Matt Hayes

AUSTIN, Texas - It's all about that ratty old piece of wood. Four years of highs and lows and expectations and realizations, and that thing looks prettier with each passing week.

When Texas finds its way to the BCS national championship game, when the team of PlayStation numbers finally and officially becomes a championship team, it will look better than any bronze statue the Downtown Athletic Club can hand out.

"We're all responsible for each other," said Texas quarterback Colt McCoy. "One guy can't do it alone."

How fitting. On a night when McCoy set the NCAA record for most wins by a quarterback in a career, this reality has come into focus: It took McCoy 43 wins to get the one victory the Texas faithful have wanted for four years: The win that sent the Longhorns — as a team — to the Big 12 championship game.

For all McCoy has accomplished in four years in Austin, all the records and wins and the larger-than-life persona off it, he really hadn't accomplished anything until the 51-20 victory over Kansas. He strolled around Memorial Stadium after yet another easy victory, soaking in the record crowd and punctuating a near-perfect night by shooting Smokey The Cannon and banging the Big Bertha drum.

"He is in here for a big finish," said Texas coach Mack Brown. "And he was sending that message."

Brown sent that same message last month, walking in front of the team before the Missouri game and holding a popsicle stick. He broke it in half, before pulling out 10 sticks, wrapping them in a rubber band and asking anyone to try and break them in half.

The message: One player alone can't survive. Everyone together can't lose.

After Texas throttled Missouri 41-7, McCoy found an old piece of wood and had every player sign it. The message: Sign the wood and you're accountable for every play in practice, every snap of every game.

In the five games since Brown's message, Texas is unbeaten and has outscored its opponents by a combined 215-58 — with Saturday night's rout setting up the Big 12 championship game against North Division champion Nebraska.

We still don't really know much about this team because the Big 12 isn't nearly as deep and talented as previous years.

The Longhorns still don't have a running game, and still can't cover kickoffs (hello, Javier Arenas and Brandon James). But this team has something (a South Division championship) no other Texas team has had in the previous three seasons.

And this team has McCoy; a smarter, more focused, more patient, more driven McCoy.

"It's different this time around," said Texas offensive tackle Adam Ulatoski. "We're all playing with a sense of urgency every time we step on the field."

Maybe that has something to do with the way it all ended last year, when the confounding BCS system rewarded Oklahoma for losing to Texas. And maybe it has a lot to do with that old piece of wood.

It's no coincidence that Texas played its worst game of the season against Oklahoma (which now has five losses), and McCoy had one of the worst games of his prolific career. Since then, McCoy has thrown 12 touchdown passes and only two interceptions (before Missouri: 11 TDs, seven INTs) and the Longhorns haven't been threatened.

McCoy completed 78 percent of his passes (32-of-41) against Kansas, even though Kansas knew Texas couldn't run and had to throw. Every time the Jayhawks made it interesting early, McCoy responded with a momentum killer.

• Second quarter: Took a blow to the head, and on the next play rolled out on a naked bootleg — with a defender in his face — and hit Jordan Shipley in stride for a 38-yard touchdown.
• Third quarter: Kansas closes to 27-14, and on the first play of the ensuing drive, McCoy responded with a perfectly thrown deep ball to Malcolm Williams for a 68-yard touchdown.

Game over. Put another notch on the old ratty piece of wood.

"It's the power of one — we're all in it together," McCoy said. "Nobody is eating the cheese right now. We've got more ahead of us."

That message couldn't be clearer.

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