Colt McCoy didn't play for a Heisman Trophy, a conference championship or a national title Thanksgiving night at Kyle Field.
Those things may have been on the line, but the Texas quarterback just played to win, and the Longhorns needed all he had to get a 49-39 victory over Texas A&M.
Texas finally locked up the game with its special teams. Freshman Marquise Goodwin returned a fourth-quarter kickoff 95 yards for a score, and A&M's Randy Bullock missed a field goal. But it was McCoy who stood out most of the night for the Longhorns.
McCoy's stats were typically impressive. He completed 24 of 40 passes 304 yards and four touchdowns and ran 18 times for 175 yards and a touchdown. When he took a knee to close out the game, the Longhorns finished at 597 yards of total offense.
It wasn't so much what McCoy did, but when he did it that sealed the victory. After A&M had cut UT's lead to 35-32, McCoy led the Longhorns on a five-play, 78-yard scoring drive to quiet the Kyle Field crowd of 84,671.
On second-and-10 at his 22-yard line, the Texas senior quarterback tucked the ball and ran up the middle for a gain of 43 yards that would have been more had the Longhorns not been penalized for a block in the back. McCoy followed that by connecting with James Kirkendoll, who cut back in and completed a 47-yard catch-and-run touchdown that gave the Longhorns a 42-32 advantage with 12:04 left in the game.
"Colt McCoy was unbelievable," Texas coach Mack Brown said. " I don't remember any performance like that, period. He was a great leader and he never blinked. I don't get to vote for Heisman, but if anybody has a better Heisman moment than that, then I'd like to see it."
The Longhorns got the ball back trailing 7-0 after a failed fake punt ended their previous drive, and McCoy's quarterback sneak on fourth down at the Aggie 46 kept alive a 12-play, 67-yard scoring march. He finished it by hitting Jordan Shipley with a tying touchdown, a 14-yard pass into the left side of the end zone. McCoy hit 10 of 11 passes for 73 yards and rushed six times for 46 yards in the first quarter alone.
Two plays into the second period, McCoy carved out another spot in the Texas record book. On second-and-9 at his 35, he outran the Aggie secondary for a 65 yard touchdown. That gave McCoy 111 yards -- a career-best rushing game -- and he recorded the third-longest run by a quarterback in Texas history.
Only Texas quarterbacks Vince Young (80 yards) and Brett Stafford (74) have had longer scoring runs for the Longhorns, but McCoy became the first Texas quarterback to lead consecutive 12-win seasons.
His 479 yards of offense was the third-best for the Longhorns and he passed Young with a fifth career 400-yard game of total offense.
"It goes back to doing what they tell you to do," McCoy said. "We want back to the old-fashioned zone read. To be able to communicate the way we did, handle the environment and stay in rhythm, that's pretty special."
"He was the leader," A&M senior defensive back Jordan Pugh said. "After the game, I told him to go get you a Big 12 championship and a national championship. To watch Jerrod [Johnson] and Colt go at it was a good experience. It was fun to watch."
Still, by halftime, McCoy had passed for 222 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 119 yards on 10 carries. He was at his best after the Aggies tied the game at 21-21 on a Jerrod Johnson-to-Howard Morrow touchdown pass.
Texas answered by scoring on a seven-play, 64-yard drive to take a 28-21 lead. McCoy either ran or passed on every play, hitting Jordan Shipley twice and completing the march with a pass to his left to Kirkendoll for a touchdown with four seconds left in the first half.
Unlike a year ago, when Texas was playing for a chance to reach the Big 12 championship game when it faced A&M, the Longhorns needed no style points. They just needed a victory.
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