Mays stays.

Colt doesn’t bolt.

And Tebow? He won’t go.

Three of college football’s most dynamic talents, all of them NFL-eligible juniors, have decided that they are not yet “feelin’ kinda Sunday.” Not yet, at least.

Taylor Mays, a 6-4 free safety, is staying at USC. Quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow, who flanked Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford when the Heisman Trophy was announced in December, will return to Texas and Florida, respectively.

The thinking here is that two of those three will be suiting up in the 2010 BCS Championship Game.

Are these three ready for the NFL? Does Jay Glazer have unlimited minutes?

McCoy, who arguably came up one play shy of winning the Heisman Trophy and leading the Longhorns to the national championship game, is a latter-day Roger Staubach. In 2008 the 6-3 junior led Texas in both passing and rushing and was as charismatic a leader as any program could desire, Florida included. The website Collegefootballnews.com recently pronounced the Tuscola, Texas, native as the best player in the Big 12 regardless of position — and that includes Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford of Oklahoma.

It's great that Bradford's also coming back, but the Sooners' offensive line won't be as strong as last season, so a return to the BCS title game is doubtful.

Mays, the son of former NFL defensive lineman Stafford Mays, is an anxiety attack waiting to happen for any receiver whose route is designed to go between the hashmarks. He’s Ronnie Lott, only bigger, is the conventional wisdom. Collegefootballnews.com rates him as the fourth-best overall player in the Pac-10, behind teammate Rey Maualuga (linebacker) and Cal’s Jahvid Best (running back) and Zack Follett (linebacker).

Tebow is, well, Tebow. In lieu of calling him one of the best players ever in college football — a claim that sounds ludicrous after he was clearly the second-best quarterback in Dolphin Stadium last week — Tebow is now being tagged as “potentially the most decorated”. As if he is Ian Schrager property. Still, Psycho Tebow already has two national championships and one Heisman Trophy. While Gino Torretta (Miami) and Matt Leinart (USC) can technically make the same boast, another dose of either places Tebow alone on a promontory never before scaled by an individual in the modern era.

Mays would likely be a top 15 pick in April’s NFL draft. McCoy and Tebow, for all the acclaim and magazine covers that they accrue (and rightly so), are at best 2nd- or 3rd-round selections currently. NFL draftnik patriarch Mel Kiper, Jr., considers Tebow better suited to play H-back or tight end in the NFL, and his performance in the BCS Championship bolstered Kiper’s argument.

Still, McCoy and Tebow are undeniably winners. As is Mays, even if he does not take snaps. In fact, the trio’s schools are a combined 8-1 in bowl games over the past three seasons (6-0 in BCS bowls).

Why would these three return? First of all, have you been to Los Angeles, Austin or Gainesville? Have you been there as a 21 year-old celebrity?

Mays’ decision to return for one more season to Pete Carroll’s cavalcade of fun seems the most enigmatic. A three-year starter on a unit that was as dominant as any on either side of the ball this season, Mays is not ignorant as to his pro value. Plus, the Trojan defense will be weakened somewhat by the loss of three fellow first-rounders: Maualuga, linebacker Brian Cushing and defensive tackle Fili Moala.

In a statement released Tuesday, though, the All-American safety said, “There are a lot more things I want to accomplish as a player, a student and a person, things that I've dreamed about for a long time and that are big goals to me. Returning to USC will help me be the best player I can be and put me in the best position possible for the next level."

In the last three decades, only one player at Mays’ position has been selected among the first three picks in the NFL draft. That was Bennie Blades of Miami, whom the Detroit Lions selected No. 3 in the 1988 NFL draft. There’s that to shoot for. Then, too, Mays has yet to win a Thorpe Award (nation’s best defensive back) or a national championship ring. And maybe he’d like, finally, to hear his name mentioned first when everyone heaps praise on USC’s relentless defense.

McCoy will enter the 2009 season as college football’s poster boy for unfinished business. “I’m not going anywhere,” McCoy told the Austin American-Statesman on Monday.

In the state that authored the gridiron phrase, “Git ‘er done!”, McCoy dons the burnt orange one more year to do just that. Like Mays a three-year starter, McCoy stared forlornly from the sideline on Nov. 1, in Lubbock as Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree scored the game-winning touchdown with :01 remaining. Until that moment, McCoy was the front-runner for the Heisman and the Horns in pole position to play in the BCS championship.

Unlike Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who stepped into the void created by that outcome, McCoy is not a potential No. 1 overall pick. By remaining under the tutelage of Mack Brown he is not blithely tossing away an eight-figure signing bonus.

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