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 …
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