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Mary Altaffer
AUSTIN, Texas - In most years, Colt McCoy would be the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
On the field, he is a record-setting quarterback for a Texas team expected to contend for a national championship. Off the field, McCoy is the type of guy fathers want their daughters to marry.
He does missionary work in South America, doesn’t cuss and downs milk instead of soft drinks. In the summers, his West Texas roots beckon him to granddaddy’s farm for hours of backbreaking work baling hay. McCoy and his dad even helped save a man who almost drowned a few years ago.
But 2009 is a unique year in Heisman history.
McCoy is the third wheel in a Heisman race with two quarterbacks who have already won it: Florida’s Tim Tebow (2007) and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford (2008). This will be first college football season in which the last two Heisman winners are competing.
Add in McCoy, last year’s runner-up ahead of Tebow, and there is another rarity in the Heisman race. For the first time since 1946, the top three vote-getters from last year are all returning for another season of college football.
The challenge for McCoy is to keep up with the tour de force that is Tebow and the video game stats Bradford puts up.
McCoy gets a crack at Bradford when Texas and Oklahoma meet in Dallas on Oct. 17. A possible matchup with Tebow would have to wait until the postseason and long after the trophy has been awarded.
If Tebow or Bradford win it again, they’ll join Ohio State’s Archie Griffin (1974-75) as the only two-time Heisman winners.
McCoy insists he’s not chasing the other two.
“It’s not about me. It’s about Texas,” McCoy said. “It is my senior year, so I want it to be fun. I want it to be special.”
Bradford won the trophy last season by putting up wild numbers — 4,730 yards passing and 50 touchdowns — while directing the highest-scoring offense in major college football history.
Tebow and the Gators won their second national title in three years with a 24-14 win over the Sooners in the BCS championship game.
McCoy had some impressive numbers of his own. He set an NCAA record with a 77 percent completion rate while leading the Longhorns to their first regular-season No. 1 ranking since 1984. He also guided Texas to a 45-31 victory against Bradford and the Sooners.
McCoy, competitive to the core, will leave the debate about which quarterback is better to the fans and media.
“They’re both awesome players, awesome guys,” McCoy said. “They both stand for a lot of good things that I feel this world needs to see. I think that having three of us come back this year is really good for college football.”
The three stars spent some time together at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York last year. McCoy and Bradford also roomed together at a quarterbacks camp this summer.
“If you would have told me five years ago I was going to become friends with the quarterback at Texas, I would have looked at you a little strange,” Bradford said. “I think me and Colt can both see past that we play for rival schools.”
Even if Texas beats Oklahoma again, keeping up with the almost legendary status “Terrific Tim” will be tough for McCoy. Tebow has two national championship rings and a well-documented life of charitable deeds.
Unlike McCoy, who rose from small-town Texas anonymity, Tebow was anointed “The Chosen One” in an ESPN special before he started his college career. Four years later, his inspirational speech after last season’s loss to Mississippi have been immortalized on a plaque that hangs at the entrance to the Florida football facility.
Tebow practically grew up at the orphanage his father runs in the Philippines. He preaches to school kids and prisoners.
What McCoy might have going for him is the fatigue factor: Some of the more than 900 Heisman voters could simply be tired of voting for Tebow and Bradford.
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Tebow has set such a high standard for himself, even he might not be able to match it. Though it does seem as if nothing flusters him.
At Southeastern Conference media days, he was asked if he is still a virgin. Tebow didn’t sidestep, answering yes he is, indeed, saving himself for marriage.
Tebow dismisses skeptics of his golden boy image.
“You have to deal with that. But for all those people, there are so many more people that have been thankful, or are thankful that I visited the kid in the hospital or visited the prison or I did this or that, or that I had a positive message” Tebow said.
“I care about the people that I can help and make a difference in their life. There are going to be haters, but you know what? I don’t really care.”
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