Vince Young Headlines College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019
Every year, around the time of the NFL draft, there are a bunch of think pieces about how drafting is an inexact science and how today’s can’t-miss prospect who had an amazing college career might just be tomorrow’s entry in one of those “The Greatest Draft Busts Ever” articles that also seem to crop up around football blogs filling offseason content slots in April.
And one look at the incoming inductees for the College Football Hall of Fame shows us just why all those draft pieces are so popular.
Your headliners? Texas quarterback Vince Young, Notre Dame receiver and special teams spark plug Raghib “Rocket” Ismail, and Ole Miss linebacker Patrick Willis.
And while Willis was a five-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowl selection during his eight-year career with the 49ers, Young never really caught on in the NFL, and Ismail is better known for his exploits in Canada as a pro than the United States.
Young, Ismail, and Willis join 10 other players who will be a part of the induction ceremony in New York on Dec, 10.
The others? Florida State DB Terrell Buckley, John Carroll LB London Fletcher, Oklahoma DB Rickey Dixon, DL out of Texas A&M Jacob Green, NC State WR Torry Holt, running back out of Arkansas Darren McFadden, Arizona State QB Jake Plummer, USC DB Troy Polamalu, Wisconsin standout OL Joe Thomas, and Michigan State RB Lorenzo White.
And while some of those guys were legitimate pro stars (Fletcher, Polamalu, and Thomas were among the best at their positions in the pros, Plummer was a serviceable starter, and Holt won a Super Bowl with the Rams as a rookie and played 11 NFL seasons), others were hardly a factor on NFL teams.
Joining the players are a pair of coaches, Dennis Erickson (best known as the guy behind the wheel of some stellar Miami teams) and Joe Taylor (a legend at several historically black Southern schools.)
And seemingly for fun, the Goodyear Blimp was also inducted, although how the blimp is supposed to give an acceptance speech is one of the great questions of our age.
Archie Manning, a guy whose sons know a thing or two about being great in college and the NFL in equal measure, is the chairman of the National Football Foundation and an inductee into the college Hall himself. He issued a statement on the incoming class.
“We are extremely proud to announce the 2019 College Football Hall of Fame Class,” Manning said, according to ESPN. “Each of these men has established himself among the absolute best to have ever played or coached the game, and we look forward to immortalizing their incredible accomplishments. The class will be part of a momentous year as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of college football this season.”
Now whether you believe that game on Nov. 6, 1869 between teams of 25 players from Rutgers and Princeton that had a lot more in common with rugby or perhaps a competitive rioting contest than anything we’d call modern American football (whose invention is credited to Walter Camp during an evolution that spanned the 1880s) is the “first-ever college football game”, the fact remains that the people in charge of the College Football Hall of Fame believe it to be so.
Young’s Hall of Fame case in college rests on his outstanding performance in the 2005 Rose Bowl, where he completed 30 of 40 passes for 267 yards while also rushing for 200 yards, a one-man wrecking crew whose Texas Longhorns seized the national championship from the favored USC Trojans.
Vince Young, Troy Polamalu and Joe Thomas headline star-studded 2019 College Football Hall of Fame class https://t.co/JYhRzvsrg9 pic.twitter.com/J4kTGFIGEc
— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) January 7, 2019
Young himself ran for the game-winning score in the final seconds.
Young had words of his own upon hearing the news.
“When I think about it, the honor is meaningful in so many ways and this award is full of reminders,” Young said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “It’s a reminder that I came from a broken home and an under-resourced community where the odds are against us all. It’s a reminder that I was given the chance to play for The University of Texas through the support of my family, hard work and dedication. It’s a reminder of the work my teammates and I put in, especially when no one was watching. It’s a reminder of all the adversity we have gone through and overcome. And last, but not least, it’s a reminder of all the awards, challenges and championships my brothers and mentors have won together.
“None of us have accomplished anything alone, and I’m thankful for everyone in my life. This honor means the world to me and my family, and as I think about it, two powerful words say it all: life changing.”
Ismail and Dixon also won national championships, but it’s Young’s highlight reel that is the jewel in this year’s Hall of Fame class crown.
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