Three Sun Devils on 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Ballot
TEMPE, Ariz. – Former Arizona State football players Al Harris and Luis Zendejas along with former head coach Darryl Rogers are among the players and coaches on the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) portion of the 2022 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame as announced today by the Hall and The National Football Foundation (NFF).
The 2022 College Football Hall of Fame ballot includes 78 players and seven coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision and 99 players and 33 coaches from the NCAA divisional and NAIA ranks.
This will be the second year on the ballot for former Sun Devil kicker Luis Zendejas. Zendejas' boast a resume that warrants his name being in the discussion of the greatest placekickers in college football history. He left Arizona State as the NCAA's all-time leading scorer, finishing with 380 points. Zendejas was named a Consensus First Team All-American after a historic 1983 campaign. He remains Arizona State's all-time leader in single-season field goals made, putting 28 through the uprights in 1983. Zendejas completed his career with 81 made field goals, the second-highest mark by a Sun Devil. By the time his career in Tempe came to an end, Zendejas had claimed to several NCAA records that have since been surpassed. However, he still holds the NCAA record for most times making three or more field goals in a game during a season, accomplishing the feat six times in 1983. The four-time Pac-10 All-Conference selection was inducted into the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995.
Arizona State defensive lineman Al Harris will be on the ballot for the tenth year. Harris dominated along the Sun Devil defensive front during the 1970s, eventually being named a Consensus All-Americans in 1978. After a breakout season in which he made over 100 tackles and garnered First Team All-WAC status, Harris took his game to another level prior to his final season in Tempe. He collected an incredible 19 sacks during a dominant campaign, a mark that still stands as the second most in single-season school history. Harris was a big reason why the Sun Devils were able to make a successful transition to the Pac-10 in 1978. Arizona State picked up their first Pac-10 conference win ever in upset fashion, riding a suffocating defensive effort to knock off No. 2 USC. The high-powered Trojan offense was held to just seven points by Harris and company, a defensive performance considered as one of the best in school history. USC would go on to split the National Championship, with their only loss coming in front of 70,138 fans at Sun Devil Stadium.
Darryl Rogers, also on the ballot for three consecutive years, went 37-18-1 with ASU from 1980 through 1984 and defeated Oklahoma, 32-21, in the 1982 Fiesta Bowl. He also coached at Cal State East Bay [formerly Cal State Hayward] (1965), Fresno State (1966-72), San Jose State (1973-75), and Michigan State (1976-79). He took Fresno State to two bowl games while achieving an unprecedented national ranking at San Jose State. He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1977 and National Coach of the Year by Sporting News in 1978. He won the Big Ten title in 1978.
The ballot will be emailed to more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers whose votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF's Honors Courts, which deliberate and select the class. The FBS Honors Court, chaired by NFF Board Member and College Football Hall of Famer Archie Griffin from Ohio State, and the Divisional Honors Court, chaired by former Marshall head coach, longtime athletics director and NFF Board Member Jack Lengyel, include an elite and geographically diverse pool of athletic administrators, Hall of Famers and members of the media.
The announcement of the 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be made in early 2022, with specific details to be announced in the future. The Class will be officially inducted during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 6, 2022, and permanently immortalized at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
Of the 5.4 million individuals who have played college football since Princeton first battled Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869, only 1,027 players have earned induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, or less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%)of those who have played the game during the past 150 years. From the coaching ranks, 221 individuals have achieved Hall of Fame distinction.
Sun Devils in the NFF College Football Hall of Fame (13):
Bob Breunig, 2015
John Cooper, 2008
Dan Devine, 1985
Dennis Erickson, 2019
David Fulcher, 2021
Mike Haynes, 2001
John Jefferson, 2002
Frank Kush, 1995
Randall McDaniel, 2008
Jake Plummer, 2019
Ron Pritchard, 2003
Pat Tillman, 2010
Danny White, 1998