Austin, Texas – Not to say that the new leader of the defending national champion is from a small town, but his high school had to draw from 400 square miles just to field a football team.
That’s not quite true, but Tuscola, Texas, sits 19 miles south of Abilene with about 700 people, all of them a little starstruck that one of their own will be at the center of the college football world Saturday night. Only two years ago, Colt McCoy was leading Jim Ned High, enrollment 360, to the state 2A quarterfinals, which thrilled Tuscola mayor Russell Bartlett to no end.
It was a good conversation piece for his other job as town funeral director.
At 6 p.m. MDT Saturday, McCoy will merely lead the second-ranked Longhorns (1-0) against top-ranked Ohio State (1-0) in the biggest game in Austin since the first cattle train came through these parts.
So quarterback Vince Young signs for $58 million and UT coach Mack Brown hands the keys to the car to a redshirt freshman whose last game came against Canadian (Texas) High?
Well, yeah. Keep in mind Tuscola High had a staff of eight coaches. Remember, this is Texas.
“Our state’s a little different,” Brown said. “There are a lot of real good small schools in Texas. They just happen to be in small towns. Colt was raised by a coach. He’s been to every clinic, every camp. He’s prepared to be quarterback at Texas his whole life.”
And what’s the big deal about beating Ohio State on national TV? McCoy helped save a life just last summer. This is what happens when you spend your life preparing to do extraordinary things.
By the time he was 4 years old, he wasn’t just throwing spirals to his dad. McCoy was grilling his father why his quarterback didn’t check off to his wide-open second receiver.
By the time he was in junior high, he not only had a great arm but he could hold his own in chalk talks with his dad, Jim Ned coach Brad McCoy, and his bevy of coaching friends. By the time Colt was in high school, he was a comic book hero: 34-2 as a three-year starter, throwing for 9,344 yards and 116 TDs, second on the state’s all-time TD list. He was an all-state point guard in basketball, a three-time regional qualifier in the high hurdles and a straight-A student.
He spent last season at the side of Brown and Young, and then last winter Young announced he’d leave early for the NFL. And McCoy was beating out true freshman Jevan Snead in defending Texas’ national title.
“The first thing I did was go talk to Vince,” McCoy said Monday. “I wanted to know for sure: Is it true what I’m hearing? He told me a lot of things that boosted my confidence.”
Young told McCoy to have fun. And he did. In his debut Saturday against North Texas, he threw for three touchdowns in a 56-7 win. His first TD pass came on the third snap of his career.
“I knew I was right in the thick of it,” he said. “I threw a TD. I’m done. The jitters are gone.”
Brown gave McCoy a supreme compliment, saying, “Colt would be further ahead of Vince early in his career in throwing and no one will be like Vince was running.”
Brad McCoy, a former receiver at Abilene Christian and son of an Abilene rancher and coach, had no desire to move to a bigger school for his son. He was quite happy to find a job near his hometown.
Living in a town where kids bus up to 90 minutes has an advantage, too.
“Jim Ned is one of those places with a high amount of discipline,” said Brad McCoy, who since has moved up to Class 3A Graham (Texas) High. “I knew every kid in school. We had a good relationship with everyone. I wanted that for my kids.”
It also builds a little character, the kind that saves lives. Last Memorial Day when Colt was home, he and his dad had just finished fishing on their lake 200 yards from their house when their mother heard a scream from across the water.
“Help me!” the voice yelled. “My husband’s dying!”
Colt madly dashed back toward the lake. Brad impulsively thought back to his days at Abilene Christian when he played against a tailback at Northeast Louisiana named Joe Delaney. In the middle of his NFL career, Delaney tried to save three children from drowning and drowned instead.
“I thought Colt would go in by himself,” Brad said. “He hadn’t. But it was 200-300 yards across. And it was dark. We were having to swim to her screaming. We stopped. I said, ‘Swim slow and swim close.”‘
They reached the dock, where Ken Harrington, 60, was having a grand mal seizure. Colt and Brad administered first aid. Colt then shot up the hill 200 yards to a dark road where he flagged down the onrushing ambulance. The man spent two weeks in the hospital but lived. Turns out he was a Texas alum.
Tell Harrington a Tuscola, Texas, quarterback can’t beat Ohio State.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
