Hard Work, Hard Labor Prepare Colt McCoy for Championship Push

DALLAS -- You would think Texas quarterback Colt McCoy is above back-breaking labor.

After all, he was last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up, is the most accurate passer in Longhorns history, one of the top three quarterbacks in the country and right now is arguably the most popular guy in Texas.

But none of that mattered recently when he was summonsed to his grandfather's ranch in Brownwood to haul bales hay in the scorching Texas heat. It wasn't like he could big-time granddad.

"I've been doing that every summer since I've been in about fifth grade," McCoy said during Wednesday's Big 12 Football Media Day session when asked what he did for enjoyment this summer. "I don't know if you call that fun but that was my getaway for the weekend."

Believe it or not, but Colt and all his celebrity braved the heat while helping his family haul about 350 bales of hay that weighed between 60 and just over 100 pounds between 4PM and midnight on that particular day. Colt's efforts ensured that the cattle on his grandfather's farm would have enough feed for the remainder of the year.

"It is the worst labor that a man can do, I promise you," said McCoy, who has completed a school-record 70.2 percent of his passes in his three-year career. "If you ask anybody who has ever hauled hay before, they will tell you. It's worse than building a fence and we did that earlier in the summer for him."

But in the end, that job may be easier than the one McCoy and the rest of the Longhorns have ahead of them this season. Despite some serious question marks at receiver, running back and on the defensive side of the football, the Longhorns are expected to challenge Oklahoma for the Big 12 supremacy once again this season.

Many of those expectations fall on the strong throwing arm of McCoy.

The fourth-year starter is coming off a banner season in which he completed 332 of 433 passes for 3,859 yards, 34 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. He also paced the Longhorns ground attack with 561 yards and 11 touchdowns in a year in which he came within a single second against Texas Tech of leading his team to the BCS national championship game.

McCoy efforts have many, including his head coach Mack Brown, favorably comparing the expectations of this season to those in 2005 when Vince Young led Texas to the national title. McCoy steered clear of such talk, instead narrowly focusing on one game at a time and the next one happens to be the season opener Sept. 5.

"That will be tough for our team, handling expectations," McCoy said. "As a leader on the team, we are focused on ourselves. We are focused each week on what we have to do each week to be the best we can be. Our focus right now is on Louisiana-Monroe and that's it.

"I know you hear that all the time, but in sense, last year we didn't take one game at a time. We slipped up and lost to Texas Tech. If we can be under control, focus and prepare and practice hard and be ready every time we step onto the field, then we are going to give ourselves the best chance we can to win."

Some would argue the Longhorns had pretty good chance last season when they beat Oklahoma and Missouri early in the season, finished in a three-way tie in the Big 12 South with Texas Tech and OU. But they watched the Sooners advance to the conference championship game because of a controversial Big 12 BCS-ranking tie-breaker rule.

The Sooners, of course, went on to play Florida in the BCS national championship game while the Longhorns advanced to the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.

"Obviously we can say if we beat Tech then things might have been different," said McCoy, the Longhorns all-time winningest quarterback with a 32-7 career record.. "If you look back at last year and what was disappointing, it wasn't that Oklahoma was playing for the national championship. They deserved it. They got to that spot and they were there.

"We were disappointed because we worked so hard and we had our goals. We spent so much time together, preparing. Obviously beating OU and Missouri and them getting to play for the Big 12 championship and we didn't, that was a hard pill to swallow. But the great thing about our team, the character of our team, the coaches and assistant coaches, they said, 'Forget about it. You can't change it. It's happened. You can whine and moan all you want, things aren't going to change.'"

McCoy and the Longhorns did make the best of their situation, defeating Ohio State, 24-21, in the Fiesta Bowl to end the season on a four-game winning streak and coming away with a 12-1 record. That memory propelled them during offseason drills and into this summer.

"We worked so hard to win 12 games and everybody coming back this year knows how hard we worked," McCoy said. "This year is just a little bit different. Then intensity has picked up just a little bit. There is a lot happening on our team right now. We are going to use the momentum from the bowl game, we carried that into the spring, we carried that into summer and we are going to carry that into two-a-days and give it our best shot.

"We've worked really hard and we're prepared. We're just ready to get the ball rolling."

All eyes will again be on McCoy to see if he can come close to duplicating the numbers he put up last season. The Longhorns turned into a pass-first offense in 2008 with the arm and experience of McCoy along with the receiving ability of Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley.



But with Cosby gone and a stable of capable running backs, UT is expected to turn to more pro-style offense. That might make it difficult for McCoy to approach the numbers he put last season. Not surprisingly that would be fine with McCoy if it helps the team win games.

"People are all caught up in numbers, but I had a great group of receivers. Having Quan and Shipley on one side, all I had to do is get them the ball. They caught most of the ball, the offensive line protected me, the running backs caught the ball, the tight ends caught the ball so all I had to do is get the ball in their hands. I would like to do that better this year.

"There are a lot of ways I can be better. I can understand what we are trying to do offensively, I can be on the same page as [offensive coordinator Greg Davis] more, I can understand defenses better by studying with [defensive coordinator Will Muschamp], studying film we had last year, work on my footwork and take care of the ball little bit more. There are a lot of ways I can be better. I consider myself a learner."

Brown has witnessed McCoy's drive to get better firsthand this offseason.

"I do think Colt can improve," said Brown, whose Longhorns were picked to finish tied for first in the Big 12 South in the preseason media poll. "He studied film so much to see every little glitch he felt he had last year."

The scrutiny will be tough this season with Florida's Tim Tebow, Oklahoma's Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and McCoy expected to grab most of the headlines this college football season. All three could have turned pro this offseason but elected to come back to college.

McCoy has established a respect and friendship with both quarterbacks and will quietly root for them this season, as long as they are not playing the Longhorns.

"They are both awesome players, awesome guys," he said. "They both stand for a lot of good things that I think this world needs to see. I think having the three of us come back this year is really good for college football."