The other three are Ira Errett Rodgers, Sam Huff and Bruce Bosley, all of whom are in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Talley is, too, of course.
To me, he's the most successful West Virginia University football player of the last 50 or 60 years, dating back to the days of Huff, Bosley and linebacker Chuck Howley in the late 1960s. As I was sifting through old notes and clips, I was astonished to read what some of his Buffalo Bills teammates had to say about his brilliant 12-year career there that included four straight Super Bowl appearances in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993.
Bills defensive tackle Bruce Smith: "I can remember my days of playing against Darryl while he was at West Virginia. He was THAT linebacker and THAT player that we as younger players strived to become and strived to emulate with his finesse, his resilience and his approach to the game.
"His understanding of being a team player was just incredible. He understood the different schemes we were facing, whether it was different opponents allocating three people to block us or sending a running back or a tight end to help chip and our having to come up with schemes to beat those different types of blocking tactics."
Bills quarterback Jim Kelly: "Darryl was the catalyst of our team. He was the who held our defense together and if I had to say who our three top leaders were on those teams he'd be one of them."
Bills running back Thurman Thomas: "As a young player coming into the National Football League, Darryl was one of the first persons who greeted me when I got to Buffalo. He was the guy I looked up to. I heard about Darryl Talley when he was at West Virginia and I knew some things about him, but once I got there and I saw the type of person he was and the type of player he was … he was a guy who was going to lead, and I was going to be a guy who followed him."
And this from his Buffalo coach, Marv Levy: "He had great enthusiasm for the game and had superb leadership skills. He was an excellent athlete and a great player. He was a bit of a character and he made the game fun."
If you go to the WVU record books to discover what Talley accomplished, you will quickly zero in on the Penn State game in 1980 when he had those five TFLs, or that 15-tackle performance in 1982 against Boston College that earned him Sports Illustrated National Player of the Week honors.
But those who watched Darryl play at West Virginia and admired his football skills will forever remember his amazing performance at second-ranked Pitt on Oct. 2, 1982.
That's the game that Darryl Talley became a West Virginia football legend. He intercepted passes, blocked kicks, and did just about everything in his power to try and beat the Panthers.
"Darryl Talley was a one-man wrecking crew against that team," Coach Don Nehlen once marveled.
Pitt, if you recall, had won six straight times against West Virginia and the gap between the two schools was widening with each victory. But Talley nearly erased that gap by himself with his incredible afternoon at old Pitt Stadium in front of 57,250.
West Virginia led the Panthers 13-0 early in the fourth quarter when Talley pounced on the punt he had blocked in the end zone for a touchdown before Pitt erupted with two late touchdowns and a safety to pull out a narrow 16-13 victory.
Panther sports historian San Sciullo Jr. once told me it was the only fourth-quarter comeback victory Dan Marino ever led while at Pitt. It makes sense because those Panther teams back then were rarely ever behind.
"That game is part of what drove me in the NFL because I had tried every way in the world to beat Dan Marino when he was at Pitt," Talley once recalled. "I had games where I had a bunch of tackles, blocked kicks, intercepted passes and did everything I thought I could do. I covered wide receivers, running backs and everybody, and I just couldn't do it. We just didn't have enough horses to beat them back then."
Retired West Virginia defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich put it another way.
"Pitt had about six or seven Darryl Talleys on the field that day and we had one," he said. "In my career in coaching it's the best game any one player ever played. From blocking punts to intercepting passes to making tackles … the defense we played that afternoon we put him on slot receivers because he was fast enough to cover wideouts.
"He did it all. It was absolutely a game when you ask a football player to lay it on the line, and that was the definition of laying it on the line, he did it with a little more moxie," Kirelawich added.
The two Pitt plays we most remember are Talley dropping back into coverage and making an interception and his blocked punt and recovery for WVU's only touchdown, but there was one other lesser-known play that really epitomizes what a great football player Talley was.
It happened early in the game when he fought off a block from the backside and chased down Pitt running back Bryan Thomas from behind to keep him from scoring a touchdown.
Thomas had at least a 15-yard head start on Talley, too!
That play was a clear demonstration of Talley's burning desire to be great - a quality he took with him to the NFL.
Today, WVU is rewarding Darryl Talley's desire and determination by officially retiring his No. 90. He was one of my all-time favorite West Virginia football players - a bad dude we all respected, looked up to and admired.
This great honor is certainly well deserved!
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