50 greatest college football players this century, ranked

• Bronko Nagurski Trophy (2001)
• Jim Thorpe Award (2001)
• Consensus All-American (2001)
• 2× First-team All-Big 12 (2000, 2001)

Roy Williams stepped into the Sooners’ starting lineup as a sophomore in 2000 and quickly became one of the best safeties in the nation. He earned First-team All-Big 12 honors while anchoring the back-end of a defense on a team that won the BCS National Championship.

Led by Williams and linebackers, Torrance Marshall and Teddy Lehman, the OU defense shut out Florida State 13-2 to win the Orange Bowl, finishing the season with a 13-0 record. Williams set a record for defensive backs at Oklahoma with 12 tackles behind the line on top of everything else he and the rest of the team accomplished that season.

He was named First-team All-American and won both the Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the best overall defensive player as a junior in 2001. The most memorable play of his career came in the Red River Shootout against Texas when he blitzed, hurdled a running back and hit the quarterback, Chris Simms as he was tried to throw. The ball popped up into Lehman’s hands and he carried took two steps into the end zone to solidify a Sooners win.

Bonus Fact: Because of his contribution on the field at OU, his loyalty as Oklahoma alumnus, and his financial contributions to the school, one of the main athletic facilities on campus in Norman is the Roy Williams Strength and Speed Complex.