Texas Hooked on ‘Little Earl’ : Sugar Bowl: Freshman running back Williams reminds Longhorn faithful of Campbell, but he also plays baseball.

NEW ORLEANS — Texas has all the history it needs, thank you, and if a Texan says a man is like Stephen F. Austin or Sam Houston, why, it doesn’t get much better than that.

And if a Texan says Ricky Williams is “Little Earl,” then everybody south of the Red River knows that means he runs like Earl Campbell.

Like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, Williams is an adopted Texan. He is from San Diego, but the first time he put on a burnt orange jersey he became one of Texas’ own.

When running mate Shon Mitchell, a Texan whose sense of history is limited to television commercials, saw Williams run and found out he also played professional baseball, he became “Little Bo.”

Baseball, in the land of football and spring football?

“I just hope I’ll be good enough in baseball that I’ll improve enough to be on [the level of a Bo Jackson],” Williams said. “As long as I stay healthy and work hard, football will happen.”

It has happened, and quickly.

Williams finished classes at Patrick Henry High in San Diego on June 13 and the next day was in Martinsville, Va., with a Philadelphia Phillie rookie team, an eighth-round draft choice with a $50,000 bonus.

Seven weeks later, he was on his way to Austin for football and his freshman year at Texas.

His first practice was Aug. 7. He was the first-string fullback by Aug. 8. On Sept. 2, in his eighth carry of the opener against Hawaii, he was in the end zone in Honolulu after a 65-yard run.

Martinsville was strange. Austin had become comfortable. The end zone was familiar.

“It felt like high school,” he said. “I did that a lot in high school.”

Williams’ whirlwind tour through higher athletics has left him a bit breathless.

Take Martinsville and the Phillies.

“That was a humongous change,” he said. “I was pretty scared, and it was so different--a small town, one mall. Baseball took all my time. I woke up and it was just baseball all day.

“I was one of about five high school guys on the team. The rest were college guys. I felt pressure because I was taken in the eighth round and some of [the college guys] were taken in like the 30th round. I felt like I had to prove to them that I was an eighth-round pick.”

He batted .239 in 36 games in Martinsville, at first playing every other day, then every day as July passed and Texas highlights began to show up on TV, prompting his mind to wander and wonder.

“With baseball there’s doubt because I don’t really know how good I can be,” he said. “The scouts and my coaches and everybody say I can be great, but I really don’t see it. I know I was getting better at Martinsville, but I’m not really sure.”

Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies’ director of scouting, is.

“He has power and speed that you don’t see in rookie players, and he has instincts for the game,” Arbuckle said.

“I go to high school games and see 18 bad-body athletes on the baseball field. Then I look over at the football field and see good-body athletes in spring football. We want to get some of those good athletes back in baseball.”

The price is the good-body dual-athlete. Williams had signed a letter of intent with the Longhorns, who saw him and junior college transfer Mitchell as the keys to the future of their running game.

Mitchell is the tailback, with 1,099 rushing yards. Williams blocks for Mitchell, but becomes the running back when the Longhorns go to a one-back offense.

“At first I thought it would be tough because I didn’t know what to expect,” Williams said. “I was having to learn a new offense and earn a position. I had to learn to block. I had never blocked in high school, but now I take pride in blocking and that makes it more fun. I love contact.”

He learned quickly.

He ran for 95 yard in 10 carries against Hawaii and caught a pass for 48 more yards. He ran for 66 yards and caught passes for 67 against Pittsburgh, ran for 72 yards against Notre Dame, 48 against Southern Methodist and 56 against Rice.

Then Oklahoma.

“I fumbled for the first time, the only time,” he said. “I had eight carries for four yards and we lost; well, it was a [24-24] tie, but we should have won and maybe we could have if we had more production out of me. It was the first time I’ve had a bad game.

“It’s really hard, so I just worked and made sure I would have a good game the next week.”

He rushed for 139 yards against Virginia, then added 113 yards against Texas Tech.

The Longhorns’ final game, against Texas A&M;, would decide the final Southwest Conference championship and probably determine who would go to the Sugar Bowl.

And then there was the Earl Campbell record. The former Heisman Trophy winner, who has a meat sales company in the Austin area, held the Texas freshman rushing mark, 928 yards. Campbell and Williams had become acquaintances around the Texas athletic complex, where Campbell is working to rehabilitate a knee.

“He’s a great football player and a great kid,” Campbell said. “I had speed, he has speed. I had power, he has power. But I kind of disagree with the Little Earl stuff. It’s a lot to put on a kid. I’ll tell you what I told our trainer the other day, though. Ask Ricky if he wants to win the Heisman, because if he really works at it, he can.”

Big Earl is second on the freshman rushing list now. Williams carried 24 times for 163 yards against Texas A&M;, scoring both touchdowns in Texas’ 16-6 victory. He has 990 rushing yards going into Sunday’s Sugar Bowl game against Virginia Tech.

He is, said ESPN’s Lee Corso, the best freshman back in the country.

Williams has bulked up to 225 pounds, which isn’t what the Phillies want.

The Phillies are, in essence, paying Williams to play football because he can’t have a scholarship and compete in a sport in which he’s being paid. But they wouldn’t mind seeing him put football behind him.

Only about $20,000 of his bonus has been paid, and the rest must be earned by playing baseball over the next two summers. Another two-month season at Martinsville looms after spring football and classes end in May.

And when he finishes at Texas?

“Then I’ll be on an NFL team and probably in about double A or triple A in the minors in baseball,” Williams said. “I’m pretty close to reality, and baseball is harder. I was the only person who came into Martinsville without stars in their eyes. Everybody was talking about getting to the next level, and that was weird to me.”

As far as the folks in Austin are concerned, he’s at the next level. Little Earl, scoring touchdowns for the Longhorns. To a Texan, it doesn’t get much better than that.