{"id":99524,"date":"2025-06-03T02:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/99524\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T02:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:04:12","slug":"former-cowboys-wr-dez-bryant-among-many-locals-on-nff-college-football-hall-of-fame-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/99524\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Cowboys WR Dez Bryant among many locals on NFF College Football Hall of Fame ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Football Foundation released the names on the ballot for the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame class<\/a>, which included 79 players and nine coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision.<\/p>\n

Former Dallas Cowboys and Oklahoma State WR Dez Bryant is on the ballot thanks to his consensus first-team All-American season in 2008. He was named the Big 12 Special Team Player of the Year and was named first-team All-Big 12 as both a receiver and returner. <\/p>\n

During that sophomore year, Bryant was a Biletnikoff Award finalist after averaging 113.8 receiving yards per game.<\/p>\n

See all the other former Dallas Cowboys, former local college stars and former local college coaches on the upcoming ballot below.<\/p>\n

Texas College Sports<\/p>\n

Get the latest college sports news, scores and analysis.<\/p>\n

Other notable Cowboys on the ballotFlozell Adams<\/p>\n

Adams played for the Cowboys from 1998-2009. The former Michigan State offensive tackle was a three-time All-Big Ten player for the Spartans and was a first-team All-American in 1997.<\/p>\n

Kellen Moore<\/p>\n

The former Cowboys backup quarterback and offensive coordinator is on the ballot due to a standout career at Boise State. He was a first-team All-American in 2010 and finished his college career as the winningest starting QB in college football history.<\/p>\n

Greg Ellis<\/p>\n

Ellis was a defensive end for the Cowboys from 1998-2008, including a 2007 Pro Bowl season that saw him win the Comeback Player of the Year. He tallied 77 sacks with the Cowboys, but is on the ballot for a standout career at North Carolina that included 32.5 career sacks in college.<\/p>\n

Other college locals on the ballotBaylor QB Robert Griffin III<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s iconic 2011 season with Baylor<\/a> included a first-team All-American selection, a Heisman Trophy and several other awards as he lit the Big 12 on fire for the Bears.<\/p>\n

SMU DB Russell Carter<\/p>\n

Carter was a unanimous first-team All-American for the Mustangs in 1983 and was a three-time All-Southwest Conference performer. He is SMU<\/a>\u2019s all-time career leader in interceptions with 18.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma LB Rocky Calmus<\/p>\n

Calmus was a two-time consensus first-team All-American for Oklahoma<\/a> and won the 2001 Butkus Award. The 2000 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and four-time All-Big 12 LB tallied 431 tackles and was a key piece on the Sooners team that won the BCS National Championship at the 2001 Orange Bowl.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma LB George Cumby<\/p>\n

Cumby was a two-time first-team All-American at Oklahoma<\/a> and won the Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year award twice. He was a member of four Big Eight championship teams.<\/p>\n

Texas DT Casey Hampton<\/p>\n

Hampton was named first-team All-American twice as a Longhorn, including a consensus selection in 2000. The 2000 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year was a three-time All-Big 12 defender who finished his Texas<\/a> career with 54 tackles for loss.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech RB Byron Hanspard<\/p>\n

Hanspard was a unanimous first-team All-American in 1996 and won the Doak Walker Award. He set the single-season rushing record with 2,000 rushing yards that year. Hanspard was Texas Tech<\/a>\u2019s all-time rushing leader until Tahj Brooks surpassed him this year.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma QB Josh Heupel<\/p>\n

Heupel was a consensus first-team All-American QB for the Sooners and finished as the Heisman Trophy runner-up in the 2000 season. He led Oklahoma<\/a> to the national title at the 2001 Orange Bowl. He left Oklahoma with virtually every school passing record despite playing just two seasons.<\/p>\n

Local coaches on the ballotJim Carlen<\/p>\n

Carlen coached from 1966-81, which included a stint at Texas Tech from 1970-74. He was named the National Coach of the Year in 1973 with the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n

Pete Cawthon Sr.<\/p>\n

Cawthon Sr. was Texas Tech\u2019s coach from 1930-40 and led the Red Raiders to four conference championships in that span. He led Texas Tech to a 10-0 season and the schools\u2019 first Cotton Bowl appearance. Cawthon Sr. has the highest career win percentage among Texas Tech coaches with three years or more at the helm.<\/p>\n

Dennis Franchione<\/p>\n

Franchione had two separate stints at Texas State, a stint at TCU<\/a> from 1998-2000 and a stint at Texas A&M from 2003-07. He led Texas State\u2019s transition into the FBS, guided TCU to its first postseason since since the 1950s and took Texas A&M to the 2005 Cotton Bowl.<\/p>\n

Gary Patterson<\/p>\n

Patterson coached at TCU from 2000-21 and become a legend in Fort Worth. He is the all-time winningest coach in Horned Frogs history and was a two-time National Coach of the Year. Patterson led TCU to six conference titles, including a Conference USA title, four Mountain West titles and a Big 12 championship.<\/p>\n

Tommy Tuberville<\/p>\n

Tuberville coached from 1995-2016, which included a stint at Texas Tech from 2010-12 that ended with a 20-17 record. He is on the ballot for his more memorable efforts at Auburn where he was named National Coach of the Year in 2004 for leading the Tigers to a SEC title and 13-0 record.<\/p>\n

Familiar faces in the Finals: See which members of Thunder, Pacers have D-FW ties<\/a>No. 5 overall seed North Carolina slugs its way past Oklahoma to win Chapel Hill Regional<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Football Foundation released the names on the ballot for the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[1101,9436,339,1554,230,229,257,2461,7,6,1787,4723,4710,9,4724,7212,4721],"class_list":{"0":"post-99524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baylor-bears","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-colleges","12":"tag-cowboys","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-dallas-cowboys","15":"tag-dallascowboys","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-oklahoma-sooners","19":"tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys","20":"tag-smu-mustangs","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-tcu-horned-frogs","23":"tag-texas-am-aggies","24":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114616983018574536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}