AUSTIN, Texas—Colt McCoy left the tiny town of Tuscola with dreams of being Texas’ next great quarterback. Lingering below the self-confidence were words that stung his heart.
Too small. Too slow. Weak arm.
Those were his friends saying that.
Great small-town player, they said, but Texas and the Big 12 were places for the big boys, not a player from the lower divisions of high school.
“I had people in my town, friends of mine, people real close to me saying that I would never be able to play here,” McCoy said. “They see a guy like Vince Young or Ryan Perrilloux. Everybody thought I was awesome in high school but that’s just from our town.
“I definitely used that as motivation,” McCoy said. “I still do to this day.”
Five years later and McCoy is on the verge of an NCAA record victory.
If Texas (10-0, 6-0 Big 12) beats Kansas (5-5, 1-5) on Saturday night, McCoy will set the record for most career victories by a starting quarterback. He currently shares the mark of 42 with Georgia’s David Greene (2001-04).
McCoy is 42-7 in his career, but few outside coach Mack Brown’s office even saw him as a potential starter when he first signed with the Longhorns in 2005.
Perrilloux was the hotshot recruit that year and Texas fans were bitterly disappointed when he spurned the Longhorns at the last minute for LSU.
“Some people have said we really didn’t want him as much as we wanted Ryan. That’s not true,” Brown said. “We thought he was really good. The recruiting lists missed it. Not Texas. Not Colt.”
McCoy watched from the scout team as Young led Texas to the 2005 national championship. By next spring, it was more of the same. Texas signed Jevan Snead, who was supposed to be bigger, stronger and better.
McCoy was the quarterback Texas fans didn’t want.
“Jevan comes in ... given the role, basically,” McCoy said. “I had to fight everybody.”
With a season of practice under his belt, he nudged aside Snead in training camp and started the 2006 season opener against North Texas. His second pass was a 60-yard touchdown.
“That kind of set the tone for a lot of good things that happened,” McCoy said.
It didn’t silence his doubters.
A 24-7 home loss to No. 1 Ohio State a week later reminded everyone that McCoy wasn’t Young. To Texas fans, Young was Superman, relegating McCoy to Clark Kent.
The Longhorns still had a lot of senior talent left from the national championship team, including several offensive linemen he had to face in the huddle every day. Brown jokes that he started using a no-huddle offense to keep McCoy from getting rattled by his own teammates.
“I couldn’t even speak the plays sometimes,” McCoy said. “One of the hardest things was getting your teammates to believe in you. I was trying to let them know, ‘Hey, I’m going to take over after Vince Young.”’
When the trust came, the wins started rolling in.
Texas was 10-3 McCoy’s freshman year. Snead, realizing he might not ever get to play, transferred to Mississippi.
Texas went 10-3 again in 2007. In 2008, the Longhorns were 12-1, McCoy was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and Texas beat Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl to finish the season ranked No. 3.
McCoy set an NCAA record for pass completion rate (76.7 percent) and led Texas to its first regular-season No. 1 ranking since 1984. Privately, he flirted with the option of heading off to the NFL, but chose to stay in college to chase a national championship.
Perrilloux, the 2004 national high school player of the year everyone wanted, never worked out as LSU. A part-time player when the Tigers won the 2007 national championship, he was later suspended and is now at lower division Jacksonville State in Alabama.
He recently told Sports Illustrated, “I almost went to Texas, and maybe my life would have turned out differently if I had.”
Snead is 16-7 at Ole Miss. He was an early dark horse candidate for the Heisman Trophy but quickly faded.
“I know how hard it was to get to this point,” McCoy said. “A lot of times guys are just given it to them because they got a lot of publicity. It makes it that much more special to me.”
McCoy has set 45 school passing records at Texas, including yards (12,360) and touchdowns (104).
Yet he has a gaping hole on his resume: He hasn’t won a championship of any kind. Texas hasn’t even won the Big 12 South with McCoy, which the Longhorns can do if they beat Kansas, their first division title since 2005 with Young.
“That’s the goal of a quarterback,” McCoy said, “to win.”
