steps back into the public eye. [Read more 🡒]