College Football Hall of Fame: Five Players Who Have to Get in This Year

One of the greatest parts of college football is the ability to look back on the game we all love and reminisce on the great players from the past. The National Football Foundation provides some of the ultimate in nostalgia and recognition of greatness through the College Football Hall of Fame. Tomorrow, the NFF will be announcing the 14 players that will be inducted into the hall of fame for 2012.

There are a lot of great names eligible for the class, and of the 93 players on the ballot, there is a case to be made for any of them. Names like Jumbo Elliot, Raghib Ismail and Mark Carrier are on the list. Willie Roaf and Willie Gault are also up for inclusion. Eric Crouch, the Heisman winning quarterback of the Cornhuskers, is eligible for the Hall. Ultimately, when you read through the full ballot, the list reads like a who's who of college football over the last half century.

Here at Your Best 11 we've looked over the list and I've got my five guys that I just have to see get into the College Football Hall of Fame. They're all no-brainers to me, and while other players are definitely deserving, these are the five that I'll be rooting the hardest for come tomorrow's announcement.

Ty Detmer - BYU

This guy was absolutely unreal during his career in college. He rewrote the record books in 1990 and had one of the greatest seasons throwing the football in college football history. His command of the gun-slinging offense was superb, and Detmer was responsible for leading the Cougars over top-ranked Miami in that same 1990 season. We often wonder about how players from the past would translate to today's game; Detmer is the rare guy that makes that question easy to answer. He'd be right at home in today's Big 12; running the Air Raid attack or some variation of the spread and slinging the ball all over the yard.

Joe Hamilton - Georgia Tech

Joe Hamilton was and will always be one of my favorite Yellow Jackets. The kid was smooth, he was tough and man, could he play some football. He was not quite the right height, was not quite the right size but he most certainly found a way to get it done on the football field. If the ACC had never seen Charlie Ward, then Joe Hamilton would be the guy everyone talked about as the bell cow at the quarterback position. The guy shredded run defenses with the option, he destroyed pass defenses with his arm; he was truly a special player. Finishing second in the Heisman voting to Ron Dayne was an accomplishment, although I'd have taken Hamilton any day of the week.

Eric Dickerson - SMU

Do we really need to go into why Dickerson deserves to be in the college football hall of fame? He was half of The Pony Express and the man broke Earl Campbell's records for carries and yards in the SWC. With 48 career touchdowns and a two-time All-American, Dickerson is among the most deserving names on the list from the national perspective. He was one of the best running backs to play at the collegiate level and most certainly will be in the Hall of Fame soon.

Wesley Walls - Ole Miss

Perhaps it is because he played for my hometown team here in Charlotte. Perhaps it is because he was one of the last true "Iron Men" to play in the more modern era of college football. Either way, Wesley Walls gets a nod from me as a guy I'm rooting for to get into the Hall of Fame. He played defense for three seasons at Ole Miss before playing both sides of the ball for the Rebels his senior year and becoming an All-American tight end. Not many players on the ballot can say that they played one season at their position and drew the recognition to warrant a possible hall of fame candidacy. You look at his career as a whole, defensive contributions and the tight end spot and there's a reason he was crowned an SEC Living Legend in 2007.

Tommie Frazier - Nebraska

Two-time Orange Bowl MVP. Fiesta Bowl MVP. Two-time national championship winner. Three straight national championship game appearances. This guy was an unbelievable quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Quite honestly, it is a shame that he has not garnered the support to get into the Hall of Fame yet. Tommie Frazier is, without a doubt, one of the greatest players to ever play the position in college football. From his big third-down run against Miami to the epic, possibly greatest college football play of all time, run against Florida in 1996, Frazier stands as a true piece of college football's greatness.

If only one of the players mentioned here gets into the Hall of Fame it has to be Tommie Frazier. The Cornhuskers' great quarterback's time is most certainly now.