Back in the good old days, the big schools were able to sign as many recruits as they wanted and a coach could take more chances in recruiting. There are always going to be busts, but without scholarship limits, it was much easier to just offer as many young recruits as you wanted. Just sign as many players as you want and weed the bad ones out and that’s pretty much what they did. If a player was good enough, he played. If he turned out to be overrated, they did their best to run them off.
Or, you could find that diamond in the rough that usually shows up at the smaller schools and then later on in the NFL because they are late bloomers.
Texas Longhorn legendary coach Darrell Royal laid eyes on the size of the feet and hands of a young Doug English of Bryan Adams High School in Dallas, Texas and offered him on the spot. That’s the story I was told and I’m sticking with that.
Doug English was tall and skinny and hadn’t filled in yet, obviously. But, he was just another late bloomer that didn’t have much success until his senior year of high school. I can relate to that.
When Texas signed Doug English in 1971, there were rules against a true freshman playing. But, it was the last season where that was still an issue and the next class was immediately eligible.
In spite of no scholarship limits, the Longhorns did not really sign a great recruiting class in 1971 other than Doug English and mighty fullback Roosevelt Leaks from Brenham, Texas and only Leaks had been highly recruited.
Doug English requested jersey number 74 because of his love and admiration of Bob Lilly who wore that number for the Dallas Cowboys. English, like many in the state of Texas, grew up wanting to be like Lilly.
In fact, if somebody was to ask me for a comparison for English, I would say Bob Lilly because he kind of reminded of the Hall of Famer.
Lilly was never the biggest or the fastest, but he was consistent and made a lot of big plays because of his knowledge and understanding of the game. English was much the same, he studied film and bettered himself mostly on his own.
After playing on the freshman team in 1971, both English and Leaks moved into the starting lineups in 1972. Leaks ran for 1,099 yards and 8 touchdowns as the fullback in Darrell Royal’s Wishbone attack.
Just as Leaks and new quarterback Alan Lowry were to the offense, Doug English was to the defense. All were All SWC as Texas won the league for the fifth straight season.
The 14th ranked Longhorns started the season off with three less than impressive wins over mediocre teams, Texas just got drilled by 2nd ranked Oklahoma, 0-27.
Texas rebounded with a 35-15 win over 17th ranked Arkansas and then they won the rest of their schedule and with the conference championship, they earned the automatic Cotton Bowl berth. With the 7th ranking, the Longhorns drew the tall task of facing 4th ranked Alabama and their legendary coach Bear Bryant.
Texas quarterback Alan Lowry scored on a controversial run that still upsets Alabama fans nearly 50 years later, but the Longhorns prevailed 17-13.
English was a junior in 1973, but it wasn’t the best of seasons for the Longhorns compared to some
recent ones.
Quarterback Alan Lowry was gone and replaced by a super sophomore from Gregory-Portland, Texas Marty Akins. If you are unaware, Akins is the uncle of New Orleans Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees.
With Akins running the show, optimism was high as usual in Austin and the Horns were ranked 6th at the beginning of the season. Why not? They returned some great talent like super junior fullback Roosevelt Leaks and outstanding defensive tackle Doug English.
The ranking didn’t last long because the Longhorns traveled to beautiful Miami, Florida and were stunned by the Hurricanes. This was a good 10 years before the Miami that we knew of in the 1980s and 1990s. This was not a good team, but the Wishbone couldn’t get untracked and the Horns started their season 0-1 after the Hurricanes beat them 15-20.
Texas beat the Red Raiders of Texas Tech and then Wake Forest before they were smashed by an early day Barry Switzer coached Oklahoma, 13-52. The Sooners were on probation, but they were loaded with athletes such as the famous Selmon brothers, Jimbo Elrod, Rod Shoate and Joe Washington. Notre Dame won the national championship that season, but the Sooners may have been better.
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In Arkansas, they beat the Razorbacks soundly 34-6 and that got them back into the polls at 19th. But, the Pigs were not a good team in 1973 finishing with an even record of 5-5-1.
Texas went on to beat Rice and SMU with Leaks running for an amazing 342 yards against the Ponies.
With their biggest competitor for the title, Arkansas, down and out the Horns beat TCU and Texas A%M to win their 6th SWC title in a row.
The season did not end well with Texas losing to the Cornhuskers of Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, 3-19.
Roosevelt Leaks was a first-team All American and finished 3rd in the Heisman voting. On the other side of the ball, Doug English was All SWC and made some All American teams.
Players didn’t have the opportunity to leave early back in those days and Doug English was back for his senior year in 1974 and for individual awards, it would be his best.
However, the team continued to have its struggles and Roosevelt Leaks was injured in a freak accident in spring football. Texas had a young freshman coming in named Earl Campbell from Tyler, Texas that you may have heard about. The senior Leaks was given the chance to redshirt, but he chose to come back and limped most of the year, while Earl Campbell ran for 928 yards as the
primary fullback.
Texas got off to a good start by blasting Boston College and Wyoming before being upset in Lubbock by Texas Tech and then lost to Oklahoma again. Texas was also upset by Baylor for the Bears to win the SWC championship for the first time in 50 years.
Texas finished with an 8-4 record.
Doug English was named a first-team All American at defensive tackle for his senior season. Then, taken in the 2nd round of the 1975 NFL Draft, English really excelled.
With the big boys, he was a 4 time Pro Bowler and an All-Pro in 1982 as he played and played well for 10 seasons with the Detroit Lions. It would have been 11 seasons, but English retired briefly in 1980 because of injuries and the poor record of the Lions in 1979.
It’s never fun to lose.
But, he played his best football after he came back to the game in the 1980s.
Not long ago, I was in Austin, Texas going into a restaurant with my wife. There was a man walking towards me having finished eating. He nodded and spoke and so did I. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized who I had just seen.
If I had recognized him earlier, I definitely would have talked to him because I am hardly shy.
But, I wouldn’t have asked for his autograph because that’s annoying and what would I even do with it?
What I would have done is thank him for the memories and his quality play which is my intention for this blog post.
So, thanks for the great football, Doug English.