Four former Pac-12 players from California, Colorado, UCLA and USC were announced this morning as members of the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2012. The group of four, which includes Golden Bears' quarterback Steve Bartkowski, as well as Colorado guard John Wooten, UCLA offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden and USC tight end Hal Bedsole, is included in the 17-member class that will be inducted at a Dec. 4 dinner in New York City and enshrined during the summer of 2013. Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum was also an assistant coach for the Trojans during the 1981 season.

Here is the full list:

Players

Charles Alexander -- running back LSU (1975-78)
Otis Armstrong -- running back, Purdue (1970-72)
Steve Bartkowski -- quarterback, California (1972-74)
Hal Bedsole -- tight end, USC (1961-63)
Dave Casper -- tight end, Notre Dame (1971-73)
TY Detmer -- quarterback, BYU (1988-91)
Tommy Kramer -- quarterback, Rice (1973-76)
Art Monk -- wide receiver, Syracuse (1976-79)
Greg Myers -- defensive back, Colorado State (1992-95)
Jonathan Ogden - offensive tackle, UCLA (1992-95)
Gabe Rivera -- defensive tackle, Texas Tech (1979-82)
Mark Simoneau -- linebacker, Kansas State (1996-99)
Scott Thomas -- safety, Air Force (1982-85)
John Wooten -- offensive guard, Colorado (1956-58)

Coaches

Phillip Fulmer -- 152-52-0 (74.5%); Tennessee (1992-08)
Jimmy Johnson -- 81-34-3 (70.0%); Oklahoma State (1979-83) and Miami (Fla.) (1984-88)
R.C. Slocum -- 123-47-2 (72.1%); Texas A&M (1989-02)

One notable snub: Nebraska signal caller Tommie Frazier, who led the Cornhuskers to two national championships from 1992-1995, while going 33-3 as a starter. Feel free to fire away in the comments.

Coby Fleener, Zach Ertz and Levine Toilolo formed a special trio last season and helped keep the Stanford offense functioning when Andrew Luck lacked wide receiver help on the outside. But they have a long way to catch up to the man, the myth, the legend of Cory Booker

For those of you swept up in the headlines of the Newark mayor heroics, you probably forgot the first time Booker was a national hero. Let's take you back to 1990.

Here was Booker's stat line in his senior season: 13 catches, 162 yards, 1 touchdown. Not super-amazing, but definitely effective, considering the Cardinal really liked to air the football out to the outside to their receivers, particularly to future all-Pro wideout Ed McCaffrey. Jim Harbaugh would've liked his moxie. Stanford only went 16-26-2 during his time as a Cardinal player (although he did earn All Pac-10 academic honors), so it wasn't the greatest stretch in Cardinal football history.

Still, he saved his catches for a noble cause: Being a huge underdog with a 1-3 record, and then going into South Bend to beat #1 Notre Dame.

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You probably best remember Ryan Leaf from his great days in the league, when the San Diego Chargers decided he was only a step below Peyton Manning. Here's a sample of his highlights.

Now that you've gotten your yuk-yuks out of your system, it's time for you to remember that before his pro days, he was a Washington State Cougar, and he was a damned good one.

Long before media outbursts and drug possession charges and 39 quarterback ratings, Leaf ran the simplistic but deadly effective one back offense under Mike Price. In many ways it was one of the precursors to what the modern spread attack looks like in college. Placing four wide receivers on the field made it all the harder for Pac-10 defenses to cover every area of real estate when Leaf was paired with capable offensive weapons.

What usually happened would be a mixture of short/long plays. If the defense played back to guard against long throws, do a quick outside throw to bring in defenders. Punish tight coverage by hitting the zones or beating them outside. When defenses cheat to stop those plays, run the football or stretch things with screens. The offense was very tough to stop, particularly against defenses that didn't mix it up a lot. And most college defenses tend to have base schemes but lack versatility in the playbook, making it easier to exploit any weaknesses in the Coug passing defense. Once the quarterback mastered the schemes, it was bombs away.

It led to one hell of a senior season for Leaf: 34 touchdowns, 3968 passing yards, 9.7 yards per attempt. Leaf executed the Price offense to perfection en route to Washington State's first Rose Bowl in 67 years. He knew how to make the right decisions after one or two reads of the defense, giving Leaf a strong incentive to succeed down the line. It was that potential that gave NFL fans reason to believe he could succeed once he transitioned to the next level.

For whatever reason, Leaf couldn't make the transition to the pros. There was one clear warning sign (he never completed more than 55.4% of his passes in a season, he was 8-14 the previous two seasons), and if he couldn't play that efficiently in that system, he was due for a fall when he dealt with the complexity of NFL defenses. In many ways, his deficiencies were disguised by the ingenious scheme of Price, which focused on taking the burden off the quarterback to make complicated moves and just go with it.

It also seemed he just couldn't handle the scrutiny of being the number two pick and not coming out and succeeding right away. The offense of Price was excellent for the college game, but it couldn't have particularly endured in the pros where defenses were adept at countering one reads and good at mixing things up. Also, the league was still not quite yet ready for the spread attack back then and Leaf wasn't adept at handling pro-style.

Which is why this whole situation is so sad. It's tough to see an athlete fall apart, and it's even worse to see him fall apart over and over again. There is no joy to be found in Leaf's post-college career, and it seems everytime we look back it's hard to like what we see.

Regardless of all the mistakes he's made and afflictions he's suffered since leaving Pullman, Pac-12 and Washington State fans shouldn't forget the past. There was a Ryan Leaf to appreciate once. Hopefully he can learn to appreciate himself again.