Colt McCoy - Growing Up Colt: A Father, a Son, a Life in Football

2011 by Koyboys LLC

Print ISBN 978-1-61626-659-2

eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-60742-712-4
Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-60742-713-1

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Scripture taken from the H OLY B IBLE , N EW I NTERNATIONAL V ERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotation marked TLB is taken from The Living Bible 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Cover, back, and author photographs: Trevor Gerland Productions

Colt McCoy is represented by The Agency Sports Management LLC, 230 Park Avenue, Suite 851, New York, New York 10169.

Mike Yorkey is represented by WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., Greg Johnson, Literary Agent, 10152 S. Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, CO 80130

Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683 www.barbourbooks.com

Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

Printed in the United States of America.

Ive always had an open-door policy as far as players are concerned, so it isnt uncommon for one to drop by with something on his mind. It didnt shock me one day when my assistant Kasey Johnson said our redshirt freshman quarterback Colt McCoy wanted to see me.

It was what happened next that surprised me.

A season before, we had won the BCS Championship Game against Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl. Vince Young, our quarterback, had led us to two straight Rose Bowl victories. But after the USC game, Vince decided to jump to the NFL. As we approached our 2006 spring training, we needed a new leader.

Colt had been a true freshman on that national championship team. But since we had chosen to redshirt him (by not playing that season, he saved a year of eligibility) he had worked only in practice, watching every snap Vince took.

That spring, Colt fought a spirited battle for the starting quarterback spot with a young man named Jevan Snead, who had entered college early after a sensational high school career. Spring practice ended with the two about even, and we knew their individual work through the summer and fall training (beginning in August) would determine our starter. We didnt have much time to prepareour second game would be against No. 1-ranked Ohio State.

When Colt arrived, I knew from his look that he had something on his mind. There was determination in his eyes, even if he was a little nervous entering his head coachs office.

Before I could say hello, Colt blurted out: Im going to be your quarterback, and Im going to lead us to the national championship.

Then he turned and walked out the door.

When fall practice ended, Colt had earned the joband the rest, as they say, is history. We lost only one game a year in 2008 and 2009, finishing third and second nationally. Colt won more games as a starting quarterback than anyone in NCAA history. His senior year, we won the Big 12 Championship, andtrue to his wordhe took us to the BCS Championship game in Pasadena. Of the eight games we lost in Colts four years as starter, one was when the other team scored with one second left. In three lossesincluding that national championship gamehed had to leave because of injury.

Colts story begins in the small towns of Texas, where Friday Night Lights are part of the fiber of the community. Its a story of a family with its values in the right order: faith, family, and football.

Colts passion for the game is matched only by his commitment to his faith, which together drive his will to win and his determination never to give up. As a 170-pounder from a small high school, he might have been happy just to be at a school like Texasbut not Colt. In this book, youll learn of his work in the weight room, his continued growth in understanding of the game, and his grasp of the responsibility of a star athlete to be a role model. That sort of success comes from his roots.

Today, Colt and his wife, Rachel, have become friends, special people in our lives. They touch everyone with their love for each other and their compassion for people and the world around them.

Some folks come into your life, pass through, and move on. Colt McCoy is one who stays with you forevernot for what hes done, but for who he is.

M ACK B ROWN
H EAD F OOTBALL C OACH
T HE U NIVERSITY OF T EXAS L ONGHORNS

Less than a week after I played in my final collegiate football game for the University of Texas in the 2010 Bowl Championship Series Championship Game, my father, Brad McCoy, fulfilled a commitment he had made months earlier to speak at the Regents School of Austins annual sports banquet.

Dad, whod been a high school football coach for twenty-seven years, had been asked to speak about growing leaders and the importance of sports, especially football, in teaching lifes lessons. He prefaced his keynote speech by stating he would be talking about four principles that he and my mom, Debra, employed while raising me and my two younger brothers. Very quickly, they were:

1. Prepare your children for the path, not the path for your children. My father said he and Mom followed the godly advice in Proverbs 22:6, which goes like this: Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

All too often, Dad said, he saw parents seeking to smooth out lifes bumps in the road for their children. If these bulldozer parents werent in his coachs office demanding to know why Johnny wasnt playing, they were letting their kids slide by at home because they didnt want to be too tough on them. Every parent, Dad reminded the audience, must teach his or her children how to work hard and study hard, the discipline of setting goals and attaining them, the resilience of getting back on their feet when life knocks them down, and the value of never giving up.

Preparing children for the path means not being afraid to discipline children when they fall out of line or show willful disobedience. Many parents, Dad said, do not punish their children because they fear not being liked by their offspring, but withholding discipline can do more harm to a childs future.

2. Prepare your children to do their best. Success in any endeavorfrom academics to sports to life itselfstarts with teaching children what it means to set a goal and to work hard to achieve it. Children need high expectations so they will learn what it takes to do their best. As a high school coach for most of his adult life, my father would lead his teams onto the field with the chant, Expect to win, play to win! Children need to hear the same high expectations from their parents.