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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/jimbobbypaul on 2023-08-21 20:00:00.
Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
And with that, we have our final Big 12 team. Oklahoma comes in at #1 in the Big 12 and #4 overall, representative of about where they stand all-time as well (if not higher). I can’t remember a time in my life where Oklahoma wasn’t really really good (except for 2022), as even when Bob Stoops retired, they somehow leveled up with Lincoln Riley, producing 2 Heisman winners—likely 3 if Caleb Williams and Riley had stayed. All-time, Oklahoma has the 6th most wins (934), most conference titles (50), 4th most bowl games (56), most Heisman winners (7), 4th most NFL Draft picks (414), and 3rd most weeks in the AP Top 25 (882). Truly one of the titans of college football.
Best Seasons and Highlights
1. 2000: 1. Oklahoma: 13-0 (57.309) 2. 2008: 3. Oklahoma: 12-2 (53.695) 3. 1986: 1. Oklahoma: 11-1 (52.997) 4. 2002: 3. Oklahoma: 12-2 (48.654) 5. 1985: 1. Oklahoma: 11-1 (48.015) 6. 2003: 3. Oklahoma: 12-2 (46.769) 7. 2015: 4. Oklahoma: 11-2 (45.963) 8. 2017: 6. Oklahoma: 12-2 (45.726) 9. 2010: 6. Oklahoma: 12-2 (44.472) 10. 1987: 3. Oklahoma: 11-1 (44.136) 11. 2004: 3. Oklahoma: 12-1 (43.479) 12. 2018: 5. Oklahoma: 12-2 (40.742) 13. 2016: 5. Oklahoma: 11-2 (40.298) 14. 2007: 7. Oklahoma: 11-3 (38.104) 15. 2019: 8. Oklahoma: 12-2 (36.719) 16. 2013: 11. Oklahoma: 11-2 (36.556) 17. 2011: 11. Oklahoma: 10-3 (36.026) 18. 2020: 4. Oklahoma: 9-2 (35.887) 19. 2001: 7. Oklahoma: 11-2 (34.800) 20. 2021: 11. Oklahoma: 11-2 (30.093) 21. 2006: 14. Oklahoma: 11-3 (29.394) 22. 1984: 6. Oklahoma: 9-2-1 (28.333) 23. 2012: 14. Oklahoma: 10-3 (28.315) 24. 1993: 14. Oklahoma: 9-3 (25.359) 25. 1988: 15. Oklahoma: 9-3 (24.460) 26. 1991: 17. Oklahoma: 9-3 (24.229) 27. 1990: 15. Oklahoma: 8-3 (21.020) 28. 2005: 17. Oklahoma: 8-4 (20.306) 29. 2009: 24. Oklahoma: 8-5 (16.800) 30. 1983: 27. Oklahoma: 8-4 (11.725) 31. 2014: 35. Oklahoma: 8-5 (9.062) 32. 1989: 32. Oklahoma: 7-4 (6.431) 33. 1999: 36. Oklahoma: 7-5 (2.553) 34. 1992: 36. Oklahoma: 5-4-2 (1.195) 35. 1994: 43. Oklahoma: 6-6 (-3.070) 36. 1995: 54. Oklahoma: 5-5-1 (-6.277) 37. 2022: 67. Oklahoma: 6-7 (-9.677) 38. 1998: 62. Oklahoma: 5-6 (-14.026) 39. 1997: 76. Oklahoma: 4-8 (-24.793) 40. 1996: 86. Oklahoma: 3-8 (-31.263) Overall Score: 47104 (4th)
- 372-127-4 record
- 2 national titles
- 18 conference titles
- 15-17 bowl record
- 41 consensus All-Americans
- 191 NFL players drafted
Oklahoma has 19 seasons with 11+ wins, 17 of them coming in a 22 year span (2000-2021). In their 21st best season, they finished #6 in the AP Poll. TL;DR, Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley good. None of the Baker Mayfield seasons make the top 5 surprisingly, but there’s a lot of competition. I controversially give the 1986 title to 11-1 Oklahoma over 12-0 Penn State, more on that below. 18 conference titles are the most by any team over the last 40 years, which is freaking insane considering that means OU essentially wins their conference once every two years on average.
OU has way too many consensus All-Americans, but heck it, let’s give all of them their due. The consensus All-Americans we won’t talk about below are DL Rick Bryan (1983) who was also a consensus AA in 1982, LB Dante Jones (1987), OL Mark Hutson (1987) who’s 0-6 as a coach, DB Rickey Dixon (1987) who won the Thorpe Award, OL Anthony Phillips (1988), DB Roy Williams (2001) who won the Thorpe + Nagurski awards and had the famous “Superman” strip-sack on Chris Simms, QB Jason White (2003) who won the Heisman, DB Derrick Strait (2003) who won the Thorpe and Nagurski awards, KR Antonio Perkins (2003) who had 4 punt return TDs, RB Adrian Peterson (2004) who finished 2nd in Heisman voting as a freshman, OL Jammal Brown (2004) who won the Outland Trophy, LB Curtis Lofton (2007) who had 157 tackles, 10.5 total TFL, and 3 INT, OT Trent Williams (2009) who’s on pace to make the NFL Hall of Fame, DT Gerald McCoy (2009) who was a top 4 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft alongside Sam Bradford and Trent Williams, DB Quinton Carter (2010), WR Ryan Broyles (2010, 2011) who broke the NCAA record for career catches with 349, C Gabe Ikard (2013), WR Dede Westbrook (2016) who won the Biletnikoff Award, QB Baker Mayfield (2017) who won the Heisman and is one of the best players in CFB history, OT Orlando Brown (2017) who had one of the worst NFL Combines of all time, TE Mark Andrews (2017) who won the Mackey Award, OL Ben Powers (2018), and WR CeeDee Lamb (2019).
