Video: Every touchdown Adrian Peterson scored at Oklahoma
All Day.
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Every few years, a high school prospect comes along with so much talent and hype that people start debating whether they could actually pull off skipping college entirely and go straight to the NFL. 99 percent of the time, the reality is obvious: They absolutely couldn't. The difference between high school and the league is so vast that it's near impossible to comprehend even the best prospect doing it successfully. Adrian Peterson belongs to the one percent who probably could've.
Peterson is the best college running back I've watched in my (almost) 36 years on planet Earth. At 6-2, 210 pounds, he was more than capable of running over the opposition's strongest defenders, while somehow also possessing speed blazing enough that it was nearly Division I NCAA Track and Field Championship worthy. When he arrived at Oklahoma in 2004, the national expectations for Peterson were that he'd be a regular contributor as freshman, who eventually evolved into the next great Sooners back. Before the calendar even hit October on his freshman season, he'd already taken the college football world by force.
Peterson ran for 546 yards (6.3) and six touchdowns in Oklahoma's first four games. His performance was captivating enough that it earned him the prestigious cover of Sports Illustrated in the leadup to OU's annual matchup with rival Texas. This wasn't just any Red River Shootout, either. Whoever won between the No. 2 Sooners and No. 5 Longhorns would surely capture the Big 12 South, plus have an inside track to a berth in the national championship. Instead of succumbing to the legendary SI cover jinx, Peterson validated the hype with one of the rivalry's most legendary individual performances. He gashed the Longhorns for 225 yards on 32 carries in a 12-0 Sooners win, launching himself into mainstream superstardom in the process.
By the end of the year, Peterson set a FBS freshman rushing record with 1,925 yards, becoming the first freshman to ever finish as a Heisman runner-up. (There's a strong case that he should've won over USC QB Matt Leinart. That's a column for another day.) Oklahoma getting smacked by the Trojans in the national title put a bit of a damper on what was a remarkable year, but nothing could take away the reality that Peterson was well on his way to becoming one of the greatest backs of all-time.
In just 31 games over three seasons, Peterson ran for 4,041 yards and scored 42 total touchdowns. The only reason he's fourth all-time in Oklahoma's storied rushing history is because of a broken collarbone that limited him to just seven games in 2006 before he dipped to the NFL. His 42 scores are eighth in Oklahoma history, and I hope you enjoy all 17-plus minutes of them right here:
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