Vote Pat Fitzgerald for #SBNHOF

The SBN college football network is embarking on a pretty cool project this summer. We're redoing the college football hall of fame, basically, inducting a class of 20 players. Ten no-brainers have already been added by a selection committee, and ten more were cropped down from site selections into lists of five by position to be voted on.

I went ahead and didn't consult y'all in the process, because I'm pretty sure we would've come to the same answer. In the history of Northwestern football, only two players really deserve being considered NCAA Hall of Famers. (There are 14 NU players or coaches in the real hall of fame, only two of which have played since 1959, but this class is smaller.) I nominated Otto Graham and Pat Fitzgerald.

Graham redefined the sport in his day, while Fitzgerald was absolutely the best defensive player in the country for back-to-back seasons, changed an entire program, and shocked the world by leading the 1995 team to the Rose Bowl and a Big Ten Championship. I think that's HOF worthy.

So here's how this works: there's a poll up over at the mothership where you can vote for Fitzgerald to earn induction, and right now he's getting his butt kicked by Patrick Willis. Let's change that, alright? I think Fitzgerald was a better college player than Willis, so let's go vote Coach Fitz in. If Graham also makes the cut, his poll will be up tomorrow.

Note: I didn't nominate Fitzgerald as a coach, because, although most of us agree he is the most awesome thing since sliced bread, or at least the movie Space Jam, we can also probably agree that Coach Fitz not exactly a hall of fame caliber coach. Yet.

Oh, and if you don't vote him in, Coach Fitz will show up at your house and be intense at you.