Best college football players of all time ranked by jersey number
By John Buhler
Jim Seymour
Wide Receiver, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame is an all-time football program. While they have had five of their former golden domers do something remarkable like being an All-American three times, the only one of them to be the best to where his respective jersey number is wide receiver Jim Seymour.
To date, Seymour is the best to rock the No. 85 jersey in college football. While his NFL career largely underwhelmed, Seymour was terrific as a pass catcher for the Fighting Irish in the late 1960s. From 1966 to 1968, Seymour had 138 career catches for 2,113 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.
Courtney Brown
Defensive End, Penn State Nittany Lions
Though rampant injuries wrecked his once-promising NFL career into one of an all-time bust, Penn State Nittany Lions defensive end Courtney Brown is still the best player to wear a No. 86 jersey in college football history. He played for Penn State from 1996 to 1999 and put up massive numbers.
He was an All-American in 1999 when he earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. He would leave college with a NCAA record for quarterback sacks in a career at 33 and tackles for a loss of yardage at 70. You can’t really blame the Cleveland Browns for taking him No. 1 overall in 1999, right? injuries are never cool.
Bill Carpenter
Tight End, Army Black Knights
Rather than pursue a career in the NFL, Bill Carpenter would serve in the United States Army as a Lieutenant General into the 1980s. Carpenter proudly serve America in the armed forces, but was a spectacular tight end in the late 1950s at West Point.
Carpenter was an All-American in 1959, serving as team captain. He would be dubbed the Lonesome End while playing for Army. Carpenter would be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in the 1982 class.
Keith Jackson
Tight End, Oklahoma Sooners
No, this isn’t the guy with that interesting sounding voice that used to call football games forever. This Keith Jackson is a College Football Hall of Famer that played his college ball for Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma Sooners in the mid-1980s.
Jackson was a two-time All-American tight end and won a national championship with Oklahoma in 1986. He would total 65 career receptions for 1,561 yards and 15 touchdowns. Jackson would go on to be a six-time Pro Bowler in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Miami Dolphins and the Green Bay Packers during a nine-year NFL career.