Finally, Danny Wuerffel’s
success, statistics, class and character -- oh, and all those championships --
have been deemed worthy of immortality.
Wuerffel, the Heisman
Trophy-winning quarterback whose run of titles and accolades rivals any player
in history, was announced Tuesday morning as one of 14 inductees for the
College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013.
Joining Wuerffel, now 38,
in this year’s class are N.C. State’s Ted Brown, Arizona’s Tedy Bruschi,
Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne, Nebraska’s Tommie Frazier, Texas’ Jerry Gray, Kentucky’s
Steve Meilinger, Ohio State’s Orlando Pace, Oklahoma’s Rod Shoate, Michigan
State’s Percy Snow, Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and Baylor’s Don Trull. In
addition, former coaches Wayne Hardin (Navy, 1959-64; Temple 1970-82) and Bill
McCartney (Colorado 1982-94) will be inducted with the 2013 class.
Wuerffel and the other
inductees will be honored at the National Football Foundation’s Annual Awards
Dinner in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria on Tuesday, December 10th,
2013.
The résumé Wuerffel put
before the voters was one of the most impressive ever compiled.
If all it said was
Wuerffel was the only player in college football history to start at
quarterback for a conference champion four straight years -- in the Southeastern
Conference, by the way -- plus win a national title and the
1996 Heisman -- that should have been enough. But it also said Wuerffel, a
two-time first-team academic All-American, was awarded the Draddy Trophy (the
so-called “academic Heisman”) presented annually by the College Football Hall
of Fame, to the nation’s top football scholar-athlete.
And then there were the
numbers.
Wuerffel shared the
starting quarterback spot for Coach Steve Spurrier along with Terry Dean during
his first season and a half, before taking over the position permanently midway
through the 1994 season. When he left UF after the 1996 season -- when he led
the Gators to their first national championship and won the Heisman along the
way -- Wuerffel had completed 60.5 percent of his passes for 10,875 yards, 114
touchdowns and 42 interceptions in starting 36 of his 46 games. At the time,
those 114 TDs were second all-time only to BYU’s Ty Detmer.
During Wuerffel’s four
seasons, Florida won four-consecutive SEC title games, though he missed the ’93
game as a freshman after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the team’s
regular-season finale.
As a senior, Wuerffel’s
3,625 yards passing yards were an SEC record. So were his 39 touchdowns, which
led the nation.
And he saved his absolute
best for last.
In his final two games in
a UF uniform, Wuerffel threw for 401 yards and six touchdowns to beat Alabama
(and its No. 1-ranked pass defense) for that fourth-straight league crown. He
then exited his career by throwing for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns
(also rushing for a score) in the Sugar Bowl national championship rematch over
rival Florida State, a 52-20 wipeout win against the nation’s top-ranked
defense.
For Hall of Fame voters,
this was an easy call.
