The Mount Rushmore of Underappreciated Texas Longhorns

It’s Mount Rushmore: Texas Longhorn Edition; Volume Two.

If you missed Volume One, click here.

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For this week’s edition, we ask: who are the most underappreciated Longhorns of all time?

Like the real Mount Rushmore, this isn’t a ranking, simply four faces of equal gravitas who are etched into stone for eternity, side by side.

Face One: Poona Ford, DT 2014-2017

Ford’s three-year, $30 million contract with the Los Angeles Rams doubled his career earnings and was a sign of appreciation for a player who has long deserved it. Ford’s payday is what got me thinking about this topic to begin with. The Hilton Head native is going into his eighth year in the NFL and, despite being undrafted out of Texas, he’s carved out an incredible career disrupting the best-laid plans of opposing offenses. Ford has done it as quietly as he is unassuming at just 5’11”, on the smaller side for an NFL defensive tackle.

But let’s talk about Ford at Texas. Ford appeared and wreaked havoc. He won the Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year award in 2017, totaling 33 stops and generating 22 pressures from smack dab in the middle of the defensive line. Unfortunately his time in Austin happened to coincide with four of the worst seasons in Texas Football history.

Ford’s weight was felt the most heavily by Texas fans when he was gone and no longer ruining the center of rival offenses. It would take years for Texas to have true NFL caliber defensive tackles up front and it wasn’t until T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy really emerged that Texas had another stuffer like Ford in the middle.

Face Two: Roosevelt Leaks, RB 1972-74

What could have been? Is the statement/question oftentimes associated with Leaks, but that ignores what was.

I’ll admit, I was agog, aghast even, when I refreshed myself on Leaks’ stats during his time at Texas. Rosie was an all-timer in the fullback position of Darrell Royal’s wishbone at 5’10” and 255 pounds. He had unfathomable breakaway speed for someone of that size. Leaks was also the first back Royal was willing to “break the bone” for and change tendency. Though Royal would run the wishbone at Texas until he retired, he began to experiment more. How could he not with backs like Leaks and later Earl Campbell?

I think he’s often miscast as a role player who lost his job to Campbell when the Tyler Rose was a freshman and Leaks was a senior. But before his heartbreaking injury, he was a full-fledged star. He was third in Heisman voting in 1973 and was the favorite before getting injured in spring drills before the 1974 season. The knee injury hobbled his final season and caused him to carry less of a workload, combined with the emergence of the freshman Campbell. His 342 rushing yards against SMU in 1973 came in a game where Texas was down 14-0 at halftime and won 42-14. The Dallas Morning News on Sunday read: Roosevelt Leaks All Over The Field. That effort has only been topped once in Texas history, by Ricky Williams.

Not only was the Brenham native a fantastic running back, he was the first African American star running back for the Longhorns and the program’s first African American to earn All American status. Those facts are unquantifiable in importance, for a multitude of reasons.

The Longhorns infamously didn’t integrate the varsity team until Julius Whittier in 1970, but Leaks was the first iconic Black player in Austin. The strong relationship of Campbell and Royal is the stuff of Texana legend, and as I wrote the other day, despite the racial barriers, the two saw themselves in one another. But I still wonder if that relationship would have been able to blossom as much as it did if Leaks hadn’t starred for Royal first. We’ll thankfully never know.

Even despite his injury, Leaks still played nine years in the NFL for Baltimore and Buffalo and was known as a devastating blocker who had impressive stats as a fullback. The Longhorns have a laundry list of great running backs that is more impressive than entire NFL divisions, and Leaks’ name shouldn’t be forgotten alongside those all-timers.

Face Three: Duke Carlisle, QB 1961-63

I’m partial to this answer because Carlisle went to Athens High School, and I was once the Hornets’ football chaplain. For a squad that went 10-0 nonetheless.

Duke might be immortalized in the form of a bust outside DKR, like all of Texas’ starting quarterbacks who guided Longhorn teams to national championships. But Carlisle’s place in Texas quarterback lore gets lost in the fame of signal callers like Vince Young, Colt McCoy, James Street, and Bobby Layne.

Carlisle’s curriculum vitae is unbelievable. He upset the number one ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the first-ever No. 1 vs. No. 2 Red River Rivalry in 1963. In dominant fashion, he upstaged Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach and Navy in the 1964 Cotton Bowl. He is one of the best pure football players to ever play for the Longhorns as he starred on both sides of the ball, just like fellow teammate Tommy Nobis. He had multiple game-saving moments on defense that preserved championship aspirations, like his late interceptions in games against Arkansas and Baylor.

Carlisle was a baller before it was a term. He was a legend before the Longhorns’ football program became legendary.

Face Four: Cedric Griffin, DB 2002-05

When you’re the quiet member of an all-time group of defensive backs that won a national championship, it’s hard not to be forgotten.

Just ask Ringo Starr.

Griffin was an anchor in a secondary that featured two Jim Thorpe Award winners in Michael Huff and Aaron Ross, a first-round pick in Michael Griffin, and an eight-year NFL veteran in Tarell Brown. People often thought Griffin was the third brother alongside Michael and Marcus, which further added to Cedric’s status as a man of mystery. He was singularly great.

Griffin’s demeanor matched his style of play. He was no nonsense and covered the entire field with a ranger-like quality and ease. On Inside Texas Football, we recently picked the All-Time Duane Akina secondary, and nobody selected Griffin. On the one hand, that’s a testament to just how many incredible defensive backs Akina has coached, but it also furthered the notion that Cedric always flew under the radar compared to others.

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Still, that never hindered his greatness.

Thank goodness.

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Who is on your Mount Rushmore of underappreciated Longhorns?