6/5/2023 football Edit

Two former Vols, Heupel on 2024 College Football Hall of Fame ballot

Tennessee sophomore Willie Gault (26) is in the endzone as he takes the opening kickoff for a 92-yard touchdown against against Kentucky. The Vols walloped the Wildcats 45-14 before 90,244 in Knoxville Nov. 22, 1980. (Robert Johnson / The Tennessean)

Noah Taylor • VolReport

Managing Editor

Noah is a graduate of the UT College of Journalism & Electronic Media and has covered Tennessee football since 2019. He joined Rivals in 2022.

Tennessee is well represented on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot.

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, who led the Oklahoma Sooners to a national championship in 2000 as a quarterback, as well as former Vols Willie Gault and Larry Seivers will be up for votes in the 2024 hall of fame class the National Football Foundation announced Monday.

Heupel was a consensus first-team All-American at Oklahoma, passing for 7,066 yards and 50 touchdowns in two seasons with the Sooners before embarking on a coaching career that led him to Tennessee in 2021.

The Vols beat Florida, LSU, Alabama and Clemson on their way to an 11-2 finish in just Heupel's second season in 2022.

Gault, a versatile player that starred for Tennessee both at wide receiver and returner, earned first-team All-America honors in 1982. He caught 82 passes for 1,482 yards and 10 touchdowns in three seasons and averaged 16.4 yards per catch.

Gault set the single-season program record for kickoff return touchdowns with three during the 1980 season.

Another standout receiver, Seivers was twice named a consensus All-American in 1975 and 1976 and was the first Tennessee player to total 800-plus receiving yards in a single season in 1975.

The following season, Seivers had 51 catches for 737 yards and averaged 14.5 yards per catch and finished his career with the most catches in program history at 117 and most receiving yards with 1,924.

The class will be announced on Dec. 10 2024 at the Chick-Fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta where a plethora of former Vols players and coaches are already enshrined.

Tennessee leads the SEC with 26 inductees, including 22 players and four coaches.

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