1977 Texas Longhorns football team

American college football season

1977 Texas Longhorns football

Co-national champion (Rothman (FACT)) Southwest Conference champion
Cotton Bowl Classic, L 10–38 vs. Notre Dame
Conference	Southwest Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 5
AP	No. 4
Record	11–1 (8–0 SWC)
Head coach	Fred Akers (1st season)
Offensive coordinator	Leon Manley (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Veer, I formation
Defensive coordinator	Leon Fuller (1st season)
Base defense	4-3
Captain	Earl Campbell LB Morgan Copeland OT George James DT Brad Shearer
Home stadium	Texas Memorial Stadium
Seasons ← 1976 1978 →

1977 Southwest Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 4 Texas $	8	–	0	–	0	11	–	1	–	0
No. 3 Arkansas	7	–	1	–	0	11	–	1	–	0
Texas A&M	6	–	2	–	0	8	–	4	–	0
Houston	4	–	4	–	0	6	–	5	–	0
Texas Tech	4	–	4	–	0	7	–	5	–	0
Baylor	3	–	5	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
SMU	3	–	5	–	0	4	–	7	–	0
TCU	1	–	7	–	0	2	–	9	–	0
Rice	0	–	8	–	0	1	–	10	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1977 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 1977 NCAA Division I football season. The Longhorns finished the regular season with an 11–0 record. Earl Campbell won the Heisman Trophy in 1977 and led the nation in rushing with 1,744 yards. In 1977, he became the first recipient of the Davey O'Brien Memorial Trophy, which was awarded to the most outstanding player in the now-defunct Southwest Conference. He was selected as the Southwest Conference running back of the year in each of his college seasons and finished with 4,444 career rushing yards. Rothman (FACT), a mathematical rating system in use since 1968 and NCAA-designated major selector, selected Texas as co-national champions with Notre Dame and Arkansas.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 10	4:00 p.m.	Boston College*	No. 18	Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX		W 44–0	50,000
September 17	4:00 p.m.	Virginia*	No. 9	Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX		W 68–0	41,000	^[1]
October 1	4:00 p.m.	Rice	No. 8	Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX (rivalry)		W 72–15	47,500
October 8	2:00 p.m.	vs. No. 2 Oklahoma*	No. 5	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX (Red River Shootout)		W 13–6	72,032
October 15	12:00 p.m.	at No. 8 Arkansas	No. 2	Razorback Stadium Fayetteville, AR (rivalry)	ABC	W 13–9	44,296
October 22	1:30 p.m.	at SMU	No. 2	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX		W 30–14	36,151
October 29	2:00 p.m.	No. 14 Texas Tech	No. 1	Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX (rivalry)		W 26–0	78,809
November 5	2:00 p.m.	at Houston	No. 1	Rice Stadium Houston, TX		W 35–21	72,124
November 12	2:00 p.m.	TCU	No. 1	Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX (rivalry)		W 44–14	50,150
November 19	3:00 p.m.	Baylor	No. 1	Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX	ABC	W 29–7	60,000
November 26	1:30 p.m.	at No. 12 Texas A&M	No. 1	Kyle Field College Station, TX (rivalry)		W 57–28	57,443
January 2, 1978	1:00 p.m.	vs. No. 5 Notre Dame*	No. 1	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX (Cotton Bowl Classic)	CBS	L 10–38	76,701
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

^[2]

Roster

1977 Texas Longhorns football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
RB	`20`	Earl Campbell	Sr
WR	`2`	Alfred Jackson	Sr
QB	`6`	Randy McEachern	Jr

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
DL	`77`	Brad Shearer	Sr

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class
K	`15`	Russell Erxleben	Jr

Head coach

Fred Akers

Coordinators/assistant coaches

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible

Injured
Redshirt

Game summaries

Oklahoma

#2 Oklahoma vs. #5 Texas

	1	2	3	4	Total
Sooners	3	0	3	0	6
• Longhorns	0	10	0	3	13

Date: October 9
Location: Cotton Bowl
Game attendance: 72,000

Scoring summary

Q1	OKLA	von Schamann 47 yard field goal	OKLA 3–0

Q2	TEX	Erxleben 64 yard field goal	Tie 3–3

Q2	TEX	Campbell 24 yard run (Erxleben kick)	TEX 10–3

Q3	OKLA	von Schamann 33 yard field goal	TEX 10–6

Q4	TEX	Erxleben 58 yard field goal	TEX 13–6

^[3]

At Arkansas

At Texas A&M

#1 Texas at Texas A&M

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Longhorns	14	19	7	17	57
Aggies	7	7	14	0	28

Date: November 26
Location: Kyle Field, College Station, Texas
Game attendance: 57,443

Scoring summary

Q1	TA&M	Dickey 7 yard run (Franklin kick)	TA&M 7–0

Q1	TEX	Campbell 60 yard pass from McEachern (McMichael kick)	Tie 7–7

Q1	TEX	Campbell 4 yard run (McMichael kick)	TEX 14–7

Q2	TEX	H. Jones 4 yard run (McMichael kick)	TEX 21–7

Q2	TEX	Jackson 9 yard pass from McEachern (kick failed)	TEX 26–7

Q2	TEX	Jackson 12 yard pass from McEachern (McMichael kick)	TEX 33–7

Q2	TA&M	Woodard 1 yard run (Franklin kick)	TEX 33–14

Q3	TEX	Campbell 6 yard run (McMichael kick)	TEX 40–14

Q3	TA&M	Walker 8 yard run (Franklin kick)	TEX 40–21

Q3	TA&M	Woodard 1 yard run (Franklin kick)	TEX 40–28

Q4	TEX	Campbell 23 yard run (McMichael kick)	TEX 47–28

Q4	TEX	L. Jones 37 yard pass from McEachern (McMichael kick)	TEX 54–28

Q4	TEX	McMichael 48 yard field goal	TEX 57–28

Earl Campbell 27 Rush, 222 Yds (career-high)

