Steve Ross writes

For most of Coach Royal’s career, the NFL was an afterthought in terms of a full-time career. Most NFL players had off-season jobs. When that started to change, so did coach. Just look at his last 4 or 5 recruiting classes – that’s when more NFL-caliber players began showing up on campus: Doug English, Raymond Clayborn, Johnnie Johnson, Lam Jones, and many others.

One of the reasons Coach Royal decided to “set his bucket down” at such an early age was the changing recruiting landscape. He used to tell the story of his last recruiting year. He has a home visit with a high school athlete who isn’t back from practice yet. Royal sits with the mom in the living room when the recruit arrives. The first thing he says to coach is, “You’re sitting in my chair man.”

Coach said he jumped right up. And on the way back to Austin seriously began to consider getting out.

Many thought that since Royal had unlimited scholarships until 1967, he could take more risks than coaches.

Steve Ross disagrees, saying:

This is basically a myth. Back then conferences had scholarship limits and if you look at Texas Recruiting classes under Royal they were rarely the largest recruiting class in the SWC. Royal’s advantage was that there were unlimited visits back then, which meant better evaluation, and more importantly, you could go watch a recruit play other sports, getting a handle on his athleticism while also showing him how much you were interested in him.

1963-Royal’s Worst Recruiting Class

The one year Royal went for volume was after the 1963 national championship season, and he paid the price for it from 1965-67. Royal later admitted that he spent too much time on the banquet circuit while his assistants just sifted through all the kids who wanted to come to Texas rather than do serious evaluation.

Texas signed 67 players that year. DB Ronnie Ehrig, QB Greg Lott, and halfback Linus Bear were the best players out of that group.

No player from the 1964 recruiting class ever made a consensus All-SWC selection. By the time February of 1967 rolled around, Royal and his assistants had changed the pattern.

1967-Royal’s Best Recruiting Class

Royal had begun to turn the talent drain around with the class of 65, which included players like Bill Bradley, Chris Gilbert, and Loyd Wainscott. However, the recruiting class of 1967 would put the final touches on rebuilding. It was led by the nation’s most sought-after running back – Bridge City’s Steve Worster.

A confidential poll of SWC Head Coaches taken for Texas Football for the 1967 recruiting class revealed that Texas had signed seven of the top eleven recruits for 1967 and 12 of the Top 22 recruits.

People like Eddie Phillips, Steve Worster, Cotton Speyrer, Billy Dale, linemen Jim Achilles, Mike Dean, and Bobby Mitchell, and defensive players like Bill Zapalac, Scott Henderson, Bill Atessis, and Greg Ploetz. Defensive back recruits included Danny Lester and Freddie Steinmark.