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.

Auburn Officials Deny Claims by Ramsey

While Eric Ramsey spent virtually all day at his home answering telephone calls from reporters, officials within Auburn’s athletic department were trying to understand why he lashed out at the football program.
Ramsey, a two-year starter at cornerback who was selected in the 10th round of the NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, wrote a term paper for a sociology class entitled, “Life on the Plains: A Non-fictional Account of One Black Athlete’s Experience at Auburn University.”
In that five-page essay, he accuses the coaching staff of perpetuating stereotypes of black players and encouraging segregation in Sewell Hall, Auburn’s athletic dormitory.
Black athletes at Auburn, he said, are encouraged to succeed in athletics – not academics. Ramsey will be one class away from graduation when he leaves for Kansas City on Friday.
He felt the paper was a fitting vehicle for him to finally express the problems he observed within the program.
“What happened was I just got tired of every time I try to get myself on my feet, somebody just comes around and knocks me down time after time again,” Ramsey said.
“And I’ve talked to other black players who talk about what all Auburn has done to their lives, crying and upset because they didn’t get a fair shake. Somebody had to finally say something and get this in the open.”
Frank McIntosh, who backed up Stan White at quarterback during his senior season, was one of those players who were surprised to learn of Ramsey’s accusations.
“The whole time I was here, I didn’t notice any real big problems with racism,” said McIntosh, who is white. “I always got along with everybody. You have a few disagreements here and there, but I don’t think there were any major problems.
“It was a shock to me that he would say those things. If he was unhappy, I hate to see it. I always thought Eric was the kind of guy you’d enjoy being around. He wasn’t around the team very much off the field. On the field, he was a very happy-go-lucky guy, but he pretty much kept to himself off the field.”
Athletic department officials insist Ramsey’s criticism is merely a case of an unhappy, young man venting his anger at authority. The coaches describe Ramsey as a prodigal son.
“I’m not going to get into a dispute over this, but we try not to stereotype anybody,” said assistant head coach Wayne Hall. “Eric evidently had something happen to make him feel this way, but we’ve had 400 kids come through here in 10 years, and probably some of them became unhappy. But the biggest thing is I want the best for Eric, and I want the best for this program.”
Auburn head coach Pat Dye was at home recuperating from liver and spleen surgery and was unavailable for comment.
“Every program has had unhappy players before and will have unhappy players again, both black and white,” said David Housel, Auburn’s sports information director. “You can’t measure an entire program by the players, who, for whatever reason, have been unhappy.”
Ramsey charges the coaches with writing him off after he married Twilitta Webb of Montgomery and moved off campus during his freshman year.
He also attacked the atmosphere in the dormitory, accusing the coaches of making housing arrangements on the basis of race. In the essay, he writes that there were no blacks and whites rooming together.
Rusty Deen, Sewell Hall resident counselor, says players decide who they want to be their roommates, and that there are some inter-racial rooms.
“I moved in here in 1970, and we signed one black that year, and there was already one on the team,” said Deen of his playing days for Shug Jordan. “That white chose to live with that black in 1970, and there have been blacks and whites living together ever since. There’s no basis to what he’s saying there.”
But Ramsey says his anger reached its breaking point when he was accused of cheating on a final examination two years ago.
“I had to talk to my coach (defensive backs coach Steve Dennis) and an academic advisor, and they were ready to end my career,” he said. “They tape-recorded our conversation and then tried to get me to say I cheated. A year later, a teacher caught (another player) cheating, and they didn’t want to do anything about it, so they wouldn’t jeopardize his senior season. In my situation, they tried to get me put out of school, but they were ready to sweep (the other player’s conduct) under the rug, just because of his name.”
Dennis refused to comment, except to repeat what he said on Tuesday.
“I just want what’s best for Eric,” he said.
Ramsey seems to feel the opposite. He said he believes the coaching staff didn’t like the fact that he was married and had a family. He also said he was mistreated because he was trying to earn a degree, which will be in criminal justice.
In his term paper, Ramsey wrote that he was treated as an “outcast,” because he was independent.
“I just felt like they were out to get me, and I’ve talked to a lot of other blacks who played there,” he said. “Everybody knows how many blacks are on team, and we’re the ones who bring in the football revenue. I have nothing against the white players because it’s not their fault their parents brought them up in the good schools.
“But Coach Dye goes into the rough neighborhoods and gets players from low backgrounds. He manipulates us and then, when we’re through, sends us back into the world to dig ditches.”
Ramsey also accused Dye of trying to hurt his chances of pursuing an NFL career.
“I know some negative stuff went to the pro scouts,” he said. “My scout at Kansas City told me that Coach Dye told him that I didn’t want to play pro ball. Coach Dye himself told me to forget about playing pro ball, that I wouldn’t have the chance. But that only made me want to work harder to get the opportunity to get drafted.”
When Ramsey wrote his paper, he was merely trying to earn a grade and express some of the frustration and anger he had built up inside of him, he said. Now, he says he’s said all he wants for the time being, but also added that much more damaging information could be forthcoming.
He is also concerned about his career and threatened to tell the rest of his story if anyone from Auburn tries to sabotage his chances of making the Chiefs or attempts to hurt his family.
“I’ve been drafted by an NFL team and can’t even get a $1,000 loan because they (Auburn coaches) make one phone call,” he said.
“But what I’ve said is just a small part of it. I haven’t even talked about the illegal things. There are a lot of other things to be said. If anything happens to jeopardize my life in Kansas City, or they threaten me or my family, the story will be told. If I have to be the Martin Luther King of this generation, I will be.”
As a former player, Deen said he couldn’t understand Ramsey’s motives or what could have turned him against the Auburn program.
“There are so many things that (Dye) has done for former players that for someone to turn their back on him is a shame,” Deen said. “You play for a coach, and you’re around him for that period of time, so he’s like a father.
“It’s one of the most impressionable times of your life when you’re away from your mom and dad. You lean on him. I’m sure it hurts Coach Dye for some of these things to come out of one of them. This is just a black eye on us. It’s a black eye on him. I’m just sorry that Eric made those comments and hope that he will be sorry later.”