Colt McCoy

Daniel Colt McCoy (born September 5, 1986) is an American football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Browns in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft, after playing college football for the University of Texas at Austin.

McCoy was the starting quarterback for the Longhorns from 2006–2009 and won the 2008 Walter Camp Award and was the 2008 Heisman Trophy runner-up. McCoy is second to Boise's State's Kellen Moore in games won by a NCAA Division I quarter back. In his senior year, he won 13 of the top 15 major college player awards including quarterback of the year, offensive player of the year and outstanding football player of the year.

After sitting out the 2005 Longhorn season as a redshirt, McCoy was the starting quarterback for the 2006 Longhorn team. On November 4, 2006, McCoy threw his 27th touchdown pass in a win against Oklahoma State, to take sole possession of the Texas school record for most touchdowns ever thrown by a quarterback in a single season. Subsequently, in the 2006 Alamo Bowl on December 30, McCoy threw two touchdowns against University of Iowa to tie Nevada's David Neill for second place for freshman touchdowns in a single season. Also during the 2006 season, McCoy was named College Football News Big 12 Player of the Year and was named the quarterback to their "All Freshman Team". Injuries caused him to miss portions of the final two regular season games, but was able to play for the entire duration of the Longhorns' bowl game.

Leading the 2007 Longhorns, McCoy was somewhat less consistent. Through the first five games he threw nine interceptions — two more than he threw in the entire 2006 season. He went on to throw 18 interceptions during the 2007 season.

Leading the 2008 Texas Longhorn football team, McCoy and the Longhorns began the season with 8 straight wins, including a win over then #1 Oklahoma, #6 Oklahoma State and #11 Missouri. His performance helped the Longhorns rise at one point to the #1 ranking in the national polls, although UT lost to Texas Tech University and finished ranked third in the BCS standings. In 2008 McCoy set school records for most career touchdown passes, most touchdown passes in a season, most total touchdowns by a Texas player, most career wins, and most career passing yards. In addition to setting passing records, McCoy led the team with 561 yards rushing and 11 rushing touchdowns, establishing a reputation as a dual threat quarterback. McCoy was named the 2008 AP Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.

Early life
McCoy was born in Hobbs, New Mexico. He is the eldest of three children born to Steven Brad McCoy and Debra Kay (Woodruff) McCoy. He attended Jim Ned High School in Tuscola, Texas, population 714, where he was coached in football by his father, Brad McCoy. He achieved several distinctions as a high school player, including two-time Associated Press 2A Offensive MVP and First-team All-state selection. Over his career, he completed 536-of-849 passes (63.1%) for 9,344 yards and 116 TDs. He ranks as the all-time leading passer in Texas Division 2A high school history and is fourth overall in Texas high school history. McCoy also served as Jim Ned High School's punter as a junior and senior. During his sophomore year, McCoy was also playing free safety. However, after he suffered a concussion while tackling 215-pound Bangs High School running back Jacoby Jones (not to be confused with the Houston Texans wide receiver of the same name), his father decided not to let him play defense anymore. At the time Jim Ned was 8–0, but as McCoy missed the next two games due to the concussion, Jim Ned's season unraveled. McCoy also played in the 2003 Texas 2A State Championship against the San Augustine Wolves. Jim Ned lost 28–7.

Collegiate career
McCoy attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he played for coach Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns football team from 2005 to 2009.

Originally a redshirted freshman, served as the quarterback for the Longhorns' scout team in practice against the starting defense. During this time, Matt McCoy (no relation) was officially listed as the number three quarterback behind Vince Young and Matt Nordgren. When Brown chose to play Matt McCoy in four separate game situations where Texas had a commanding lead, confusion arose as to which McCoy was in the game. Many sportscasters mistakenly referred to Matt McCoy as Colt McCoy, as Colt was the more widely known player. The following year, with Young forgoing his senior year to enter the NFL and Nordgren graduating, the position of starting quarterback for the defending National Champion Texas Longhorns came down to a competition between red-shirt freshman Colt McCoy and true freshman newcomer Jevan Snead.

In the 2006 Oklahoma State game McCoy threw for his 27th passing touchdown of the season, giving him sole possession of the single-season Texas record and putting him two TD's shy of the NCAA single season record for freshman quarterbacks (29). Coincidentally, this 27th pass was also for 27 yards.

NCAA Statistics
As of the end of the 2009 season, McCoy's statistics were as follows:

In the seventh game of 2008, he completed 91%. He finished the 2008 regular season with a 76.7% completion percentage, breaking the mark set by Daunte Culpepper for Central Florida, and was the Longhorns' leading rusher with 576 yards and 11 rushing touchdowns.