Portal:College football/Selected article/January, 2009

Colt McCoy is the starting quarterback for the University of Texas at Austin "Longhorns" college football team. McCoy won the 2008 Walter Camp Award and he was one of three finalists to win the 2008 Heisman Trophy, losing to Sam Bradford.

As a redshirt freshman in 2006, he was the starting quarterback for the 2006 Longhorn team. On November 4, 2006, McCoy threw his 27th touchdown pass in a win against Oklahoma State, to take sole possession of the Texas school record for most touchdowns ever thrown by a quarterback in a single season. Subsequently, in the 2006 Alamo Bowl on December 30, McCoy threw two touchdowns against University of Iowa to tie the NCAA freshman record of 29 touchdown passes established by Nevada's David Neill in 1998. Also during the 2006 season, McCoy was named College Football News Big 12 Player of the Year and was named the quarterback to their "All Freshman Team". Injuries caused him to miss portions of the final two regular season games, but was able to play for the entire duration of the Longhorns' bowl game.

Leading the 2007 Longhorns, McCoy was somewhat less consistent. Through the first five games he threw nine interceptions - two more than he threw in the entire 2006 season; went on to throw 18 interceptions during the 2007 season.

He is currently leading the 2008 Texas Longhorn football team, who began the season with 8 straight wins, including a win over then #1 Oklahoma, #6 Oklahoma State and #11 Missouri. Through the first seven games McCoy had accumulated 1894 yards passing with 19 touchdowns and three interceptions. He was leading the team with 371 yards rushing and six rushing touchdowns, establishing a reputation as a dual threat quarterback. His performance helped the Longhorns rise at one point to the #1 ranking in the national polls though UT lost to Texas Tech University and is currently ranked third in the BCS standings. In 2008 McCoy set school records for most career touchdown passes, most touchdown passes in a season, most total touchdowns by a Texas player, most career wins, and most career passing yards. McCoy was named the 2008 AP Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.

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