Top 25 Players in Big 12 History, No. 9: Dat Nguyen

Dat Nguyen led the Aggies in tackles for four years, was the first Vietnamese-American player selected in the NFL Draft and became the Big 12's third CFB Hall of Famer.

As the Big 12 Conference ramps up its 25th football season, it’s a good time to look back through the league’s illustrious history and identify the best football players ever to suit up.

It was a daunting task to rank players from 14 schools over 24 seasons. Some schools, of course, didn’t participate in all 24 years.

Rather than select an all-time All-Big 12 team — we’ll endeavor to pull that off after the 25th season has concluded — publishers from SI affiliates who currently cover the Big 12 were asked to vote on their top 25 players.

Players were judged on both their college careers and their professional football exploits. National awards, championships and individual achievement were all considered.

In all, nearly 50 players received votes. Only 10 players were unanimous selections.

With that, the countdown continues with No. 9 — our second Texas A&M player, both on defense: 

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When Dat Nguyen signed with Texas A&M out of Rockport, TX, few could have predicted the level of football excellence he would bring to College Station over the next four years.

Dat Nguyen
Dat Nguyen / Texas A&M Athletics

Nguyen was named Southwest Conference defensive newcomer of the year as a freshman in 1995, then after the SWC folded into the Big 12, he earned All-Big 12 honors three years in a row.

He’s the only player in school history to lead the Aggies in tackles all four seasons, and his senior year was remarkable: Big 12 defensive player of the year, consensus All-America, Bednarik Award winner (best defensive player in the nation), and the Lombardi Award (best lineman). He was runner-up for the Butkus Award (top linebacker) — by one vote.

Nguyen is widely regarded as the best defensive player in A&M history, that was recognized in 2017 when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame — only the third Big 12 player to earn a bust in Atlanta, joining Grant Wistrom (2009) and Mark Simoneau (2012).

He was a third-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 1999 — the first Vietnamese-American player elected in the NFL Draft — and had a great pro career when healthy. Nguyen played seven seasons in the NFL, all with Dallas, and each year he wasn’t injured, Nguyen recorded more than 100 tackles. He also had 17 takeaways in his Cowboys career.

Tomorrow

No. 8

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.