MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – One of the great middle guards in West Virginia football history has died.
 
Carl Crennel, defensive MVP of the 1969 Peach Bowl and two-time second team Associated Press All-American for coach Jim Carlen, died Saturday, according to his older brother Romeo Crennel through an email sent by the Houston Texas media relations department.
 
No additional details were provided.
 
Carl Crennel and fullback Jim Braxton were Carlen's two key recruits during the rebuilding process of Mountaineer football in the late 1960s.
 
Carlen found out about Crennel through alum Clarence Keefer, a doctor living in Lynchburg, Virginia. Crennel played at E.C. Glass High in Lynchburg after moving there from Fort Knox, Kentucky, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Army.
 
Crennel wasn't a big defensive lineman, standing 6-feet-1 and weighing just 220 pounds, but he perfectly suited Carlen's defensive scheme that utilized smaller, quicker, aggressive players.
 
Carlen assigned offensive coordinator Bobby Bowden the task of recruiting Crennel.
 
The late Bowden, a notoriously poor driver, used to love to tell the story about how he got Crennel to sign with the Mountaineers. The two were making the five-hour trek from Lynchburg to Morgantown over the mountains in eastern West Virginia when a tired Bowden asked Crennel if he could take the wheel for a portion of the trip.
 
Crennel eagerly agreed.
 
The only problem was Carl didn't have a driver's license and had never driven a car before. No sooner had Bowden nodded off in the passenger seat of the West Virginia state car they were driving when he was awakened to a loud bang. Crennel had driven right into the back of a state Division of Highways truck that he had been trying to pass.
 
Fortunately for Bowden, the guys in the truck in front of them had been drinking on the job and they didn't want to report the accident either, so they shook hands and left. Bowden returned to the car and told Crennel, "If you don't come to West Virginia, I'm telling on you!"
 
Crennel came to WVU and became a dominant middle guard in Carlen's 52 defense. He once made 22 tackles in a loss to Penn State, prompting a perturbed Nittany Lion coach Joe Paterno to comment afterward, "We decided to run right at Crennel because when we didn't he killed us."
 
Each season Crennel played at West Virginia the Mountaineers improved, from 5-4-1 in 1967 to 7-3 in 1968 to 10-1 in 1969 during his senior season.
 
Crennel earned second team AP All-American honors in 1967 and 1969 and was a third-team choice in 1968. He was also named to the Playboy All-America squad prior to the 1969 season.
 

West Virginia was ranked 17^th in the final AP poll following Crennel's senior campaign in 1969.
 
After an invitation to the Hula Bowl and winning the John Russell Award given to the team's most outstanding defensive lineman, Crennel was a ninth-round choice by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970 draft and played one season with them.
 
His pro career took off in the Canadian League with Montreal, where he was twice named to the East all-star team at middle linebacker in 1973 and 1978. He made the East all-star squad once again in 1979 with Edmonton.
 
He played in six Grey Cups, winning two with Montreal in 1974 and 1977 and one with Edmonton in 1979, before his 11-year career culminated in 1981 with Saskatchewan.
 
Following his football career, Crennel worked as a painting contractor and held a variety of jobs throughout the years.
 
His ex-wife, Sandra Lee Crennel, died April 19, 2017, in Orange Park, Florida. They have two children, daughter Shannette Denise Crennel and Carl Lee Crennel II, a granddaughter, Breanna, and a grandson, Cameron.
 
Carl's son spent two years on Romeo's staff with the Cleveland Browns as offensive quality control coach and is currently working as a player development executive at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, according to his LinkedIn profile.
 
Romeo's long NFL coaching career concluded in 2020 as the Houston Texans interim head coach. He spent parts of seven seasons as a head coach with the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs and Texans and was Bill Belichick's defensive coordinator for three Super Bowl championships in New England. All told, Romeo was involved in five Super Bowl titles during his coaching career.
 
It was Romeo who coaxed his younger brother into playing football when the two were growing up in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
 
Carl, 74, was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. 
 
Funeral arrangements are pending.