^[4]

Notre Dame (Cotton Bowl)

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Fighting Irish	3	21	7	7	38
Longhorns	3	7	0	0	10

Date: January 2
Location: Cotton Bowl
Game attendance: 76,701
Game weather: Sunny; 35 °F (2 °C)
Referee: Vance Carlson
TV announcers (CBS): Lindsey Nelson, Paul Hornung, Paul Alexander, and Don Criqui

Scoring summary

Q1	11:35	ND	Reeve 47-yard field goal	ND 3–0

Q1	6:07	TEX	Erxleben 42-yard field goal	Tie 3–3

Q2	14:56	ND	Eurick 6-yard run (Reeve kick)	ND 10–3

Q2	11:37	ND	Eurick 10-yard run (Reeve kick)	ND 17–3

Q2	7:28	ND	Ferguson 17-yard pass from Montana (Reeve kick)	ND 24–3

Q2	0:00	TEX	Lockett 13-yard pass from McEachern (Erxeleben kick)	ND 24–10

Q3	6:49	ND	Ferguson 3-yard run (Reeve kick)	ND 31–10

Q4	9:41	ND	Ferguson 26-yard run (Reeve kick)	ND 38–10

Rankings

Awards and honors

Earl Campbell – Heisman Trophy,^[5] Davey O'Brien Memorial Trophy, Consensus All-American^[6]
Brad Shearer – Outland Trophy, Consensus All-American^[6]
Fred Akers – SWC Coach of the Year

1977 team players in the NFL

The following players were drafted into professional football following the season.

Player	Position	Round	Pick	Franchise
Earl Campbell	Running back	1	1	Houston Oilers
Brad Shearer	Defensive tackle	3	74	Chicago Bears
Alfred Jackson	Wide receiver	7	167	Atlanta Falcons

^[7]

References

^ "Texas bombards Virginia, 68–0". Del Rio News Herald. September 18, 1977. Retrieved January 26, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Football, All-Time Results". mackbrown-texasfootball.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2010. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
^ "Texas Knocks Off Oklahoma." Palm Beach Post. 1977 Oct 8. Retrieved 2014-Nov-27.
^ "Campbell, Texas Overpowering." Palm Beach Post. 1977 Nov 27. Retrieved 2014-Dec-04.
^ "Heisman Winners". heisman.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2007. Retrieved April 16, 2007.
^ ^a ^b "2010 NCAA Football Records" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletics Association.
^ "1978 NFL Draft Listing - Pro-Football-Reference.com". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2007.

v t e Texas Longhorns football
Venues	Clark Field (1896–1924) Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium (1924–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Arkansas Oklahoma (Red River Showdown) Rice TCU Texas A&M (Lone Star Showdown) Texas Tech
Culture & lore	History Brown years Bevo Hook 'em "Texas Fight" Hex Rally 1969 "Game of the Century" Longhorn Band The University of Texas National Championship 2005 2005 Ohio State game 2007 player suspensions 2008 Texas Tech game 2008 Big 12 South 3-way tie controversy 1 Second Left My All American
People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks All-Americans Statistical leaders NFL draftees
Seasons	1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
National championship seasons in bold

v t e Southwest Conference football champions
Oklahoma (1915) Texas (1916) Texas A&M (1917) Texas & Oklahoma (1918) Texas A&M (1919) Texas (1920) Texas A&M (1921) Baylor (1922) SMU (1923) Baylor (1924) Texas A&M (1925) SMU (1926) Texas A&M (1927) Texas (1928) TCU (1929) Texas (1930) SMU (1931) TCU (1932) No champion (1933) Rice (1934) SMU (1935) Arkansas (1936) Rice (1937) TCU (1938) Texas A&M (1939) Texas A&M & SMU (1940) Texas A&M (1941) Texas (1942) Texas (1943) TCU (1944) Texas (1945) Rice & Arkansas (1946) SMU (1947) SMU (1948) Rice (1949) Texas (1950) TCU (1951) Texas (1952) Rice & Texas (1953) Arkansas (1954) TCU (1955) Texas A&M (1956) Rice (1957) TCU (1958) Arkansas, Texas, & TCU (1959) Arkansas (1960) Texas & Arkansas (1961) Texas (1962) Texas (1963) Arkansas (1964) Arkansas (1965) SMU (1966) Texas A&M (1967) Arkansas & Texas (1968) Texas (1969) Texas (1970) Texas (1971) Texas (1972) Texas (1973) Baylor (1974) Arkansas, Texas & Texas A&M (1975) Houston & Texas Tech (1976) Texas (1977) Houston (1978) Arkansas & Houston (1979) Baylor (1980) SMU (1981) SMU (1982) Texas (1983) SMU & Houston (1984) Texas A&M (1985) Texas A&M (1986) Texas A&M (1987) Arkansas (1988) Arkansas (1989) Texas (1990) Texas A&M (1991) Texas A&M (1992) Texas A&M (1993) Texas Tech, Baylor, Rice, Texas & TCU (1994) Texas (1995)
National championships in bold

Southwest Conference football champions