Colt McCoy – Quarterback for the Texas Longhorns

By Danny Reagan / Abilene, Texas

Colt McCoy is approaching 210 pounds, say those who saw him at the public drills this past weekend in Austin.

Most of that is all muscle, as McCoy tries to make sure all those nerves from his shoulders upwards will be well-protected by next fall. The photo to the right from mackbrown-texasfootball.com clearly illustrates a beefier QB. His "official" weight on that site is now 205, up 10 pounds from last season.

"Overall, I'm just trying to get bigger, faster and stronger," McCoy told Suzanne Halliburton of the Austin American-Statesman Friday after the two-hour workout. "I needed to spend time in the weight room."

Conventional wisdom states that redshirt freshman Sherrod Harris of Arlington and/or freshman John Chiles of Dallas will get more playing time early next season whenever the Longhorns build an insurmountable lead, so that in case of another injury to McCoy, they'll be ready to step in.

Mack Brown no doubt gets reminded regularly of the final two games of the regular season: "What we've got to do first is to find a second- and third-team quarterback. Because when Colt got hurt, we put Jevan (Snead) in and we wished he had more playing time."

I'm sure Brown will get critized for various things throughout next season, but I doubt if he will let one of those subjects be that the backup quarterbacks aren't ready to play.

Supposedly, redshirt freshman receiver Montre Webber of Hearne made the most spectacular play of the weekend drills on a long pass from Harris. More good news for McCoy.

And speaking of quarterbacks, you probably already know Southlake Carroll's signal caller Riley Dodge (photo from Rivals.com) has verbally committed to UT. He's a junior, so expect him to lead the Dragons to another Class 5A state championship before he signs on the dotted line on Feb. 6, 2008.

COLT SPRING QUOTES (from mackbrown-texasfootball.com)

On if this is a bigger, stronger Colt McCoy: I need to be; I am tired of getting thrown around. I don’t want to get hurt again. I’ve spent a lot of time in the weight room, but everybody has. We’re having fun, and I thought we looked pretty good today.

On how John Chiles and Sherrod Harris are doing: They are both doing really well. Sherrod is working really hard, and he worked really hard his redshirt year. He knows the offense and John is a really good athlete coming in and he is trying to compete.

On what he hopes to accomplish this spring: We just have to come together as a team. We have to know each other and how each person plays; develop some mesh with each other, and we’ll be fine. That’s what the spring is all about -- to see who is going to show up and who is going to play.

On the first day of practice: It was fun to finally get back out there. It was pretty windy so the ball was moving. You really didn’t know where it was going. To get out there and to play with your teammates and develop relationships; it was fun.

On how he feels right now: I walked out and told Coach Brown that I’m definitely not as nervous this spring. We’re excited. We want to get better. I know all the players, and I know everything about our offense and now it’s just taking it to the next level.

On how having Jamaal Charles for the whole spring will help: It's going to help a lot. We’re going to develop our timing and we’re going to get our running game down. We’ll find ways to get him the ball, because he’s a great player.

On how much help he is going to be giving Chiles and Harris: A lot, they’re going to need help. We need to have someone else who is ready to play and Sherrod and John, I think they’re both going to do well this spring. Today was the first day and you can’t really see much, but they’re doing really well.

Posted by Abilene Admin at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Danny Reagan / Abilene, Texas

Yes, spring does start in February in the Hill Country of Texas, and judging by the 80-degree weather in Abilene yesterday, it's here as well.

The Longhorns enter drills today with a number of questions to answer, but the only one pertaining to the quarterback position is who will play backup.

Sorry, there will be no first-hand accounts because I'm still 218 miles away and can't get down there for one of the public workouts.

There will probably be photos from the Associated Press, but not many ... so, if you - avid Longhorn Fan - are there and take some photos with your long lens from the stands, I'd be happy to create a slideshow of them on this site.

You have two opportunities to see the Longhorns in action this weekend:

4 p.m. today at Denius Fields, 26th and Red River streets

1 p.m. Saturday at Denius Fields

Also, don't forget the "Spring Jamboree Scrimmage" game is noon on March 31 at the DKR "big house."

Posted by Abilene Admin at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are the 25 players that signed with the University of Texas Wednesday:

* Ventura, Calif.

Posted by Abilene Admin at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Danny Reagan / Abilene, Texas

There are a dozen great recruiting sites out there for National Signing Day, and this isn't one of them, of course.

However, since this is a site about a University of Texas quarterback, here's just a bit about the Gilmer High School quarterback who is signing with UT today - 6'2", 207-pound G.J. Kinne, ranked 15th by Rivals.com among "dual-threat" quarterbacks.

Kinne isn't the top recruit for the Longhorns, but he has the potential to be another great quarterback like that guy from Tuscola no one knew about a year ago. Kinne will no doubt redshirt and get a couple of good years of "mentoring" under his belt from McCoy.

If you click on the "Colt in the News" link above you'll see a story about how the state of Texas has been producing great quarterbacks recently.

