BEVO BEAT Football
The 5 most successful Texas players turned coaches
Posted December 8th, 2016
Michael Huff is joining the Texas coaching staff, officially reuniting one of the best defensive backs in school history and the program. Huff says on Twitter he’ll be an assistant defensive back coach and officially he’ll be listed as a “quality control” coach on Tom Herman’s staff.
Herman was a graduate assistant here at Texas, but he didn’t play for the Longhorns like Huff and defensive line coach Oscar Giles.
That got us thinking: Who are some Texas players turned Texas coaches?
Here are five Texas football players who went on to coach at Texas and elsewhere:
5. Bibb Falk
Technically, we didn’t specify it had to be for coaching football. Falk played football at Texas in 1918 and 1919. He also played baseball at Texas, obviously, and went to coach 27 years for Longhorns. The baseball stadium is partly named after him. and he’s a college baseball hall of famer.
4. Oscar Giles/Major Applewhite
Giles played at Texas and graduated in 1991. He returned to Texas as a defensive line coach in 2005, Texas won a national championship and Giles recruited a lot of great players. He left when Charlie Strong took over, hooked up with Tom Herman and became the assistant head coach at Houston and is now back at Texas. Life is funny.
Major Applewhite is one of the greatest quarterbacks in school history and graduated from Texas in 2001. He was a graduate assistant at Texas, started his coaching career as quarterback coach at Syracuse (coached by former Texas defensive coordinator Greg Robinson at the time). He went on to become the offensive coordinator at Alabama in Nick Saban’s first season. He left for Texas to become the assistant head coach and running back coach. He was co-offensive coordinator of the Longhorns in 2011.
He left when Charlie Strong took over, hooked up with Tom Herman and, who knows, he may return to Texas as a coach. We’ll keep you posted. Life is funny.
3. J.T. King
King played at Texas from 1935-1937 as a guard. He was an assistant coach at Texas A&M, then returned to Texas and coached for the Longhorns from 1950-1956. He left for Texas Tech in 1957 and in 1961 he became the head coach. He served from 1960-1969 and amassed a 44-45-3 record, going 0-2 in bowl games and finishing 10th in the coaches poll in 1965. In 1970 he became an administrator at Tech and stayed in that position until 1978. King played under Dana X. Bible at Texas and in 1981 was inducted into the Texas Men’s Athletic Hall of Honor.
2. David McWilliams
Texas is on head coach No. 30 now, but McWilliams is the first Texas player in the modern era to become head coach of the program and the only Texas player who played under Darrell Royal to be head coach. He took over for Fred Akers in the 1980s, led the Longhorns to the Southwest Conference title in 1990, which ended with a Cotton Bowl loss to Miami and finished his time at Texas with a 31-26 record. He coached at Texas for years before leaving to be the head coach at Texas Tech in 1986, but returned after a year to be head coach. He was a lineman at Texas, winning a national championship in 1963. McWilliams was also once one of the youngest coaches in Texas high school football. He coached Abilene High and went 21-17-2 in four seasons.
1. Tom Landry
Landry is one of the greatest coaches in the history of the football. He coached the Dallas Cowboys to two Super Bowl wins, five NFC championships, is in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tom Landry won 250 games as an NFL coach. Landry played at Texas, was a captain of the team and went on to make the NFL Pro Bowl in 1954.
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