Former YSU assistant coach Mark Dantonio has been elected into the College Football Hall of Fame.

He was an assistant under Jim Tressel at YSU from 1986-1990.  Dantonio began his coaching career in 1980 as a graduate assistant at Ohio in 1980, followed by stops at Purdue, Butler Community College, Ohio State, and Akron before joining the Penguins.

From 1991-2000, he was an assistant at Kansas & Michigan State before returning to Columbus from 2001-2003 as their defensive coordinator.

Dantonio was the head coach at Cincinnati from 2004-2006 and then became the head coach for Michigan State from 2007-2019.

He has a career record of 132-74 and was a two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2010 & 2013.

Others elected into the Hall of Fame are coaches Frank Solich and Danny Hale. Players are Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, Warrick Dunn, Toby Gerhart, Julius Peppers, Danny Woodhead, Justin Blackmon, Paul Cameron, Tim Couch, Armanti Edwards, Deon Figures, Dan Hampton, Steve Hutchinson, Antonio Langham, Paul  Posluszny, Dewey Selmon, Alex Smith, Kevin Smith & Chris Ward.