Texas Football: 3 Longhorns crack top 50 players of all-time

In a list compiled by 247Sports and Joal Ryan this week, a ranking of the top 50 college football players of all time was released that featured a trio of former Texas football superstars. Of the trio of Texas legends that made this list of the best college football players of all time, all played at the skill positions.

The first player among the former Longhorns on this list was the legendary quarterback and one-time National Champion Vince Young. He found himself at the No. 45 spot on the list, just above the Ohio State halfback Howard Cassady.

You didn’t have to search for too long to find the first of this trio of Longhorns on the list. But the gap between Young and the next Longhorn up is pretty sizable.

247Sports includes three Texas football legends among top 50 players ever

Next up among Longhorns on this list after Young was the Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ricky Williams. You have to go all the way up to the seven spot on this list to find Williams. Here’s what this piece had to say about the placement of Williams at No. 7 on the list.

"Ricky Williams sure could run. He finished his 1995-1997 career in Austin as college’s all-time rushing leader, with 6,279 yards. The record would be broken a year later by Ron Dayne, but Williams will never be looked at as anything but dominating. In 1998, he won the Heisman, the Maxwell and player of the year honors from the Associated Press and Sporting News."

And then, when you move up two spots on the list to No. 5, you can find another former Texas running back/Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell. Starting off the top five, Campbell is easy to place this high up on the list given the consistent production that tallied him nearly 4,500 career rushing yards and more than 40 career total touchdowns.

Here’s more on what this piece had to say about Campbell.

"A statue of Earl Campbell stands outside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, where the Texas powerhouse starred from 1974-1977. In his final year, Campbell won the nation’s rushing title, the nation’s scoring title and the Heisman Trophy."

Campbell is sandwiched in this ranking in between two other former Heisman Trophy-winning running backs in OJ Simpson and Bo Jackson. The Longhorn legend Campbell won the Heisman Trophy in 1977. Meanwhile, Williams got his Heisman Trophy in 1998.

Williams is the most recent Longhorn to win the Heisman. Although, we saw Young and fellow former star quarterback Colt McCoy come close in the past 20 years.

It’s good to see the past recognition of these legendary former Longhorns among the best college football players of all time. Just ahead of the start of the 2021 regular season, reminiscing about some of the better days on the Forty Acres isn’t a bad thing.

VY, Williams, and Campbell are three of the best to ever do it for the Longhorns. But it’s worth mentioning that other Longhorn legends such as McCoy, Tommy Nobis, and Bobby Layne, among others, were likely close to cracking this ranking.