I know the College Football Hall of Fame isn't really that big of deal. After all, Ahmad Rashad was in this year's class of inductees, so you know it's hardly on the level of a number of other Hall of Fames.

But that said, there were two individuals that made the Hall this year who have a major impact on college football and football in general. On Saturday night, both Doug Flutie and Joe Paterno were inducted into the Hall. I'm still amazed it took until now for Paterno to get in there. Shouldn't he have been in there about 25 years ago?

Anyway, Flutie is of course remembered for being the pint-sized QB with a rocket arm that no big time college football program wanted because of his small stature. Instead, he went to BC, and burned himself into every diehard college football fan's memory with his Hail Mary against Miami that still stands as one of the greatest games ever - along with winning the Heisman Trophy.

Flutie went on to play football professionally pretty much everywhere, including long stints in the NFL and a dominant run in CFL where he won 3 Grey Cups. He even played a season in the old USFL.

JoePa, meanwhile, pretty much is college football in a lot of peoples' minds. He holds a 372-125-3 career record that places him one victory behind Bobby Bowden as the all-time major college wins leader.

I'll always love JoePa because he's an advocate of a college football playoff system and has argued that all college scholarship athletes should receive a modest stipend. Two issues I couldn't agree more with. Oh, and because he's the fieriest 80+ year-old in the world, which makes him cool as hell.



Believe it or not, 2008 will mark JoePa's 59th season at Penn St. as either an assistant coach or head coach, which is nothing short of incredible.

But Paterno's greatest legacy is probably his commitment to education at Penn St. Penn State's players have consistently demonstrated above-average academic success compared to Division I-A schools nationwide. Paterno and his wife have also given quite a bit of money to the school over the years - meaning for educational purposes, not football.

Here's who else was enshrined on Saturday:

Mount Union quarterback Jim Ballard; Oklahoma center Tom Brahaney; Michigan defensive back Dave Brown; Clemson linebacker Jeff Davis; Texas defensive back Johnnie Johnson; Ohio State quarterback Rex Kern; North Alabama linebacker Ronald McKinnon; Texas A&I defensive end John Randle; Oregon running back Ahmad Rashad; McMurry halfback Brad Rowland; Indiana running back Anthony Thompson; Houston defensive tackle Wilson Whitley; Dartmouth linebacker Reggie Williams; Southern California linebacker Richard Wood and Notre Dame nose tackle Chris Zorich.

Coaches who were enshrined along with Paterno were Central Michigan coach Herb Deromedi, Jackson State coach W.C. Gorden, and Doug Porter, who coached at Mississippi Valley State, Howard and Fort Valley State.