Three Former Lions on 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa – Penn State lettermen Ki-Jana Carter, D.J. Dozier and Paul Posluszny have been selected as a part of the national ballot for the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023. A total of 80 players and nine coaches from FBS are on the 2023 ballot.

The trio of standouts have an opportunity to join 20 former Nittany Lion players (including LaVar Arrington, who will be inducted this year) and five Penn State coaches who have been inducted into the Hall.

Also on the Hall of Fame ballot is former Nittany Lion student-athlete Glenn Killinger, who is among the candidates for the divisional coach Class of 2023. Killinger was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1966. In addition, current Penn State wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield made the ballot as a player. Stubblefield was a consensus All-American and a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding receiver, as a senior in 2004. He finished his career with an NCAA-record 325 receptions and ranked second in Big Ten history with 3,629 yards.

The announcement of the 2023 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be made in early 2023, with specific details to be announced in the future.

Ki-Jana Carter

A native of Westerville, Ohio, Carter was selected a first-team All-American during the 1994 campaign. Carter staked a claim to being one of the most decorated Penn State running backs of all time with a junior season in which he was fourth nationally in rushing (139.9), second in scoring (10.8 ppg) and fifth in all-purpose yardage (158.4). Carter led the Big Ten Conference in all three categories. His 7.8 yards per carry easily was the best among the nation’s Top 25 rushers.

Carter enjoyed a career game in the season-finale against Michigan State in 1994 by piling up 227 yards on 27 carries and scoring five touchdowns. Carter was runner-up to Rashaan Salaam of Colorado for the Heisman Trophy and a finalist for the Maxwell Award. His 1994 statistics included 1,539 yards rushing, the then-No. 2 season total in Penn State history, and 23 touchdowns. Carter was named co-MVP of the Rose Bowl with 156 rushing yards on 21 carries, including an 83-yard touchdown bolt on the Nittany Lions’ first offensive play.

When the Cincinnati Bengals selected him as the first overall player picked in the 1995 NFL Draft, Carter became the first Nittany Lion to be chosen No. 1. He spent six seasons with the Bengals (1995-2000), two years with Washington (2001-02) and two seasons with the New Orleans Saints (2003-04).

D.J. Dozier

A tailback, Dozier matriculated to Happy Valley from Virginia Beach, Va. and earned first team All-America honors from the Walter Camp Football Foundation in 1986. Dozier is the only Nittany Lion to lead the team in rushing four consecutive seasons, doing so from 1983-86. He ranks No. 5 on the school career rushing yardage list with 3,227 yards, scoring 25 touchdowns and averaging 5.2 yards per attempt. Dozier gained 1,002 yards as a freshman and tallied 811 yards and scored 10 touchdowns as a senior and one of the instrumental players on the Nittany Lions’ 12-0 squad.

Dozier will forever have a place in Penn State Football lore for scoring the game-winning touchdown on a six-yard fourth quarter run to lift the Nittany Lions past Miami, 14-10, in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. A standout at Kempsville High School, he earned Most Valuable Offensive Player of the Game honors by rushing for 99 yards and making two catches for 21 yards in the thriller over the Hurricanes.

Dozier was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft and played four seasons with the Vikings and the 1991 campaign with the Detroit Lions. A four-year letterwinner at Penn State, he also played baseball in the New York Mets’ farm system.

Paul Posluszny

Posluszny, an outside linebacker for the Nittany Lions, was a first-team All-American in 2005 and 2006. A native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, he was selected a first-team honoree by the Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, Sporting News and Walter Camp Football Foundation in 2005 and the Associated Press and Walter Camp Football Foundation in 2006. Posluszny became just the second two-time winner of the Chuck Bednarik Award, presented to the nation’s top defensive player, in 2006. In 2005, he also won the Butkus Award, presented to the nation’s top linebacker and was a finalist for the 2006 honor.

The 13th Nittany Lion to be named a two-time first-team All-American, Posluszny also was a two-time finalist for the Rotary Lombardi Award. He was selected Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week a conference-record five times in his career. The Nittany Lions’ first two-time team captain since 1968-69, he became Penn State’s career tackle leader with 372.

A starter in the last 37 games of his career, Posluszny became the first Nittany Lion to lead the team in tackles three times and to post three 100-tackle seasons, recording 116 in 2006. Posluszny also was a two-time first-team ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American and was selected the 2006 Academic All-American of the Year among Division I football players. He and Jeff Hartings (1994-95) are the only Nittany Lions to earn first-team All-America and Academic All-America honors twice. The Buffalo Bills’ second pick of the second round in the 2007 NFL Draft, he played four seasons (2007-10) with the Bills and seven seasons for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2011-17).