Herschel Walker named the top college football player of the last 50 years

More than 35 years after his college career ended, Herschel Walker is still earning accolades.

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Posted 3 years ago

Welcome to your one-stop shop for Georgia football news and takes every Monday through Friday. Today we look at the Mount Rushmore of Georgia QBs, Fernando Velasco’s return to Athens as part of UGA football’s support staff, and Herschel Walker being named the top college football player of the last half-century.

Herschel Walker voted the best player of the last half-century

To celebrate its 50th year of publication, Athlon Sports on Monday released its ranking of the top 50 college football players of the past 50 years. And unlike many rankings you’ll see across the web these days, Athlon actually used a method to formulate their rankings instead of simply relying on the opinions of the author.

Each member of a panel of 16 of the college football media’s brightest minds — Stewart Mandel, Bill Connelly, Ivan Maisel, Paul Myerberg, and Matt Brown to name just a few — submitted their top 50, with the top-ranked player getting 50 points, No. 2 getting 49, and so on through No. 50, who got one point.

As you’ve figured out from the headline, oh intrepid reader, Georgia football legend Herschel Walker came out on top.

Walker stampeded onto the college football scene in his first game by barreling over Tennessee’s Bill Bates, and from there, his legend only grew. The 1982 Heisman winner led the Bulldogs to a 33–3 record and the 1980 national championship during his three seasons in Athens, rushing for 5,259 yards — still an SEC record — and 49 touchdowns.

Walker was named the best player of the last 50 years by a majority decision. Nine of the 16 voters ranked him No. 1, six more than runner-up Tim Tebow. Barry Sanders got two first-place votes, and Tommie Frazier and Cam Newton each got one. Walker was also one of only three players to appear on every ballot, along with Sanders and Earl Campbell.

The Mount Rushmore of UGA QBs

With the end of the NBA Finals comes the beginning of Mount Rushmore season. In that spirit, Dave McMahon and Patrick Garbin of UGA Sports listed their Mount Rushmores of Georgia quarterbacks. Make sure you read the whole post for their full reasoning, but here are their Rushmores:

McMahon	Garbin
Fran Tarkenton	John Rauch
Andy Johnson	Eric Zeier
Eric Zeier	David Greene
DJ Shockley	Aaron Murray

Here’s my personal Mount Rushmore of Georgia QBs:

Frank Sinkwich
Fran Tarkenton
David Greene
Aaron Murray

Who’s on you Mount Rushmore of UGA QBs? Let me know in the comments.

Fernando Velasco returns to UGA

After a nine-year stint in the NFL, former UGA lineman Fernando Velasco is coming back to Athens to be the program’s Player Relations Coordinator. Here’s a video released by Georgia football with Velasco discussing the support system among Bulldog football alumni.

A year ago he was prepping for his ninth NFL season. Today he's our Player Relations Coordinator. Welcome home, Fernando. #CommitToTheG pic.twitter.com/XWhrCNU8TR

— Georgia Football (@FootballUGA) June 20, 2017