Tavon Austin Tells His Story: The Oklahoma Game, Famous Highlight Tape, Retiring + More

The West Virginia legendary wide receiver revealed his football journey during an interview with Johnny Manziel.

Schuyler Callihan | Oct 25, 2024

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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West Virginia Mountaineers

West Virginia legend Tavon Austin recently sat down with Johnny Manziel to discuss a variety of topics, truly diving into his story for the first time ever.

In the podcast interview, Tavon talks about choosing WVU, the Oklahoma game, the famous highlight tape, Bill Stewart and Dana Holgorsen, contemplating leaving school early, the 2012 season, his NFL career, and making the decision to retire.

Making the decision to retire

“It was bittersweet. I’ve been thinking it over with my family and thinking about myself. You can love the game as long as you want, but it don’t mean the game going to love you. I just came to a conclusion like I had a couple more runs, had a couple more workouts and it just wasn’t happening. I called it. Talked to God, talked to my family, and that’s what led me to it.”

Seeing social media react to his retirement

“It’s crazy. It’s like when somebody pass away and you get all your flowers. But honestly, I missed it for a while, just being in that limelight. If you were a person that always had the accolades and you come into the stadium and the cameras all in your face…I miss that. I had missed it for a long point and when I was playing at one point in time when I was on practice squad and the cameras wasn’t in my face.

"When I hung it up and I seen all those people commenting on my page and reaching out to me, calling me one of the GOATS, you know you really can’t call yourself a GOAT, it means more when somebody else say it. When that happened for me, it kind of meant the world to me. I kind of shed a tear a little bit. I’m not really an emotional guy, but I’m kind of getting choked up now.”

Recruitment and picking WVU

“I had some big-time offers coming out. I think my biggest one at the time was probably Michigan. And the only reason why it was Michigan was because Rich Rod was at West Virginia, but then he went there and he wanted me there. I had Georgia. I had a couple big schools, but West Virginia was where my heart was at.”

Switching from running back to receiver

“They told me I was playing running back. Lonnie Galloway, one of my best guys sitting in my grandmother’s house eating my grandmama’s chicken, him and Bill Stewart. He was smashing that chicken too. He had a good little time. As soon as I got there, the first thing they told me, if you can sit for two years and wait for Noel (Devine) to leave…or you can go over to that receiver room and play right now. So I had to go ahead and switch over. Probably the best switch of my career.”

Dana Holgorsen taking over for Bill Stewart

“It was cool. When Dana first came in he was just the OC. Stewart was still in charge of everything, he was the big man. But we knew who kind of ran the show, it was Holgorsen. Something happened between them and he finally got the head coaching job.”

NFL career

“I honestly believe if I would have had a little bit different coaching…I’m not worried about the system. For me to be a receiver, you got to be technical sound, especially when you get into the NFL and you playing against the (Richard) Sherman’s playing against the Patrick Peterson’s and these guys that are Hall of Famers one day. I struggled in the beginning. And they always say they ain’t use him right.

"Well for one, I’ve got to take accountability for myself. I honestly believe I didn’t get that type of coaching as a receiver until the back end of my career. I feel like my career would have been so much better. Another thing, when I first came into the league they put me at outside receiver. I played slot my whole time in college. I just never transitioned and unfortunately, I got to (receivers coach) Sanjay Lal late and I spent three years with him, two with the Cowboys, one with Jacksonville and Jacksonville was when I was really getting ahold of myself as an NFL receiver.”

Thinking about leaving WVU early for the draft

“I was going to go. I was going to try to come out after that Orange Bowl game. I think I had three or four touchdowns down there in the South Beach Smackdown. I thought I was going to leave that year.

"Holgorsen came to me and kind of shook me up a little bit, told me he talked to a couple of scouts and said I’m going to go third or fourth round. He told me, ‘I don’t know what you want to do, but I’m going to leave you with that information,’ And then he looked at me and said, ‘I hope I see you Monday back on campus.’ I told him I was going to leave, but Monday I was back on campus for my last year.”

The 2012 season falling apart

“We started off 5-0…I’m sitting here looking at that Heisman Trophy, me and Geno was on that list from the same team. We went down there and went to Texas Tech and it’s a little different down there at Texas Tech. Sted got hurt, messed his ankle up and they started doubling down on me and from there it was over with. And then we lost probably like three or four straight.”

Moving to running back for the Oklahoma game

“I remember like it was yesterday, Holgorsen called me Sunday morning and was like come to the building right quick. So I go to the building and it’s probably 8:30 in the morning. We start looking at the tape and he’s like we got Oklahoma this week. And I’m like yeah…alright, what’s up? And he’s like, how do you feel about playing running back? I’m looking at him like hold on boy, I’m a senior now. I’m trying to go to the league. I ain’t got time to be playing with you back here getting hurt.

"And I’m like alright, well, it depends on how you want to use me. And he was like I want to use you zone read in the A or the B, right beside Geno. I’m like nah Holgs, if you want to use me, put me in the C that’s right behind Geno. I want to run downhill. He was like, boy, your a** too little to be running downhill. I said, if you want me to do it that’s the way I want to do it. He said alright, we’ll look at it in practice a couple times and then if I like it we’ll go with it.”

Seeing the Rams win a Super Bowl

“That was hard. I ain’t going to lie, that was tough. That was real tough. I feel like I should have still been at ScoFi Stadium right now with them boys. But God had a different path for me. I wanted to be a Hall of Famer. I wanted to be a Pro Bowler. I wanted to be all those things, but it didn’t happen for me. I guess I was just a person that was supposed to touch peoples lives in a different way and that’s big enough for me.”

The highlight tape

“Yeah, DougityDog. Keep running it up, man. Just letting y’all know I don’t get no money off it either but just keep running it up. Keep running the views up. Keep showing the generation what a true football player look like. I’m not saying these guys these are not, but I know what I did it for. The preparation, the responsibility, the leadership, the dependability, all those things that comes with football. It ain’t just about catching the ball and scoring a touchdown.”