Two Legendary Oklahoma State Quarterbacks Ranked Top-80 for Position in 2000's Era
The last 23 years of college football has provided many great moments and great players. Every year, ESPN writer Bill Connelly updates a list of the best college football quarterback in the 2000's era.
Of course, the list features many National Championship-winning and superstar quarterbacks. With another season of college football completed, more quarterbacks have been added to the list after their great respective seasons.
The list of the top 80 quarterbacks since 2000 included two Oklahoma State quarterbacks. For a program that hasn't won a National Championship in the sport and hasn't made any College Football Playoff appearances since it was introduced in 2014, that's impressive.
Here are the two Cowboys quarterbacks ranked on the list.
No. 75 - Brandon Weeden
Weeden had a unique Oklahoma State career. He joined the program at 23-years-old and played until he was 27-years-old. When drafted as a first-round pick in the 2012 NFL draft, Weeden was 28-years-old.
"He was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2003, showed up in Stillwater at age 23 and waited three years to win the starting job. But when he did, he made up for lost time, eventually leading the Cowboys to the brink of the national title game," Connelly wrote in his rankings.
Weeden led the Cowboys to a Big 12 Championship in 2011, and, as Connelly mentioned, nearly earned the program a National Championship bid. His time in Stillwater was both unique and legendary, nearly leaving him as the program's top quarterback.
Playing most of his games over his final two seasons in Stillwater, Weeden finished with 9,260 passing yards, 75 passing touchdowns and 27 interceptions while completing 70 percent of his passes.
No. 60 - Mason Rudolph
The highest-ranked Cowboy, Rudolph left his mark at Oklahoma State during his four seasons with the program. While he never won a Big 12 Championship or made the playoffs, Rudolph won ten games per season in his three seasons as the starting quarterback.
"Few quarterbacks have ever thrown a prettier deep ball. The Cowboys won 10 games and finished in the AP top 20 in all three of Rudolph's seasons as a starter. They've averaged eight wins since he left," Connelly wrote of Rudolph.
While the Cowboys are a very consistent program, they've been ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings in the final ranking seven times since they were introduced a decade ago, three of those rankings came at the hands of Rudolph.
The fourth-round draft pick threw for 13,618 passing yards and 92 touchdowns with just 26 interceptions in his four-year career in Stillwater. While Rudolph's NFL career remains active, his time with the Cowboys will always be remembered.
Want to join the discussion? Like All Pokes on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Cowboys news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.
