Samuel Jacob Bradford (born November 8, 1987 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is an American football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners college football team. In 2008, as a redshirt sophomore, Bradford became the second sophomore to win a Heisman Trophy. Bradford also holds the NCAA record for touchdown passes by a freshman, with 36.

Bradford attended Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City, where he starred in football, basketball and golf. As a senior quarterback for his high school football team in 2005-2006, he threw for 2,029 yards and 17 touchdowns in 12 games. His senior year in basketball, he averaged a double-double. However, Bradford was a three-star recruit not that highly ranked among the high school class of 2006, with his highest ranking being No. 12 amongst only Pro-Style quarterbacks by recruiting source Rivals.com, behind Pat Devlin, Juice Williams, Josh Freeman, and being overshadowed by the likes of five-star recruits Mitch Mustain, Matthew Stafford and Tim Tebow.

In 2006, Oklahoma's starting quarterback Rhett Bomar, then a sophomore, was dismissed from the team for violating NCAA rules. Paul Thompson, a senior quarterback-turned-wide receiver, converted back to quarterback and led the 2006 Oklahoma Sooners football team to win the Big 12 Championship Game. His departure left a void at the quarterback position at Oklahoma. Six players on the roster tried out for the starting position during the following off-season, including three walk-on quarterbacks, true freshman Keith Nichol (a Rivals.com 4-star recruit and 6th-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 2007 recruiting class, who later transferred to Michigan State University), junior Joey Halzle (the only one with game experience), and Bradford, a redshirt freshman. On August 21, 2007, Bradford won the starting quarterback role for the 2007 team.