The 2006 15 Minutes of Fame in Austin Award: Colt McCoy and The 2006 Texas Football Team

No one has had their fame stripped away from them in such short order as UT quarterback, Colt McCoy. The red-shirt freshman out of Tuscola, Texas had the enormously unfortunate job of replacing the most famous (and entertaining) Texas football athlete of the modern era--Vince Young. As that January 4th hangover started to wear off, Texas fans were uncertain as to who would replace VY during the preseason, McCoy or true freshman Jevan Snead.

All signs started to point to McCoy, as pre-season practice reports indicated that he was outperforming Snead. Plus, the kid had a back-story that is the stuff of PR department's wet dreams. Besides looking like he was still in high school, various stories of his goodwill back in Tuscola began to surface, as word spread about his "landscaping for the elderly, visiting nursing homes, meals on wheels, reading at elementary schools and tutoring underprivileged children." Like Vince Young, he had a good story behind him, and in the folklore of football in Texas, a player's story is almost as important as the player's ability. Just a few weeks before the first game of the season, he saved a man's life by swimming 300 yards to flag down a police boat.

When Mack Brown declared McCoy the starter against North Texas, it looked as though the poster boy for Texas football was no longer everybody's favorite showboating bad boy from the rough streets of Houston, but a wholesome Christian suburbanite from the football-saturated fields of West Texas.

The season started with the procedural gaining-experience-through-game-time for McCoy, and proceeded with Babyface slowly stepping out of Vince Young's shadow and leading the defending champs to narrow wins. Texas lost to Ohio State--but that was expected. Texas almost lost to Nebraska and Tech--but came out in the end (plus, the games were now a little more interesting to watch with a quarterback that didn't run for a touchdown all the time). Texas was looking more like a 4th quarter team, instead of a 1st quarter team. That all changed when Texas lost to Kansas State and Texas A&M.

The season is now over and Texas football fans uncomfortably wave the flag of their 2006 National Championship low as they now realize, yes, Vince Young was essential to that stellar season and, no, McCoy and the Longhorns were not quite ready to carry Vince's torch.

Today, Texas fans stand bruised and battered, a little embarrassed and frustrated, with no more excuses for drinking at 9am. As construction on the stadium addition begins, next year lurks with the possibility of being as uninspiring as the last half of this season, as many key seniors graduate and McCoy and Brown are left to work out the kinks. Mack will continue to recruit as well as anyone in the country, and Longhorn fans will have to come to terms with the fact that you can't win the Big One every year. We just hope Big XII Co-Offensive Player of the Year Kid McCoy bounces back from his pinched nerve and one of the dirtiest hits in the history of the UT-A&M rivalry. But, in the meantime...

Top photo courtesy of Andrew Chan. Middle photo courtesy of Stephen Reidmiller.