Colt McCoy – Quarterback for the Texas Longhorns

By Danny Reagan / Abilene, Texas

Brad McCoy knew something was wrong when his son didn't immediately spring up after scoring a touchdown.

"I know his body language. He just doesn't show pain, but his arm was hanging."

And as everyone knows who was watching the Kansas State game, Colt McCoy was showing real pain once he got to the bench.

"I was really concerned. I thought he had broken his collar bone," said Brad, who was able to get to the locker room at halftime to discover the injury was a "stinger" or nerve impingement.

He was also able to talk with Mack Brown for a second.

"Basically, Coach Brown said, 'we're not going to risk it.' The dad in me really appreciated that." (Photo courtesy of mackbrown-texasfootball.com)

Brad also saw Colt briefly at a distance as he took the field after intermission. "His eyes said to me he was going to play." But his father knew differently.

Colt hung around the coaches throughout the third quarter in full uniform and pads.

"He was trying to egg them on and have them put him back in," said Brad, "but Coach Brown finally told him to get his pads off."

At the end of the game when the Kansas State fans charged the field, Brad rushed headlong into the galloping herd as fast as he could to reach Colt.

"I don't know how people don't get killed in those things," he said. When he finally reached his son in the middle of the field, he could tell Colt was just "sick at heart."

"I just felt helpless," Colt said as his father put an arm protectively around him and led him to the locker room. "I can't believe this happened. I knew what they were going to do."

"He did have them pegged," said Brad, recounting the game's first drive. "He told me it was the most helpless feeling he had ever had" standing on the sidelines watching.

But Sunday was a little brighter day for the McCoy family.

Numerous X-rays and a couple of MRIs revealed absolutely no damage - nothing torn, nothing broken.

After the game, Colt couldn't hold his arm parallel to the ground, according to Brad, but Sunday he had a lot of movement.

"He told me if the injury was a 10 on Saturday, it had eased to a 6 on Sunday," Brad said. "So we're headed in the right direction."

If no other play showed that football is indeed a game of inches and those inches can have a profound effect on the outcome of a game, Colt's dive showed that. NO, not the one where he was injured! The plunge from the one-yard line right before that fateful one when the refs said the ball didn't break the plane of the goal line, so the Horns had to try it again.

There's a great picture showing Colt AND the ball lying across the goal line after that first attempt. Colt is looking for the call. (Wish I could show it to you, but it's exclusive to the Statesman).

If that first try had indeed been called a touchdown, it would have been an entirely different ballgame.

Colt had them "pegged."

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