'Kudos to them': New College Football Hall of Famer Leslie O'Neal grateful to all-star OSU coaching staff

LAS VEGAS — It’s funny how things work out.

There was a time when Leslie O’Neal wanted to be the next Billy Ray Smith. Ultimately, it was Smith that played an unknowing role in helping O’Neal land at Oklahoma State.

Tuesday, more than 35 years after his Cowboys career ended, O’Neal became the fourth former Cowboys player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

O’Neal was part of the hall’s 2020 class, but the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out last year’s ceremony, so both the 2020 and 2021 classes were inducted this year.

“It signifies that the people at Oklahoma State — the Jimmy Johnsons, the Butch Davises, the Dave Wannstedts, the Houston Nutts, the George Walstads — all these people who put time and effort into helping the players develop and when you have players from that group getting an award like this, kudos to them,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal had to wait plenty to be inducted after a two-time All-America career with the Cowboys made him eligible.

But O’Neal wasn’t about to launch a campaign for induction — for this or the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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“Realistically, there’s nothing you can do,” O’Neal said. “I could go out and toot my own horn or whatever. But is that gonna get me in? And if it does, how do I feel about that? I know that, hey, I played, and now I’m getting that recognition for how I played.”

O’Neal joins Bob Fennimore (1972), Barry Sanders (2003) and Thurman Thomas (2008) as OSU inductees among players. Former coaches Pappy Waldorf (1966) and Johnson (2012) are also enshrined.

O’Neal was far from a sure thing coming out of Hall High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“The teams that I was looking at were basically telling me, ‘We’re going to redshirt you your first year,’” O’Neal said. “Because I was 190, 199, 200 pounds playing defensive tackle or whatever. The story was, ‘We’re going to put some meat on you,’ that type of deal.”

He wanted to follow in Smith’s footsteps at Arkansas and the Razorbacks coaches worked to sell O’Neal on being the next in line.

“Can I compete for a job?,” O’Neal asked.

“No, we’re going to redshirt you,” he was told.

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So Butch Davis swooped in from Stillwater and offered O’Neal a chance.

And O’Neal took advantage, anchoring the 1984 and 1985 defenses that were among college football’s best, allowing just 34 touchdowns over those two seasons.

He earned All-Big Eight honors in each of his last three seasons with the Cowboys and set still-standing school records with 16 sacks in 1984 and 34 sacks in his OSU career.

So O’Neal enjoyed seeing the Cowboys get back to playing strong defense this season.

“To win a national championship, which is what they’re trying to do, you have to play great offense and you have to have a defense that can get stops,” O’Neal said.

“You’ve got to be able to stop people late in games. … I’ve always thought that as a defensive guy, that the best way to get better, the best way to win right away is to improve your defense. If I keep you from scoring, I don’t have to score as much. It’s just one of those deals.”

When O’Neal’s Cowboys career ended, he was drafted eighth overall by the San Diego Chargers in the 1986 NFL Draft.

The Chargers had drafted Smith with the fifth overall pick three years earlier.

Suddenly, the two Arkansas natives were teammates.

“Hey, you’re the reason I didn’t go to Arkansas,” O’Neal told Smith.

O’Neal had to wait to become teammates with Smith, but that wait ultimately wound up paying off.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Leslie O'Neal grateful to Oklahoma State football coaching staff