Texas legend Colt McCoy talks Texas Football
Ask a Texas football fan who their favorite player of all time is, and you’re likely to get a variety of answers. But make no mistake. One of the players on any Longhorn’s short list most certainly would be Colt McCoy.
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McCoy, now a 12-year pro, quarterbacked the Longhorns to 45 wins in what is sure to be a College Football Hall of Fame career. He was the face of a Longhorn program for four highly successful seasons, winning three bowls games and twice putting the team in the hunt for the national championship.
But for an injury on the first offensive series in the National Championship game against Alabama as a senior, McCoy might have accomplished his ultimate goal, a BCS title.
Yet it wasn’t his own injury that he remembers most about that game. It was the feeling of a lost opportunity and letting down his teammates and fans.
“My heart breaks for my coaches, my teammates,” McCoy said. “You work so hard, put so much time and effort into achieving a goal.”
McCoy covered a number of other topics in the interview, including the possibility of coaching down the road, which teammate he recalls having the biggest game ever in DKR, and even talks some about his experience with new Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian.
McCoy is a Texas legend. The interview shines a light on his pride and love for the university and team he so successfully represented.
Additional thoughts on McCoy
When I interview or talk to someone I find interesting, whether it’s a public figure like Colt McCoy or a regular guy down the block, I always try to learn something, to take something away from the conversation.
I’ve always done that, even when I was young. I’m not sure why, but that sort of naturally inquisitive part of me will always be there.
So as I spoke to Colt yesterday for the first time in about a decade, I couldn’t help but think just how much he has matured in that time frame.
I will always remember him as a small-town kid. He was almost scrawny the first time I met him standing next to Stephen McGee at a 7on7 tournament.
He literally couldn’t have been more than 175 pounds and barely 6-foot tall. He looked like guys I played pickup basketball with at Gregory Gym, not the football players we saw on Saturdays.
So to witness his transformation through the years has been amazing. During his time on the 40 Acres, he built himself up physically off the field while honing his craft on it. And he did it with great success.
It takes a certain level of determination, focus and maturity to do what Colt did during his time at Texas.
It also takes a similar level of determination, focus and maturity to do it for 12 years in the NFL.
Colt McCoy is living proof that if you commit yourself fully, you work hard, smart and with a laser-like focus, there is no dream too big.
Colt manifested his dream.
My hats off to him.
