George Teague: He's Getting Things Done

George Teague didn’t fall off the turnip truck before his freshman season at Alabama. It was no accident or sheer luck that put him in position to make an appearance as a freshman in the loss to eventual national champion Miami in the Sugar Bowl. Although Teague is a young man who is very proud of his work ethic, he is quick to say that he had some help through every stage of his athletic and personal growth. George Teague is one player whose high school career especially helped prepare him for his life as a student-athlete at a major university.
 Teague’s freshman season at Alabama consisted of some moments that could have provided some heady thoughts for many athletes fresh out of high school. Along with Antonio London, the 6-1, 185-pound cornerback was one of only two true freshmen to see playing time off last year’s 10-2 Southeastern Conference co-championship Crimson Tide, and Teague made the most of his time. He made two tackles in the 20-14 win over Vanderbilt and intercepted his first pass (which he calls his highlight so far) in the 62-27 rout of Ole Miss.
For an ordinary freshman, such flashes of success in his first season could produce either a swelled noggin or more pressure to build on that success. But because of where Teague attended high school, he is not the typical freshman. Rather, he is an athlete who already had a taste of the pressure of playing in prime-time games from his days at Jeff Davis High School in Montgomery, with the two biggest coming in his senior season against the school that looms as the Auburn for the Vols.
Teague and then-unbeaten Jeff Davis knocked off Spence McCracken’s also ranked Robert E. Lee Generals 28-14 before getting shocked by Carver in the regular season finale and then ousted 20-17 in the first round of the 1988 Class 6A state playoffs in the rematch with Lee in one of the most explosive and dramatic fourth quarters a high school football crowd could expect to witness.
It was the entire atmosphere that prepared Teague for what he would experience at Alabama.
“Oh, yeah, I think it helped me a whole bunch,” said Teague. “The coaches at J.D. were really great, and I was lucky to come to a big school like Alabama from a big high school like Jeff Davis. There’s no comparison between high school and college football, but I was at least exposed to a lot of people watching me play. Of course, at Alabama, you have 80,000 sets of eyes on you. I still get nervous, but it definitely helped to have been exposed to it to a certain degree in high school.
“Coach (Bubba) Lewis talked to me and let me know that it would be different here, but also that there was nothing I can’t do if I continue to work hard and dedicate myself.”
If Teague became too excited after his dedication helped him earn playing time in front of those 80,000 pairs of eyes, the events that dominated the front pages of newspapers throughout the state following the Sugar Bowl brought him back to reality. The coach who had recruited Teague, and the coach who had been impressed with his natural abilities enough to play him as a freshman, had left for Kentucky. In Bill Curry’s place is a new coach, one who will naturally take his own view of things. George Teague fully expects to be in the forefront of the eyes of Gene Stallings as well.
“When Coach Curry left, it really hurt me,” he said. “He was one reason I came to Alabama, along with the academics and football tradition here. When he left, I was really hurt, but it never entered my mind to leave.
“I guess the coaching change did set me back, but I’ve decided that, even though we have a new coaching staff, I can still control what I do on the football field. If I do my part, through hard work and dedication, I think I can impress the coach, no matter who he is. I’ve heard some good things about Coach Stallings, and I don’t expect any drastic changes. He’ll look at the players and see what we have. I’ll still play cornerback, but I think he’ll want me to learn to play both sides.”
Teague doesn’t plan on relaxing in his status as the No. 1 contender to fill the place vacated by the graduation of John Mangum opposite returning senior Efrum Thomas. He sees junior college transfer Mark Miller and Mike Campbell, who saw action as a redshirt freshman a year ago, as his chief rivals for the other corner.
“I felt good going into the spring this year, but there will be a lot of competition,” he said. “It’s not going to be an easy job, even though I am going in No. 1. Last year was nice, but it doesn’t mean a thing this year, unless it means that I have more pressure on me because people are expecting great things from me. But the new coaches might like different things than what Coach Curry liked or even I like. I feel the spring will have a lot to say about anyone who wants to play on this football team. We all have to show Coach Stallings what we have, try to learn to do everything to win our positions.”
The pride in Teague’s game is the grace of his feet. He takes a lot of satisfaction in his footwork and hopes that, combined with some lessons taught him by two who have excelled in Crimson Tide secondaries, will have him as prepared to defend opposing quarterback passes as he was for the college atmosphere coming from a huge Montgomery high school.
“I’m trying to get even better with my footwork,” he said. “I want to keep my agility and lower my speed a little, and that should give me a tremendous edge.”
Teague’s first football role model perhaps inspired him to work on his agility. Former Georgia tailback Herschel Walker (now with the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings) was his man, and Teague even played tailback himself until he discovered he was too little to play in the backfield for his ninth-grade team. He tried his hand in the secondary.
But Teague feels that the year he spent watching and listening to Thomas and Mangum can do nothing but help his chances at earning a starting job.
“John Mangum talked to me about learning to read defenses and coming off your plant to break on the ball,” Teague said. “John is a complete guy who will do absolutely anything to help you. A person like him deserves everything.
“Efrum is really great, too. You watch some of the things that he does, and it’s some of the things that he does, and it’s unbelievable, but he does them like he’s not even thinking about it. He’s just there. Efrum is a smart man. You can’t push anything past him.”
After finishing his first semester with a 3.0 grade point average, Teague expects to study electrical engineering at the University.
Looking back on his preparation to play college football, there is someone’s contributions he notes who wasn’t named Herschel, Mangum or Efrum. It isn’t a name a sports fan would know, but Teague sincerely appreciates what they did for him.
“A lot of thanks goes to my parents and family for helping me get to where I am,” said Teague, the son of a retired Air Force master sergeant. “They inspired me to continue to work hard. My dad coached me in football when we lived in Germany, and he’s always been behind me.”
Teague hopes the momentum instilled from his parents, coaches and glory days at Jeff Davis will make those 80,000 pairs of eyes take notice in 1990.