Denny Medley
The Texas Longhorns have a bit of a tradition when it comes to recruiting siblings. The Acho brothers were a huge part of the Texas D for several years and the Shipley clan has been snagging passes for the ‘Horns for as long as some younger UT fans can recall. However the McCoy name is probably the biggest on campus.
Case McCoy is still mostly known as the little brother of Longhorn legend Colt McCoy. Case never managed to fill his older brother’s shoes, but he has shown flashes of brilliance and added a much needed spark to the Texas offense at times. Who can forget him taking off on a big run to set up the game-winning field goal that gave the Longhorns a win in the final edition of their long-standing rivalry with the Texas A&M Aggies? Yes, Case has channeled Pistola on occasion but when it comes down to it he is a back-up QB for Texas, though it took a while for that to become concrete in the minds of a lot of people.
McCoy battled with Texas’ now-starting QB David Ash for most of the 2011 season. McCoy completed 61.1% of his passes for seven TDs and four INTs in 2011. He appeared in a total of eleven games but only saw a significant number of snaps in six of them. He didn’t see any reps in the 2011 Holiday Bowl, but that game had a bigger impact on deciding his fate as a back-up then any he played in as Ash rallied the offense around him and led Texas to a 21-10 win.
The “quarterback controversy” at Texas should have been over going into last season, but it persisted. McCoy came into games due to injuries to Ash on two occasions and once because Ash was sucking out loud and nearly caused Texas to suffer the embarrassment of losing to the Kansas Jayhawks. McCoy started only one game in 2012 when Ash couldn’t go against the Kansas State Wildcats due to a rib injury. McCoy played okay at best, proving the theory that most Texas fans knew to be true but didn’t want to accept because it is always fun to cheer for the back-up guy with the last name you know so well: Case isn’t Colt and the spark he gives to the offense doesn’t last for an entire game. He is a back-up.
Don’t let that fool you into thinking he isn’t of any use to Texas though. While the younger McCoy will only see playing time in the event of an injury or if Texas is blowing somebody out, he is still important to the Longhorns. Head Coach Mack Brown knows that he has a solid guy who can make things happen to call on if he needs to, and that should provide Brown with some comfort.
Texas has a bit of a traffic jam at QB with Jalen Overstreet and Tyrone Swoopes on the roster, but neither Overstreet nor Swoopes has the experience that McCoy does and Overstreet is more likely to fill a RB/WR role for Texas anyway. Swoopes is the Longhorns’ future, so while Ash is the starter and thus the best QB on the team, McCoy will spend more time around Swoopes on the sidelines and should be a good mentor for the younger player despite their very different physical abilities and playing styles.
Case McCoy’s role for Texas in 2013 will be as their back-up QB and as a bit of a second coach to Tyrone Swoopes. McCoy will continue to see his playing time dwindle in his senior season with the Longhorns, but if he needs to step in to wrap-up a game or because of an injury to Ash, he will be more than capable of effectively running the UT offense. Don’t expect him to come in if Ash struggles, however. I’d wager that those days are over.
Spenser Walters is a Formula 1 and Big 12 Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpenserWalters.
Read more Texas Longhorns player profiles by authors Kris Hughes and Marian Hinton.
