updated 1:13 a.m. ET Oct. 8, 2004

NORMAN, Okla. - With all its success through the years, Oklahoma never gained much of a reputation as a school that was going to beat teams with the passing game.

Line up in the wishbone and ram the ball into the end zone? Sure. Run the option? No problem. But air it out? That just wasn’t the Sooners’ style.

Maybe somebody forgot to let Mark Clayton know that.

With a 20-yard catch last week against Oregon, Clayton claimed the school record for receptions, taking the top spot away from — what else — a running back. The senior already held the title as Oklahoma’s career leader in receiving yards and touchdowns.

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But Clayton isn’t just reaching records in his final season. He’s got room to put big numbers in the history books. Just don’t count on him to tell you about it.

Sure, Clayton is glad to mark his name in Oklahoma lore, but when the public address announcer was calling out his latest achievement, Clayton said he shrugged his shoulders and moved onto the next play.

“I never really look at that stuff,” he said. “I just want to play. I just want to win.”

Clayton — who now has 173 receptions for 2,652 yards and 25 touchdowns for his career — wasn’t always a star. He wasn’t even the No. 1 receiver on his team at Sam Houston High School in Arlington, Texas.

Shirdonya Mitchell, who’s now a safety for Missouri, was the top guy. But as Oklahoma, Kansas State, Missouri and several other schools battled over Mitchell, the Sooners also kept an eye on Clayton — who only became a receiver in his senior season — and ended up winning him over.

He spent the Sooners’ 2000 national championship season redshirting and working with the scout team to turn himself from what he called a “shifty, very small, slippery” high school player into the physical 5-foot-11, 187-pound presence he is today.

“Some of the greatest players ever in this game or any game are guys who didn’t get recruited very highly, went to smaller schools, weren’t big enough or strong enough or whatever,” offensive coordinator Chuck Long said. “You look at all the programs throughout the country and they seem to be the best players.

“Mark is certainly one of those.”

In 2001, he set freshman records at Oklahoma with 45 catches for 519 yards. He became a star last season putting up numbers that rivaled Pittsburgh’s Larry Fitzgerald and Southern Cal’s Mike Williams. His 83 receptions for 1,425 yards and 15 touchdowns were all Oklahoma records.

With Fitzgerald gone to the NFL and Williams ineligible, Clayton is the only one of the three Biletnikoff Award finalists back this season. If he won the award, it would be a first for the Sooners.

Clayton’s success could help further Oklahoma’s shift in philosophy. Following Clayton’s big season, the Sooners snapped up 6-foot-6 receiver Quentin Chaney — rated the top high-school receiver in the state — and convinced top-rated recruit Lendy Holmes to leave his home state of Texas.

But when Oklahoma coaches talk about Clayton, they often leave out all the records and instead brag about things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

“He’s a phenomenal receiver with catching, but to us he’s one of our best players because of the 50 or 60 plays he doesn’t have the ball,” co-offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said.

To Wilson, Clayton is also the guy who blocks downfield or tries to spring a big run with a block along the line. He’s one of the team’s best players on kickoff coverage. And when record-setting punt returner Antonio Perkins isn’t able to take the field, Clayton’s one of the players coaches turn to as a replacement.

Coaches talk about his work ethic, his leadership and — something becoming more rare among the Sharpie-toting, cell phone-hiding receivers of today — his selfless nature.

“Our best players through the years have been genuinely quiet, humble guys that are successful and compete hard but aren’t real showy,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. “He fits that mold as well.”

Clayton said he tries to keep things simple — an approach he credits receivers coach Darrell Wyatt for instilling.

“I just come out and do what the coaches tell me to do,” Clayton said. “If they tell me to run a post route, I’ll run a post route. If they tell me to run through that wall, I’m going to run through that wall as hard as I can.”

It’s that can-do attitude and devotion to working hard that have Oklahoma’s coaches picturing him as the ideal role model for younger players.

Junior receiver Travis Wilson credits Clayton for making him a more serious student of the game. After having Clayton as a “second coach,” Wilson said he watched film and studied coverages to become a better target. It paid off with a starting spot in the Sooners’ receiving corps this season.

“I would say his dedication has rubbed off on a lot of us a little bit,” Wilson said.

Long said Clayton is making it easy for the young receivers that will mold the Sooners’ passing hopes in the future to see how they can turn themselves into better players.

“What he does off the field, his character, what he does in the community along with what he does on the field goes a long way with guys,” Long said. “They see what he does and how successful he is and they think, ‘You know, that might be the formula.”’

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