STANFORD, Calif. – Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football David Shaw announced the addition of Oklahoma graduate transfer safety Patrick Fields, who will join the Cardinal for the 2022 season. Fields graduated from Oklahoma with bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting and began classes at Stanford on Monday, where he is working towards his master's in management science and engineering. He has one season of eligibility remaining.
"We are excited for Patrick to join our program," Shaw said. "He brings maturity, high character, and the experience of playing the game at a high level."
A three-year starter for Oklahoma, Fields was named Defensive MVP of the Alamo Bowl win over Oregon earlier this week. He is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, earning first team honors in 2021 after second team recognition in 2020. He was named a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy in 2021 (along with Thomas Booker), given to the nation's top scholar-athlete, and joined Isaiah Sanders as one of three national finalists for the 2021 Wuerffel Trophy. He was also a finalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award.
"This Stanford journey began back in 2017 when Coach Akina came to visit me at my high school," Fields said. "Since then, I always knew I wanted to be a Cardinal. My passion for Stanford is greater than words could explain. I took a PhD level Mathematical Economics course at OU just so I could receive the math prerequisite for the MS&E program. I left directly from the Alamo Bowl to drive to Stanford so I could arrive for the first day of classes. Stanford is the best academic and athletic university in the country, seen through not only their success in football, but other sports such as women's soccer, basketball, gymnastics, and others! I can't wait to step foot on campus for the first time in my life and meet my new teammates and family!"
In 2021, Fields was named a team captain and started all 13 games for Oklahoma. He finished second on the team with 80 tackles (47 solo). He added five tackles for loss, two interceptions and one pass breakup. He was named honorable mention All-Big 12 by the league's coaches.
In 2020, Fields started all 10 games in which he played, finishing third on the team with 45 tackles (27 solo), one tackle for loss, an interception, four pass breakups and a QB hurry. He notched a team-high eight tackles in a Cotton Bowl victory over No. 10 Florida to finish the season.
In 2019, Fields was named honorable mention All-Big 12 while starting all 14 games at free safety. He finished third on the team with 64 tackles, while adding six tackles for loss, two sacks and a fumble recovery. As a freshman in 2018, Fields played in six games with 13 total tackles.
During his Oklahoma career, Fields helped the Sooners to a 44-8 record with three Big 12 championships, two bowl victories (Cotton Bowl, Alamo Bowl) and two appearances in the College Football Playoff semifinals (2018, 2019) where Oklahoma eventually lost to the eventual national champion in back-to-back seasons (Alabama in 2018, LSU in 2019).
Off the field, Fields started "Town Business," a financial literacy seminar with the mission of instructing student-athletes on money management, budgeting, credit and personal branding. In collaboration with the OU National Black Alumni Association, he created the Black Wall Street Foundation to provide scholarships for the underrepresented and lower-incoming students from Tulsa. He was also one of two players nationally who served on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, a 19-person group that included 11 athletic directors.
Fields, who is from Union High School in Tulsa, Okla., is just the third graduate transfer in program history, joining Brennan Scarlett (2015) and Isaiah Sanders (2020-21).