Best college football players of all time ranked by jersey number
By John Buhler
Tim Brown
Wide Receiver, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
When it comes to wide receiving excellence, few have done it as well as Tim Brown did for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders. In 1987, Brown did something very remarkable for the Fighting Irish: win the Heisman Trophy as a wide receiver.
Brown was a unanimous All-American and a Walter Camp Award winner in 1987. Before being the No. 6 pick by the Raiders in the 1988 NFL Draft, Brown would leave South Bend with 137 career receptions for 2,493 yards and 19 all-purpose touchdowns. He has since been enshrined in the College and Pro Football Hall of Fames.
Ozzie Newsome
Tight End, Alabama Crimson Tide
Before becoming a hall of fame player for the Cleveland Browns and a terrific front office executive with the Baltimore Ravens, Ozzie Newsome was a star tight end for Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Alabama Crimson Tide in the mid-1970s.
Newsome was an All-American his senior season in Tuscaloosa in 1977. He had 102 career receptions for 2,070 yards and 16 touchdowns in four seasons with the Crimson Tide. Bryant believed that he was the best tight end he ever coached and that includes another all-timer in Don Hutson. Obviously, Newsome is enshrined in both hall of fames that matter.
Richard Wood
Linebacker, USC Trojans
Without question, the USC Trojans have the best football history of any school out on the West Coast. While they have had multiple All-Americans, only linebacker Richard Wood was a three-time All-American selection at USC.
Wood would earn all three of his All-American honors in the early 1970s. USC would win a national title in two of his three seasons playing for the Trojans. Wood would go on to play in the NFL for 10 years mostly with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Jerry Robinson
Linebacker, UCLA Bruins
A few years later across town from where Richard Wood would be a three-time All-American for the USC Trojans, linebacker Jerry Robinson would do the same thing for the UCLA Bruins. Robinson was a converted tight end by his coach Dick Vermeil, earning All-American honors as a linebacker for the Bruins in 1976, 1977 and 1978.
Robinson would eventually be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996. He would play in the NFL for 13 seasons between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Raiders. Robinson would play for Vermeil in Philadelphia, having his best year with the Eagles in 1981 as a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro.