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Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Former Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield Tops Another ESPN List

Originally posted on FanNation All Sooners
By John E. Hoover | Last updated 2/27/24

Every year, ESPN writer and stats guru Bill Connelly updates his list of the top 80 college football quarterbacks since 2000.

And again this year, the No. 1 spot goes to Baker Mayfield.

“With each passing season, ranking the college quarterbacks of the 2000s gets a little trickier,” Connelly writes.

You can read the whole list here (subscription required):

Adding a player like 2023 Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and “a fun new batch of quarterbacks finishing their college careers in 2023” means some shakeup.

Just not at the top.

One addition to this year’s list has deep OU ties: Caleb Williams enters the discussion ranked No. 21. He played one season at OU, coming off the bench to beat Texas in dramatic fashion, then losing road games at Baylor and Oklahoma State before leading the Sooners in the Alamo Bowl.

Another former Sooner QB who many fans still revere as their top choice among OU quarterbacks of this century — because he’s still the only one to win a national championship — isn’t on Connelly’s list. Josh Heupel led Oklahoma out of the worst period in program history and to their seventh national title, and was recently proclaimed by Bob Stoops as the best leader and most important player on that team, yet didn’t make Connelly’s top 80.

Here’s Connelly’s OU entries and what he wrote about each:

43. Landry Jones (2009-12)

It was hard to appreciate Jones' steady excellence in real time, but by the time he had graduated he had put together a four-year statistical résumé that, even in the near-decade that has followed, no one has surpassed.

36. Jason White (1999-2004)

BCS title game losses dampened White's legacy a bit, but his evolution from athletic dual-threat to statuesque ball-distributor following knee injuries was awe-inspiring. He didn't win one Heisman vote and finish third in another by accident.

27. Jalen Hurts (2016-19, 2019 at OU)

Hurts was a starter for three years, averaged 2,900 passing yards and 1,036 rushing yards per season and led three CFP bids; as a backup to Tua Tagovailoa in 2018, he helped to save a CFP bid as well. He was the SEC's offensive player of the year as a freshman and Heisman runner-up as a senior. What a career.

23. Caleb Williams (2021-23, 2021 at OU)

You know you set the bar high when averaging merely 303 passing yards and ranking only 11th in Total QBR is a letdown. But while Williams' career didn't end with perfection, his 2022 season -- 4,537 passing yards, a 42-5 TD-INT ratio, six games with a Total QBR over 90, one Heisman -- belongs in a museum.

15. Sam Bradford (2007-09)

The 2008 OU offense was, at the time, the best spread attack in history. Bradford threw for 4,720 yards and 50 TDs, and the Sooners scored at least 58 points in six consecutive Big 12 games that year. Only a 2009 injury (and a couple of goal-line failures in the 2008 national title game) kept him out of a potential top-10 spot here.

7. Kyler Murray (2015-18, 2016-18 at OU)

Murray was a first-round draft pick in baseball but decided to play college football one last season in 2018. We were all better off for it. As Baker Mayfield's OU successor, he threw for 4,361, rushed for 1,478 more and posted 54 combined TDs. IN ONE YEAR. And then he became a first-rounder in another draft.

1. Baker Mayfield (2013-17, 2014-17 at OU)

It began with him walking on at Texas Tech, quickly winning the starting job and throwing for 413 yards in his debut. He lost his job to injury, then traded up, landing at OU. The Sooners hadn't won an outright conference title since 2010, but he led them to three in a row, with three top-five finishes and two CFP bids. His storybook career ended with him throwing and rushing for 4,938 yards and 48 TDs, winning the Heisman and bringing OU to within an eyelash of the national title game. He was so good that, despite non-prototypical size, the Cleveland Browns couldn't resist making him the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft.