Notre Dame Football: Three Players on College Hall of Fame Ballot
The most recent candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame were named, and the list contains three former Notre Dame players, including new Irish defensive backs coach Todd Lyght. He’ll be joined on the ballot by fellow alums Raghib “Rocket” Ismail and Bob Crable. A total of 73 players and five coaches from FBS join them, as well as 27 players from college football’s lower divisions.
There aren’t many first-ballot inductees, as Notre Dame’s most recent inductee, wide receiver Thom Gatewood had to wait more than 30 years from when he first found his name on a ballot.
The 12,000 members of the National Football Foundation and current College Hall of Famers will receive the ballot via email this week, and votes will be recorded and submitted to the NFF honors court.
Gene Corrigan, the former Notre Dame athletic director, Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and NCAA past president, chairs the honors court, a 17-member panel that will deliberate and select the class.
The class will be announced on January 8 in conjunction with the College Football Playoff National Championship game being played in Glendale, AZ. The Hall of Fame class will be inducted later in the year.
Crable is a two-time All-American linebacker (1980-81), and is still the school’s leader in career (521), single-season (187) and single-game tackles (26). It is his sixth year on the ballot, although not all consecutively.
Ismail is on for the fifth straight year. The receiver/flanker who was most known for being a lethal return man was a consensus All-American in 1989 and a unanimous All-American in 1990. He also won the Walter Camp Award in 1990 and was the Heisman Runner-up to BYU’s Ty Detmer (He was robbed).
Lyght, who will be in his first season as a DB coach for Brian Kelly makes his first appearance on the ballot. He was a unanimous All-America selection at cornerback in 1989 after starting on the 1988 national championship squad as a sophomore. He was then a consensus All-American in 1990.