Notre Dame football: Former Irish who deserve to be in CFB HOF

With Aaron Taylor going into the CFB HOF, we look at some other members of the Notre Dame football program who also deserves to get in.

Former Notre Dame football offensive lineman and two-time All-American, Aaron Taylor was recently elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. You’d be forgiven for assuming that he was already in the Hall of Fame, and in many ways, his exclusion was an oversight, but he was not.

Several other Irish players deserve this honor but are missing out just like Taylor was.

Including Taylor, Notre Dame has 47 inductees into the Hall of Fame, which is the most of any program in college football. USC, interestingly enough, is the second place program with 43 inductees to a Hall of Fame that was actually based in South Bend from 1995 to 2012.

To be elected into the College Football Hall of Fame, several standards must be met. The first is to be named an All-American by a major selector. The second is that a player must be between 10-50 years after their time as a player. They are also to be retired from professional sports at the time that they’re elected.

Furthermore, while their on-field performance is of primary interest, their off the field actions are taken into consideration as well.

Players like Manti Te’o absolutely deserve to be in the College Football Hall of Fame, and he will one day, but he doesn’t fill those requirements in terms yet. In a couple of years, once he’s out of the NFL, and hits ten years past the end of his Notre Dame career, he’ll be in. Until then, he won’t be on this list, though, because he’s not an overlooked player.

However, players who won’t make the Hall of Fame because they stopped playing over 50 years ago are going to be considered because they have been overlooked. So, here are several, and there are several more, Notre Dame players overlooked by the College Football Hall of Fame: