UNC football’s Julius Peppers on College Football Hall of Fame ballot
Former North Carolina football star Julius Peppers is one of two Tar Heels on the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame ballot.
Ken Huff is the other UNC player on the ballot, which was released Monday morning by the National Football Federation. Peppers and Huff are looking to join nine other Tar Heels — six players and three coaches — in the hall, including current head coach Mack Brown, who was inducted in 2018.
The latest class will be announced in early 2024 and celebrated next year at an awards dinner on Dec. 10.
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Peppers, who played for the Tar Heels from 1999-2001, was an All-American and won the Chuck Bednarik Award for the nation’s top defensive player in 2001. He racked up 167 tackles, 30.5 sacks, 53 TFL, five interceptions and five forced fumbles at UNC.
Selected by the Carolina Panthers with the second overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, Peppers was a Pro Bowl selection in nine of his 17 seasons. He is the only player in league history to record more than 150 sacks and 10 or more interceptions in a career.
Huff, who played at UNC from 1972-74, was an All-American offensive lineman. He won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the ACC’s best offensive lineman and was named the league’s top senior student-athlete.
Huff went on to play 11 years and 145 games in the NFL for Indianapolis and Washington, where he became a member of the legendary ‘Hogs’ offensive line.
The 2024 ballot features 78 players and nine coaches from the FBS, with 101 players and 32 coaches coming from divisional ranks.
Appalachian State’s Armanti Edwards, Elon’s Bobby Hedrick, Winston-Salem State’s Timmy Newsome, Western Carolina’s Kirk Roach and East Carolina coach Clarence Stasavich are among the others representing the state of North Carolina on the ballot.
Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: College Football Hall of Fame: UNC’s Julius Peppers on 2024 ballot