Below, I've pasted the great Associated Press article by Paul J. Weber about Kinne. Some of you may remember Kinne's father, a coach, was shot a few years back. That story had a happy ending, just like the overall UT quarterback story has of late.

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By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press Writer

DALLAS - The air conditioner repairman talked about people he wanted to harm. Two years ago at a rural East Texas high school, he crossed football coach Gary Joe Kinne off that list by shooting him in the gut.

That was when son G.J. Kinne Jr., likely the only quarterback the Texas Longhorns will add Wednesday during National Signing Day, became a sympathetic small-town kid whose dad was almost killed over football. Leading Canton High School to its best season eight months later made him a local icon.

But two years after the shooting, Kinne is leaving high school knowing some have a much different view of him.

"I didn't really ever know how many jealous people there were," he said.

Kinne, a two-time AP offensive player of the year in Texas and gifted pocket passer, is aware of the comments: That he's brash, untrue to his word and, perhaps worst, someone who practically took advantage of his dad getting shot.

Not to mention the speculation about his dad, who left Canton last year to become an assistant coach at Baylor _ where G.J. was verbally committed before the Longhorns made an offer.

The perceptions frustrate his coaches and the elder Kinne, who say the 18-year-old has endured amazingly well for a teenager whose dad was the victim in a high-profile shooting that further ingrained stereotypes about Texas and its almost religious passion toward football.

Coaches and family also point out that G.J. had to switch high schools only after being allegedly physically threatened in Canton when Kinne's shooter (pictured at left) was convicted. Said G.J., "I needed to go somewhere safe."

"You don't need to tell me how big football is here," said Jeff Traylor, head coach at Gilmer High School where Kinne transferred. "But people don't think about the fact that he was just 17 years old. He's a good kid. He never deserved any of this."

The talk began after Kinne transferred to Gilmer shortly after his dad _ who made G.J. the starting Canton quarterback as a freshman _ left for Baylor.

Two rival high schools protested the transfer on grounds that the move was purely for athletic reasons, which is not allowed in Texas. Gilmer is among the state's best Class 3A schools, having won the Class 3A title in 2004. Canton had made the playoffs only once before the Kinnes arrived.

Traylor figures 90 percent of the media calls he took this year were about the circumstances of Kinne's move. Then came December, when Kinne reneged on a summer verbal commitment to Baylor and switched to the Longhorns after backup quarterback Jevan Snead left Texas for Ole Miss.

Baylor Internet message boards skewered Kinne for switching so late in the recruiting season. Kinne says he always had his eye on Texas but wasn't offered a scholarship until another quarterback the Longhorns wanted committed to Florida.

"Baylor is a great school for a lot of people, but it's not for me," said Kinne, whose mom lives in Gilmer.

Kinne won't be the star of Texas coach Mack Brown's latest sterling recruiting class, which is expected to be among the best in the country. Kinne won't even be Texas' top grab from rural Gilmer; defensive back Curtis Brown is ranked among the Top 25 players in the nation by Internet recruiting analysts at Rivals.com.

But behind Texarkana's Ryan Mallett, who is expected to sign with Michigan, Kinne is the state's top quarterback prospect. He threw for nearly than 3,000 yards and had 42 touchdowns his senior year. By his count, he had offers from more than 30 colleges.

The switch to Texas surprised many who thought G.J. would stick to playing with his dad, who made the rare leap from small Class 3A high school to the Big 12 last year after returning from his gunshot wound. After leaving Canton, Kinne criticized the school district for not promoting one of his assistants.

Kinne's shooter was Jeff Doyal Robertson (shown in AP photo above being taken into custody in April 2005), who Canton residents say was a notoriously hotheaded and protective father whose son played for Kinne. Robertson was convicted of aggravated assault and is serving a 10-year sentence, though Kinne says he still doesn't know what sparked the shooting.

Rumors of Kinne leaving Baylor flourished after his son changed his commitment, but Kinne said he intends to be at Baylor next season. Kinne, who said NCAA rules prevent him from talking about his son's college decision before he signs, said his son's high school experience is hardly what a father would have in mind.

"I'm proud of how he's handled everything," Kinne said. "He never really let any of this get to him."

G.J. hopes to redshirt at Texas, where he says a national championship and maybe a Heisman Trophy will help him forge an identity other than "the son of that coach who got shot."

"You come to a point where you don't care anymore what people think," G.J. said. "You don't like to hear people talking bad about you and your family, but you move on. And I am."

Posted by Abilene Admin at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tomorrow, like every other first Wednesday in February, is National Signing Day!

And if that doesn't give you your football fix, you can see Colt McCoy in action on the gridiron on Saturday, March 31, at noon in the 2007 Spring Jamboree Scrimmage at DKR - Texas Memorial Stadium.

As of this writing, that's 52 days, 22 hours, 47 minutes and 24 seconds away.

If you recall, last year's spring scrimmage was when Mack Brown and others on the coaching staff first realized that the guy from tiny Tuscola, Texas, might actually have what it takes to replace Vince Young.

Posted by Abilene Admin at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)