{"id":114515,"date":"2021-10-06T17:29:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T22:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=114515"},"modified":"2021-10-06T17:29:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T22:29:56","slug":"ole-miss-footballs-dexter-mccluster-inducted-into-cotton-bowl-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ole-miss-footballs-dexter-mccluster-inducted-into-cotton-bowl-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Football\u2019s Dexter McCluster Inducted into Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Former <strong>Ole Miss<\/strong> standout <strong>Dexter McCluster<\/strong> is one of seven individuals to be inducted into the <strong>Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame<\/strong> during enshrinement ceremonies later this year in the spring, at AT&amp;T Stadium.<br>\u00a0<br>McCluster will be the third <strong>Rebel <\/strong>to be inducted into the hall of fame. Quarterback <strong>Eagle Day<\/strong> was inducted in 2003, while former coach <strong>Houston Nutt<\/strong> was enshrined in 2018.<br>\u00a0<br>McCluster became just the second offensive player ever to earn back-to-back <strong>Cotton Bowl MVP<\/strong> honors in 2009 and 2010, sharing the feat with the legendary <strong>Doak Walker<\/strong>. In 2009, the last Classic played in <strong>Cotton Bowl Stadium<\/strong>, McCluster fueled a 47-34 victory over <strong>Texas Tech<\/strong> with 180 all-purpose yards.<br>\u00a0<br>He proved to be even more elusive a year later as Ole Miss christened <strong>AT&amp;T Stadium<\/strong> with a 21-7 defeat of <strong>Oklahoma State<\/strong>. His 86-yard dash started the scoring for the Rebels&#8217; in their second straight win in the Cotton Bowl.<br>\u00a0<br>In his two Cotton Bowl appearances, McCluster ran for a combined 281 yards and three touchdowns. The speedster also hauled in 11 catches for 128 yards.<br>\u00a0<br>McCluster, a four-year letterwinner for the Rebels,<strong>\u00a0f<\/strong>inished No. 2 on the Ole Miss career all-purpose yardage list with 4,089, behind only <strong>Deuce McAllister<\/strong>&#8216;s 4,889. He ranks ninth among the all-time Rebel rushers with 1,955 yards.<br>\u00a0<br>The<strong> Largo, Florida<\/strong>, native earned third team <strong>All-America<\/strong> honors in 2009 after rushing for 1,169 yards, the second-highest rushing total in school history, and eight touchdowns as a senior. McCluster, who received the <strong>National Running Back Trophy<\/strong> from the <strong>College Football Performance Awards<\/strong>, became the first player in <strong>SEC<\/strong> history with 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards in the same season.<br>\u00a0<br>McCluster earned second team <strong>All-SEC<\/strong> honors as a junior. He was one of only two players to rank top 10 in the SEC in rushing yards, receiving yards, receptions and all-purpose yards in 2008. McCluster finished seventh in the SEC in all-purpose yards (98.5 ypg) and topped the team in rushing yards (655) and rushing TDs (six).<br>\u00a0<br>McCluster would go on to be drafted in the second round of the <strong>2010 NFL Draft<\/strong> by the <strong>Kansas City Chiefs<\/strong>. After four seasons in Kansas City, he spent two years with the <strong>Tennessee Titans<\/strong> and then the 2016 season with the <strong>San Diego Chargers<\/strong><br>\u00a0<br>Other than McCluster, the honorees in the 12<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Hall of Fame Class, include <strong>Kansas State<\/strong> quarterback <strong>Jonathan Beasley<\/strong>, <strong>Notre Dame<\/strong> split end <strong>Thom Gatewood<\/strong>, <strong>Arkansas <\/strong>guard and Owner\/President\/General Manager of the <strong>Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones<\/strong>, <strong>Texas <\/strong>defensive end <strong>Cory Redding<\/strong>, <strong>Boston College<\/strong> linebacker <strong>Bill Romanowski<\/strong>, and <strong>Kansas State<\/strong> head coach <strong>Bill Snyder<\/strong>.<br>\u00a0<br>The induction ceremony for The Class of 2020 will be held on the west concourse of AT&amp;T Stadium in <strong>Arlington <\/strong>next spring. The exact date is still to be finalized. The hour-long ceremony is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DexterMcCluster.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DexterMcCluster.jpg?resize=640%2C427\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-114519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DexterMcCluster.jpg?w=915&amp;ssl=1 915w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DexterMcCluster.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DexterMcCluster.jpg?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption> Former <strong>Ole Miss<\/strong> standout <strong>Dexter McCluster<\/strong> is one of seven individuals to be inducted into the <strong>Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame<\/strong> during enshrinement ceremonies later this year in the spring, at AT&amp;T Stadium. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Ole Miss standout Dexter McCluster is one of seven individuals to be inducted into the Cotton Bowl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":114519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19615,19617,1174,39,19622,5,7067,4],"class_list":["post-114515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ole-miss","tag-dexter-mccluster","tag-eagle-day","tag-florida","tag-houston-nutt","tag-largo","tag-mississippi","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DexterMcCluster.jpg?fit=915%2C611&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}