Former coaches Bob Stoops and Gary Pinkel highlight the newest nominees for the College Football Hall of Fame, it was announced Tuesday.
Among the group are 78 players and seven coaches from the FBS level, and 99 players and 33 coaches from the divisional ranks.
The ballot was sent Tuesday to more than 12,000 National Football Foundation members and current Hall of Famers. Their votes will be counted and sent to the NFF Honors Court, which will select the 2021 class.
An official announcement on the class will be made early next year.
Stoops, 59, spent 18 seasons at Oklahoma, leading the Sooners to 10 Big 12 titles, 14 seasons with double-digit wins and one national championship (2000). When he retired after the 2016 season, he left as the school’s all-time winningest coach (190 victories).
The quarterback of Stoops’ lone national championship team, Josh Heupel, is back on the ballot this year as well.
Pinkel, 68, is the winningest coach at both Toledo and Missouri. He coached the Rockets from 1991-2000, leading them to the 1995 MAC title. Then he left for Missouri, where he coached from 2001-15 before stepping down for health reasons. Between the two schools, Pinkel won 191 games.
Among the other players on the ballot: Georgia cornerback Champ Bailey, Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey, Syracuse defensive end Dwight Freeney and Florida State kicker Sebastian Janikowski.
Miami linebacker Ray Lewis, Stanford receiver Ed McCaffrey, USC quarterback Carson Palmer, North Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers and late Colorado running back Rashaan Salaam are among the holdovers from last year’s ballot.
To be eligible, a player must have received First-Team All-America honors by an organization the NCAA recognizes. Players are eligible for consideration 10 full seasons after their final year of college football. A coach is eligible three full seasons after retirement or immediately after retirement if he is at least 70. In addition, he must have been a head coach for at least 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage.
