Josh Heupel, two former Vols on 2026 College Football Hall of Fame ballot
Josh Heupel, two former Vols on 2026 College Football Hall of Fame ballot
Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel and two former Vols are on the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame ballot.
Heupel, Larry Seivers and Deon Grant are on the ballot, which was released Monday.
Heupel is appearing on the ballot for a sixth consecutive year. As a quarterback at Oklahoma, he was a first-team consensus All-American and won the 2000 BCS national championship.
Seivers was a two-time first-team consensus All-American from 1975-76. In 1975, he became the first Tennessee wide receiver to eclipse 800 receiving yards in one season. Seivers was a two-time All-SEC standout for the Vols.
Grant, a safety, played for the Vols from 1997-99 under head coach Phillip Fulmer. He was a member of Tennessee's 1998 BCS national championship team. Grant was a 1999 consensus First Team All-American and Jim Thorpe Award finalist.
He helped the Vols win two SEC championships, and was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press in 1999. Grant was a first-team all-conference performer as a junior after leading the SEC with nine interceptions.
Following his career with the Vols, Grant was selected in the second round of the 2000 NFL draft (No. 57 overall) by Carolina. He played for the Panthers (2000-03), Jacksonville (2004-06), Seattle (2007-09) and the Giants (2010-11).
Grant was a Super Bowl champion with New York. He recorded 776 career tackles, 6.5 sacks, 30 interceptions, 10 fumble recoveries and four forced fumbles.
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