Cunningham, Robinson up for College Football Hall of Fame consideration
Former UNLV quarterback/punter Randall Cunningham and coach John Robinson once again are up for the College Football Hall of Fame, with the announcement to be made at 9 a.m. Thursday on ESPNNews.
Robinson has the better chance to get inducted. It obviously has more to do with his work at Southern California, where he won the 1978 national championship and five Pacific-10 Conference titles. He also was the 1979 national Coach of the Year.
But Robinson’s work at UNLV should not be ignored. He coached the Rebels to their most recent winning season and bowl appearance, going 8-5 in 2000 and beating Arkansas in the Las Vegas Bowl. Robinson was named Mountain West Conference co-Coach of the Year that season.
Two coaches will be inducted, and five other names are on the ballot. Robinson appears to have the strongest resume, with William Dietz (coached six schools from 1915 to 1942) and Darryl Rogers (five schools from 1965 to 1984) being the toughest challengers.
On a ballot of 76 players, 16 will be selected. It’s a deep ballot, and Cunningham should have trouble even beating out his older brother, USC’s Sam Cunningham, for induction.
Including "Sam Bam," others who figure to go ahead of Cunningham are Nebraska’s Trev Alberts, Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth, Notre Dame’s Tim Brown, Southern Methodist’s Eric Dickerson, Michigan’s Desmond Howard, UCLA’s Jonathan Ogden, Florida State’s Deion Sanders, Georgia’s Jake Scott, Ohio State’s Chris Spielman, North Carolina’s Lawrence Taylor, Arizona State’s Pat Tillman, Miami’s Gino Torretta and Nebraska’s Grant Wistrom.
Assuming all 14 of those players are inducted, that leaves two spots for Cunningham. Even then, he faces other tough competition in Arizona State’s Bob Breunig, Purdue’s Dave Butz, UCLA’s Randy Cross, Kansas’ Bobby Douglass, Notre Dame’s Bob Golic, West Virginia’s Major Harris, Miami’s Russell Maryland and Nebraska’s Will Shields.
