Reggie Bush, Andrew Luck, Marshawn Lynch among nominees for College Football Hall of Fame
Reggie Bush, Andrew Luck and Marshawn Lynch highlight the newest nominees for the College Football Hall of Fame, it was announced Wednesday.
Among the group are 78 players and seven coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision and 99 players and 33 coaches from the divisional ranks.
The ballot was emailed Wednesday to the more than 12,000 National Football Foundation members and current Hall of Famers, whose votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF's Honors Courts, which will deliberate and select the class.
The inductees for the class will be announced in early 2022.
Bush led USC to two national championship, winning the Heisman Trophy as a junior in 2005. However, he returned the award in 2010 after a probe determined that, while he was a student-athlete, he and his family members accepted cash, travel expenses and a home in the San Diego area where Bush's parents lived rent-free for more than a year and for which they were provided $10,000 to furnish.
USC disassociated itself from Bush for 10 years and removed him from its record books before welcoming him back into the fold in 2020. The renewed association allowed Bush to finally be allowed to be nominated for the Hall of Fame; he otherwise could have appeared on the ballot in 2017.
"That was good enough for us,'' NFF president and CEO Steve Hatchell said of Bush returning to good graces with USC.
Luck was Stanford's career leader in touchdown passes (82) and passing efficiency (162.8), owning two of the top four passing seasons in school history. The two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up was a first-team All-America selectionin 2011, winning the Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year honors.
Lynch, who played at rival Cal, had a school-record 17 100-yard rushing games and led the Golden Bears to a share of the Pac-10 title in 2006, when he was named the conference's Offensive Player of the Year after leading the league in rushing (1,356 yards), all-purpose yards (1,785) and touchdowns (15).
Other notable names among first-time FBS players listed on the ballot include Shaun Alexander, LaVar Arrington, Eric Berry, Michael Crabtree, Sylvester Croom, Warrick Dunn, Toby Gerhart, Graham Harrell, Jeremy Maclin, Kellen Moore, Paul Posluszny and Peter Warrick.
Champ Bailey, Marvin Harrison, Tony Gonzalez, Julius Peppers and Rashaan Salaam are among holdovers from ballots in other years.
Among coaches, Larry Coker, whoguided Miami to its most recent national championship in 2001, appeared on the ballot for the first time.
Players are eligible if they are 10 full seasons removed from their final year of college football and have received first-team All-America honors by an organization recognized by the NCAA.
Coaches are eligible three full seasons after retirement or immediately after retirement if they are at least 70 years old. A coach also must have been a head coach for at least 10 years and have coached at least 100 games with a winning percentage of .600 or better.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