Top NFL players include RB Adrian Peterson, OT Trent Williams, OT Lane Johnson, DT Gerald McCoy, S Roy Williams, RB DeMarco Muray, DT Keith Traylor, TE Keith Jackson, DT Tommie Harris, OT Orlando Brown Jr., QB Kyler Murray, OT Jammal Brown, C Creed Humphrey, QB Baker Mayfield, QB Sam Bradford, RB Joe Mixon, OG Davin Joseph, TE Mark Andrews, WR CeeDee Lamb, WR Kenny Stills, WR Marquise Brown, TE Jermaine Gresham, WR Sterling Shepard, and claim one of Troy Aikman/Jalen Hurts depending on your stance on transfers.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 1996 (3-8 overall, 3-5 Big 12)
Coach John Blake produced Oklahoma’s 3 worst seasons of the last 40 years (1996, 1997, 1998). But I would be remiss not to mention Howard Schnellenberg’s 1995 season first. Schnellenberger was hired after OU went 6-6 in 1994, ending with a 6-31 loss to BYU in the Copper Bowl, which he called the lowest point in the history of OU football. He vowed that “they [the media] will write books and make movies about my time [at Oklahoma],” making a number of changes that included throwing out historical accounts on Oklahoma’s previous few seasons. Not quite book burning, but essentially a college football version of it (OU administration ended up archiving the files unbeknowst to Schnellenberger). Coach ‘berger left after just 1 season, going 5-5-1 with 3 straight 10-49, 0-12, and 0-37 losses to end the year. John Blake took over for 1996, leading Oklahoma to their worst record since 1924. Losses included 31-51 to San Diego State, 14-21 to Tulsa, 24-52 to Kansas, and 21-73 to #5 Nebraska, but the 2 most important results were a 30-27 win over #25 Texas and 27-17 victory over Oklahoma State. Blake was fired after 1998, going just 12-22 in 3 seasons, but was a fantastic recruiter, signing half of the starters on the 2000 national title-winning team.
QB and future Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente completed just 46% of passes for 1271 yards with 8 TD 10 INT, while Eric Moore completed an even worse 40% for 741 yards but at least with 7 TD 5 INT. Freshman RB Demond Parker was great, rushing for 1184 yards and 10 TD on 6.6 YPC. Parker would go on to rush for 1000+ yards in all 3 of his seasons, and outplayed Texas RB Ricky Williams in the 1997 Red River Shootout, going for 291 yards.
5. 1985 (11-1 overall, 7-0 Big 8)
So you like defense? Oklahoma’s first of two national title-winning seasons comes in only at 5th, surprisingly. QB Troy Aikman led #2 Oklahoma to a 3-0 start with wins over Lou Holtz’s Minnesota and #17 Texas, but would be out for the season after receiving an injury against Miami (FL). The Canes took the game 27-14, sending Oklahoma down to #10, and they’d have to rely on true freshman QB Jamelle Holieway for the rest of the year. Holieway would end up becoming one of the best QBs in school history, starting for the next 4 seasons. The offense really exploded under Holieway and the best defense in the country kept doing their job, beating OU’s next 4 opponents by a combined 189-26. #5 Oklahoma welcomed #2 Nebraska to Norman, ending the Huskers’ own national title hopes 27-7, moving Oklahoma up to #3. With dominant wins over #17 Oklahoma State and SMU, #3 Oklahoma earned an Orange Bowl invite to play #1 Penn State for the national title. Holieway threw a 71 yard TD and Oklahoma won 25-10, making him the only true freshman QB to lead a team to a national title until Trevor Lawrence did it in 2018.
The defense gave up just 8.6 PPG, holding their 4 Top 25 opponents to 6.8 PPG. One guy whose name you might recognize is LB Brian Bosworth, who was a consensus All-American. DT Tony Casillas was also a consensus All-American, and the 2nd overall pick in the 1986 NFL Draft. LB Kevin Murphy was also a 1st Team All-American. Holloway ran the wishbone offense extremely well for a true freshman, throwing for 517 yards with 5 TD 2 INT and rushing for 861 yards with 9 TDs. TE Keith Jackson was a 2nd Team All-American, catching 20 passes for 486 yards and 2 TD. From this team, coach Barry Switzer, Tony Casillas, Brian Bosworth, Keith Jackson, and S Rickey Dixon have all made the College Football Hall of Fame.
1985 Oklahoma is my 74th best team since 1983.
4. 2002 (12-2 overall, 6-2 Big 12)
This team was really good, but a couple of slip-ups on the road prevented anyone from really remembering them. The year opened 3-0, 2 of the games being shutouts against Tulsa/UTEP, and the other being a nice 37-27 win over Alabama, who’d finish the year 10-3 and #17. Beating South Florida to improve to 4-0 wasn’t bad either, as the Bulls were 9-1 in their other 10 games. Entering the season as the #1 ranked team, expectations were high, and a Big 12 title was a must. A 4-0 start to Big 12 play had OU looking like the national title favorites, with a 35-24 win over #3 Texas, 49-3 win over #9 Iowa State, and 27-11 win over #13 Colorado. The pre-Big 12 Champio…
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