THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2008
SPORTS
7B
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
Longhorns keep McCoy for another season
Heisman candidate turns down opportunity to play in NFL in hopes of leading Texas to 2009 championship
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas — There was a time Colt McCoy's voice cracked in the Texas huddle. Today, he commands, it with a hard look or a stern word if needed.
The self-described "stick figure" weighed 185 pounds soaking wet just a few years ago, when his body would break down and get tired over the course of a season. That was before he added nearly 30 pounds of
30 pounds of muscle.
The Texas quarterback also used to live and play in the shadow of Vince Young, the Texas superstar who led the Longhorns to the 2005 national championship. That was before McCoy led Texas to the No. 1 ranking and at least had the Longhorns included in the hot debate over who should play for the title this season.
"He's been the heart of our offense. He means to this team what Vince Young meant to the one in 2005."
He was so good that Brown says McCoy out-Tebowed Tim Tebow, Florida's 2007 Heisman
With 576 rushing yards, he leads the Longhorns by 200 yards and is second on the team with 10 rushing TDs. His 3,445 yards passing and 32 touchdowns are school records, and McCoy's 77.6 percent completion rate will smash the NCAA record if he maintains it against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
MACK BROWN
Head coach
"He's been the heart of our offense," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "He means to this team what Vince Young meant to the one in 2005."
Along the way, McCoy passed Young in career victories, and just like Young in 2005, is among the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy. Some felt this once-upon-a-time skinny country kid would never be good enough to carry a water bucket, let alone be called college football's most outstanding player after that title eluded his predecessor.
In October, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy celebrates his second-quarter touchdown pass to wide receiver Jordan Shipley in a victory against Missouri. There was a time when Colt McCoy's voice cracked in the Texas huddle. Now, after adding 30 pounds of muscle, this once-skinny country kid is a top candidate for the Heisman Trophy.
winner who is also one of McCoy's rivals for the award this year.
"He's done for this team what Tim Tebow has done for Florida," Brown said. "I can't imagine a player that means more to
McCoy's regular season ranks among the best in school history.
his team than Colt does to ours."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
McCoy was at his best in Texas' toughest games.
Against No. 1 Oklahoma, he rallied Texas in the second half to a 45-35 victory to get the better of Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford, another top Heisman contender.
when Texas didn't sign that year's big-name player, Ryan Perrilloux.
"He beat us with his arm. He beat us with his feet." Sooners defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said.
"If you saw where I played high school, you'd know why I wasn't a (big) recruit." McCoy said.
Add it all up, and McCoy is 31-7 as a starter with nine career second-a half comebacks.
Brown, however, knew he had found a player with the potential to be special.
To understand just how far McCoy has come to earn the respect of his teammates is to appreciate just how far he has come as a player.
"We saw the same things in high school you're seeing now," Brown said. "The questions we had were: Could he get bigger and stronger? We never questioned his ability to play. He has worked really hard to answer every flaw."
McCoy was a solid if unspectacular recruit from the tiny West Texas ranching town of Tuscola, considered by many a backup plan
When McCoy first showed up on campus, even some of his teammates weren't too impressed.
"Scrawny" is how defensive end Brian Orakpak described his look as a freshman in 2005. "Goofy", is how tailback Chris Ogbannaya put it.
Today, they call him their leader.
A coach's son, McCoy knew what he was up against in practice and the weight room. He also had the confidence to believe he could be the guy to step in when Young, one of the greatest athletes to wear burnt orange, was ready to leave.
McCoy calls his first workouts where he could only bench-press 225 pounds two times "embarrassing." He dedicated himself to strength coach Jeff "Mad Dog" Madden's high-intensity training regimen that sometimes has players flipping huge tires and throwing sledgehammers.
"I knew I had the tools. It was up to me to put them to work," said McCoy, who now benches that weight 16 times.
"He changed the whole scope of his body," Madden said. "He saw Vince Young throwing the steel around and followed him. We pushed him both mentally and physically."
Despite some recent questions over whether he would consider entering the NFL draft next spring, McCoy said this week he will return for his senior season
Getting Texas to its first regular-season No. 1 ranking since 1984 whetted McCoy's appetite for a national championship that would
in 2009.
match the title Young won three years ago while McCoy watched from the sidelines.
"I'm not going anywhere," he said.
JUN 2023 AT 7:45 AM