The College Football Hall of Fame welcomed 22 new members to its illustrious club as they were officially enshrined during the 65th annual National Football Foundation Awards Dinner in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.
The Class of 2023 consisted of 18 players and four coaches, including former University of Texas standout linebacker Derrick Johnson.
“Whenever you can tag Hall of Fame to an [accomplishment] — big deal, big deal,” Johnson said in an official release from the National Football Foundation. “And when you do that, you can get to a level of excellence. It’s not all about you. Somebody helped you to get there … the best thing about football is it’s the ultimate team sport. At the end of the day, the guy next to you can do their job really good and helped you out. So, you don’t go into this alone.”
Johnson, the 25th Longhorn inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, was one of Texas’ defensive leaders in the early 2000s, earning several honors like Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, the Bronko Nagurski Award, and the Butkus Award before being selected 11th overall by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2005 NFL Draft.
He is the program’s third all-time leading tackler and went on to play 14 years in the NFL with four Pro Bowl appearances and one All-Pro team selection.
The class also included other former Big 12 standouts like quarterback Michael Bishop (Kansas State) and wide receiver Jeremy Maclin (Missouri).
Current NFLPA executive vice president and ex-NFL player Troy Vincent (Wisconsin), running backs Reggie Bush (USC), LaMichael James (Oregon), DeAngelo Williams (Memphis), and Brian Westbrook (Villanova), quarterback Tim Tebow (Florida), wide receiver Terance Mathis (New Mexico), offensive linemen Robert Gallery (Iowa) and Bryant McKinnie (Miami FL), defensive linemen Dwight Freeney (Syracuse), Bill Kollar (Montana State), and Corey Moore (Virginia Tech), linebackers Michael Stonebreaker (Notre Dame) and  Luke Kuechly (Boston College), and defensive back Eric Berry (Tennessee) were also honored as players.
Former Georgia and Miami (FL) coach Mark Richt, former Central Michigan coach Roy Kramer, former Division II and Division III head coach Monte Cater, and former Georgia Southern, Navy, and Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson round out the class.
