English's looks are deceiving
Mild-mannered Sooner is a beast on the field
Mild-mannered Sooner is a beast on the field

PHOENIX — Auston English looks more artist than football player. More surfer than sackmaster.

Scruffy hair, sleepy eyes. Not that tall. No bulging biceps. Sit next to English in British Lit, and you wouldn't ask, who do play Saturday, you'd ask, where does your band play Saturday?

English's first two years as a Sooner, the typical conversation went something like this.

"You play football? What position?”

"Defensive end.”

"Man, you're too small to play defensive end.”

"He gets that a lot,” said English's roommate, Curtis Lofton.

English is low-key around the house. He likes to lay around. He'll play Xbox if he can find the energy. Lofton calls him "Lazy.” If not "Goofy.”

Then English puts on shoulder pads and he's a different person. Put English on the football field, and he goes from couch potato to wrecking crew.

"On the field, his motor never stops,” Lofton said. "He's always trying to make plays.”

English entered the season as a candidate to start. He goes into the Fiesta Bowl as a defensive cornerstone for the Sooners; if not for a ankle injury suffered against Texas A&M, English might have beaten out Lofton for Big 12 defensive player of the year.

English has nine sacks in 10 games. No other Big 12 defender has more than six. Truth is, he's the best pass rusher of the Bob Stoops era. Better than Dan Cody. Better than Jonathan Jackson. Better than Jimmy Wilkerson.

"He loves to compete,” said OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables. "When the whistle blows, no one goes more than him.”

Even the Sooner staff admits Venables' lack of physical presence.

"Looks like your regular Joe,” Venables said. But plays G.I. Joe.

"He is a little bit unassuming,” Stoops said. "What's amazing about him, he'd make a great linebacker. He'd be a good tight end or fullback.”

Ideally, English would a defensive end in the 5-2 defense. What the pros call an outside linebacker and what the Sooners called an end in the Switzer era.

English comes by his motor honest. He's the son of missionaries; lived in Scotland until he was 7. But the family relocated to the Panhandle town of Canadian, Texas, population 2,258, where they grow their boys tough and take their football serious.

The Texas Panhandle has been good to OU. From the tiny dot of White Deer, Jim Weatherall won the Outland Trophy in 1951 and Carl McAdams was a stud linebacker in the ‘60s. Monty Johnson was a tough safety in 1969-70, and Mike McKinley was a raw-boned fullback in the ‘90s.

No softies on that list. English might not look like he's from the Texas Panhandle, but he plays like it.

"I've always been taught to play that way,” English said. "‘Don't cheat the game. Play as hard as you can.'

"The worst part of a football game would be knowing you got to the end and had something left.”

In Panhandle football, "A lot of guys you play against are baling hay half the week,” English said. "They're all average-Joe guys that like to play and have fun.”

English, a third-year sophomore, missed three games, including Texas Tech, where his motor certainly could have been helpful in chasing Mike Leach's high-gizmo offense.

"We missed his explosiveness off the edge,” Venables said. "We missed him a lot.”

English, surprisingly, returned for Missouri in the Big 12 title game, not at full speed, but at full RPM. Sleepy look and all.

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