The College Football Hall of Fame ballot is absolutely loaded this year
Any list of hall-of-fame candidates is going to be pretty good, obviously, but the National Football Foundation's ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2013 is especially interesting.
Look at the list of players below and try to come up with a manageable amount for a hall of fame class. There's dozens of players who should be enshrined. It's an incredible ballot.
There's a little something for everyone. The list is a nice trip down memory lane and a reminder of how many great players have passed through college football.
There are Heisman winners like Ron Dayne, Eric Crouch, Danny Wuerffel and Vinny Testaverde.
There are should-have-been Heisman winners like Raghib Ismail and Tommie Frazier (how is Frazier not in the College Football Hall of Fame already?).
There are NFL legends like LaDainian Tomlinson, Eric Dickerson and Derrick Thomas.
There are great players who sadly passed away too soon, like Brandon Burlsworth, Jerome Brown and Thomas.
There are great college players who you probably haven't thought about in years, like Percy Snow, Lorenzo White, D.J. Dozier and Paul Palmer.
There are a couple of oddballs, like Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson, who was a heck of a receiver at Michigan State, and UNLV "punter" Randall Cunningham, who was included that way on the ballot because you have to be recognized as an All-American to make the list, which Cunningham was for his kicking.
You could build a heck of an offensive line with guys like Tony Boselli, Orlando Pace, Jumbo Elliott, Willie Roaf and Aaron Taylor. They could have wars with defenders like Brian Bosworth (anyone under the age of 30 likely has no appreciation for how great Bo Jackson's NFL rag doll was at Oklahoma), Tedy Bruschi and Tom Cousineau. Not to mention Tony Franklin, who might be the best kicker in college football history.
There are so many other great players not even mentioned in the above paragraphs who are no-doubt hall of famers, whether they're voted in this year or not.
Here's the ballot in full. It really is fun to scan it and remember the touchdowns and tackles of the legends of the past. Whoever gets elected in, it'll be an amazingly strong class:
Players
Erick Anderson, Michigan LB
Bob Berry, Oregon QB
Eric Bieniemy, Colorado RB
Tony Boselli, Southern California OL
Brian Bosworth, Oklahoma LB
Jerome Brown, Miami (Fla.) DT
Ted Brown, North Carolina State RB
Bob Breunig, Arizona State LB
Tedy Bruschi, Arizona DE
Brandon Burlsworth, Arkansas OL
Larry Burton, Purdue SE
Dave Butz, Purdue DT
Mark Carrier, Southern California S
Marco Coleman, Georgia Tech LB
Tom Cousineau, Ohio State LB
Bob Crable, Notre Dame LB
Eric Crouch, Nebraska QB
Randall Cunningham, Nevada-Las Vegas P
Ron Dayne, Wisconsin RB
Eric Dickerson, SMU RB
John Didion, Oregon State C
D.J. Dozier, Penn State RB
Jumbo Elliott, Michigan OL
Tony Franklin, Texas A&M K
Tommie Frazier, Nebraska QB
William Fuller, North Carolina DT
Kirk Gibson, Michigan State WR
Charlie Gogolak, Princeton K
Jerry Gray, Texas DB
Al Harris, Arizona State DE
Leotis Harris, Arkansas OL
Randy Hughes, Oklahoma DB
Raghib Ismail, Notre Dame WR
Dick Jauron, Yale RB
Ernie Jennings, Air Force WR
Greg Lewis, Washington RB
Jess Lewis, Oregon State DT
Robert Lytle, Michigan RB
Bobby Majors, Tennessee DB
Buddy McClinton, Auburn DB
Duncan McColl, Stanford DE
Cade McNown, UCLA QB
Paul Naumoff, Tennessee LB
Darrin Nelson, Stanford RB
Ken Norton, Jr., UCLA LB
Tom Nowatzke, Indiana FB
Philip Olsen, Utah State DE
Jim Otis, Ohio State FB
Orlando Pace, Ohio State OL
Paul Palmer, Temple RB
Anthony Poindexter, Virginia DB
Antwaan Randle El, Indiana QB
Ron Rivera, California LB
Willie Roaf, Louisiana Tech OL
Mike Ruth, Boston College NG
Lucius Sanford, Georgia Tech LB
Sterling Sharpe, South Carolina WR
Rod Shoate, Oklahoma LB
Percy Snow, Michigan State LB
Bob Stein, Minnesota DE
Art Still, Kentucky DE
Matt Stinchcomb, Georgia OL
Aaron Taylor, Notre Dame OL
Vinny Testaverde, Miami (Fla.) QB
Derrick Thomas, Alabama LB
Zach Thomas, Texas Tech LB
Andre Tippett, Iowa DE
LaDainian Tomlinson, TCU RB
Don Trull, Baylor QB
Jackie Walker, Tennessee LB
Wesley Walls, Mississippi TE
Lorenzo White, Michigan State RB
Clarence Williams, Washington State RB
Steve Wisniewski, Penn State OL
Scott Woerner, Georgia DB
Danny Wuerffel, Florida QB
Coaches
Jim Carlen-West Virginia (1966-69), Texas Tech (1970-74), South Carolina (1975-1981)
Wayne Hardin-Navy (1959-64), Temple (1970-82)
Bill McCartney-Colorado (1982-94)
Billy Jack Murphy-Memphis (1958-71)
Darryl Rogers-Cal State-Hayward (1965), Fresno State (1966-72), San Jose State (1973-75), Michigan State (1976-79), Arizona State (1980-84)
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