Three Penn State football legends are up for the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame class.
Ki-Jana Carter, D.J Dozier and Paul Posluszny are on the ballot.
Carter and Dozier are two of the finest running backs in PSU history and played on two of the school’s greatest teams.
Carter finished second in the 1994 Heisman Trophy race to Colorado’s Rashaan Salaam.
That season, he rushed for 1,539 yards and 23 touchdowns on 198 carries (7.8 YPC), surely being one of the stars of the stars on Penn State’s most recent undefeated squad. One of the last runs of Carter’s college career was his most famous.
Carter took Penn State’s first offensive play 83 yards for the opening score of what ended up being a 38-20 PSU romp.
Ki-Jana Carter’s 83-yard touchdown run — on Penn State’s first play from scrimmage in the 1995 @rosebowlgame — will always be an all-time great, tone-setting play. Sharing it today just because 😏@mastakey32 pic.twitter.com/ZgRdUY0p9s
— Matt Bufano (@MattBufano) January 2, 2023
Carter had high hopes for his NFL career, going first overall to the Cincinnati Bengals in 1995. But the injury-plagued Carter only made 14 starts over seven seasons, the last of which coming in 1997, his second year.
He’s still involved in the PSU community, being one of the founding members of the Lions Legacy Club, the school’s first football-focused NIL collective, which launched last September.
Like Carter, Dozier was a great running back on an undefeated Penn State team.
He helped lead Penn State to its second and most recent national championship in 1986, scoring the winning touchdown in the team’s 14-10 Fiesta Bowl upset over top-ranked Miami that’s arguably the most famous game in Penn State history.
Dozier, a four-year starter at Penn State, ended his career second to Curt Warner on the school’s all time rushing list and is currently seventh more than 35 years after playing his last college game.
After Penn State, Dozier went in the first round (14th overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft to the Vikings. He ended up playing five seasons in the league— four with Minnesota and one with the Lions.
After that, he briefly but impressively played Major League Baseball with the New York Mets, appearing in 25 games during the 1992 season.
Posluszny, the most recent Penn State candidate, played at the school from 2003-06.
Although he didn’t play on an undefeated team like Dozier and Carter did, Posluzsny played a large role in one of the most memorable seasons in Penn State history, helping Penn State go 11-1 in 2005 and finish No. 3 in the nation.
At Penn State, Posluzsny was a two-time consensus All-American, a two-time Chuck Bednarik Award winner for the nation’s top defender and won the Dick Butkus Award for the nation’s top linebacker in 2005.
After PSU, Posluzsny played 11 NFL seasons for the Buffalo Bills (2007-10) and Jacksonville Jaguars (2011-17).
These three were also on last year’s ballot, but didn’t get elected. Voting runs through the end of June.
