Three former University of Oklahoma football players are on the 2024 College Hall of Fame ballot. The announcement was made recently by the National Football Foundation (NFF). The former OU standouts making the ballot among 78 players from the Football Bowl Subdivision are Rocky Calmus, Josh Heupel and Dewey Selmon.

The ballot was emailed to the more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers whose votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF’s Honors Court, which will deliberate and select the class. The Honors Court, chaired by NFF Board Member and College Football Hall of Famer Archie Griffin from Ohio State, includes an elite and geographically diverse pool of athletics administrators, Hall of Famers and members of the media.

“It’s an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot considering more than 5.62 million people have played college football and only 1,074 players have been inducted,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “The Hall’s requirement of being a first-team All-American creates a much smaller pool of about 1,500 individuals who are even eligible. Being in today’s elite group means an individual is truly among the greatest to have ever played the game, and we look forward to announcing the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame Class early next year.”

The 2024 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be officially inducted during the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas and permanently immortalized at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. They will also be honored at their respective schools with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments, during the 2024 season.

Former Sooners safety Roy Williams (1998-2001) was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 class this past December. He became OU’s 23rd former player in the College Hall of Fame and fourth straight defender (defensive back Rickey Dixon in 2019 and linebackers Brian Bosworth in 2015 and Rod Shoate in 2013).

Rocky Calmus: Linebacker 1998-2001

One of the nation’s top defenders during the Sooners’ return to prominence at the beginning of head coach Bob Stoops’ tenure, Rocky Calmus defined his position.

The linebacker burst onto the scene in 1999, Stoops’ first year, when he registered 114 tackles and 14 tackles for loss as a sophomore to help lead OU to its first bowl game since 1994. In 2000, Calmus registered career highs of 125 tackles and 17 TFLs en route to AP Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-America honors, as the Sooners went 13-0 and captured their seventh national title. He was also dubbed the toughest player in college football by The Sporting News that season.

The Tulsa native won the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker as a senior in 2001 and was a finalist for the Nagurski and Bednarik Awards (given to the nation’s best defender) and the Lombardi Award (country’s top interior player). A consensus All-American for the second consecutive year, he paced the team in tackles (117) for the third straight season and added 15 more TFLs.

Calmus finished his career ranked fourth in school history with 431 tackles and still holds career program records for tackles for loss (59), sacks by an inside linebacker (14.0), pass breakups by a linebacker (26; next most is 16) and fumble recoveries by a linebacker (seven). He also logged three interceptions (returned two for touchdowns), 29 quarterback hurries, five forced fumbles and three blocked kicks. His 44 career starts were consecutive and rank as the second most by a linebacker in school history.

Josh Heupel: Quarterback 1999-2000

The runner-up for the 2000 Heisman Trophy, Josh Heupel became Oklahoma’s first consensus All-America quarterback and the first Sooners signal-caller to earn All-America honors since Jack Mildren in 1971.

A junior college transfer, Heupel was one of Bob Stoops’ first OU recruits and is largely credited with turning an offense that statistically ranked as one of the worst in the nation before his arrival into one of the country’s most explosive.

After helping OU to a 7-5 record in his debut year, Heupel led the Sooners to a 13-0 campaign in 2000 (their first 13-win season in history) and a national championship. He was named Associated Press Player of the Year, Walter Camp Player of the Year, The Sporting News Player of the Year, CBS Sports Player of the Year and Big 12 Player of the Year that season.

Heupel, from Aberdeen, S.D., passed for 7,456 yards and 53 touchdowns in his two seasons at OU, and still ranks in the top five in school history in career passing yards (fifth), career completions (654; third), career passing attempts (1,025; third) and career touchdown passes (fifth) despite playing only two seasons. He threw for at least 300 yards in 14 of his 25 career contests, and left OU holding virtually every school and numerous Big 12 passing records.

Dewey Selmon: Defensive Lineman 1972-1975

One part of the famed and feared Selmon brothers defensive line trio for Oklahoma’s vaunted defenses of the early and mid-1970s, Dewey Selmon starred at both defensive tackle and nose guard. In his four years on campus, the Sooners posted a 43-2-1 record (the .946 winning percentage was best in the country), won four straight Big Eight championships and captured national titles his junior and senior seasons of 1974 and ’75.

Selmon, who was from Eufaula, Okla., finished his OU career with 325 tackles, 25 tackles for loss (for 109 yards), three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. In a 16-13 win over Texas in 1974, he registered 22 tackles, which still stands as the single-game school record by a defensive lineman. He also holds the OU bowl record for tackles by a defensive lineman (13) in a 14-6 Orange Bowl win over Michigan that gave the Sooners the national title. And Selmon is one of just five OU defensive linemen with 100-plus single-season tackles twice (104 in 1974 and 123 in 1975).

With Selmon as a starter from 1973-75, OU went 32-1-1. The Sooners allowed just 12.1 points per game in 1973, 8.4 in 1974 and 12.8 in 1975. His 34 career starts were the second most by an OU defensive lineman at the end of his career.

Each of Selmon’s OU squads finished in the top three of the AP rankings, winding up at No. 2 in 1972, No. 3 in 1973 and No. 1 in 1974 and ’75. The Sooners were ranked in the AP Top 5 in 48 of 60 weeks during his career (13 weeks at No. 1 and 19 weeks at No. 2).