THE CZECH IS IN THE MAIL
Fifteen years later and it still gets mentioned.
In the 2009-10 BCS national championship game, SEC champion Alabama defeated Big 12 champion Texas, 37-21. An unfortunate event happened for the Longhorns in that game when starting quarterback Colt McCoy suffered an injury in the first quarter that knocked him out of the game.
Almost every Texas fan I talk to swears that the Longhorns would’ve won that game if McCoy didn’t get hurt. That’s really not much different than someone saying they swear they would’ve won the lottery if they had just bought a lottery ticket.
While the injury did have an impact on Texas’ performance offensively, it wasn’t the only reason the Longhorns lost the game. I will give you five reasons why you can’t blame McCoy’s injury for the 2009-10 BCS national championship loss.
Before I dive into the top five reasons, I’m going to give you two more reasons that didn’t make the top-five cut. Here’s the best of the rest:
NICK SABAN
Alabama’s former head football coach is arguably the best coach in college football in the game over the last 20 years. He guided LSU to the 2003-04 BCS national championship before a subpar two-year stint as head coach of the Miami Dolphins and taking over Alabama’s program in 2007.
That game established Alabama as a dynasty. Since the win in that championship game, Saban led the Crimson Tide to five more national championships - 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020 before he retired at the end of the 2023 season.
As great of a defensive mind as Saban was, chances are he would’ve figured out a way to slow down McCoy if he didn’t get hurt. After all, the Longhorn quarterback was hurt on the ninth play from scrimmage, which meant Saban would’ve had three quarters to make adjustments to McCoy.
BIG 12
When the Big Eight became the Big 12 in 1996, it was a wellrespected conference. In its first 13 years, the conference saw three national championships (Nebraska 1997, Oklahoma 2000, Texas 2005), four national runners-up (Nebraska 2001, Oklahoma 2003, 2004, 2008) and five BCS at-large wins (Nebraska 1999 Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma 2002 Rose Bowl, Texas 2004 Rose Bowl, Kansas 2007 Orange Bowl, Texas 2008 Fiesta Bowl).
But the 2009 season proved to be the beginning of a downward trend for the Big 12. While many of the teams in the conference either experienced key losses to graduation or the NFL Draft, suffered key injuries or were adjusting to second-year head coaches, Texas took advantage of those teams’ misfortunes.
Since the Longhorns’ loss to Alabama, a Big 12 team has not competed in a national championship game. Texas won the Big 12 championship in 2023 - its final season in the Big 12 before moving to the SEC - but the Longhorns failed to win the conference between 2009-23 despite having the largest athletic budget in the league.
Now here’s the Top 5 5). MACK BROWN The Texas coach had an opportunity at halftime to put McCoy back in the game. The senior quarterback was begging his coach to let him get back on the field and swore he was good to go.
Brown refused to put McCoy back in the game and stuck with Garrett Gilbert, who despite throwing a pair of touchdown passes in the second half, completed just 15 of 42 passes and threw four interceptions. To this day, it’s puzzling to wonder why Brown did not put his starting quarterback in the game when it was the national championship and McCoy’s final college football game.
4). ALABAMA OFFENSE
With Tide quarterback Greg McElroy playing with bruised ribs, Alabama wasn’t going to be able to throw the football very much. This meant the Tide would have to rely on its offensive line and running backs Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson.
Other than giving up five quarterback sacks and seven tackles for losses, the Alabama offensive line was dominant up front. The Tide’s line opened holes for Heisman Trophy winner Ingram to run 22 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns and Richardson to gain 109 yards and two scores on 16 carries.
McElroy threw the football just 11 times, completing six of those for 58 yards, including a 23-yard throw to future Atlanta Falcons receiver Julio Jones for his only reception of the game. For every Texas fan who says their team would’ve won if McCoy didn’t get hurt, there are Alabama fans who could say the Tide would’ve dominated the game if McElroy didn’t play with bruised ribs, which likely would’ve led to more catches and yards for Jones.
3). SAM BRADFORD
The 2008 Heisman Trophy winner suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Texas’ 16-13 victory against Oklahoma. Bradford, the Sooners’ quarterback and No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, was knocked out of the Red River Shootout with his team leading 3-0.
This game proved to be one of the lucky breaks the Longhorns received on their way to the national championship game. If Texas fans say McCoy’s injury kept their team from winning a national championship, then Oklahoma fans have every right to say Bradford’s injury against the Longhorns kept the Sooners from winning the Red River Shootout and possibly a Big 12 championship or a national championship.
If there is an alternate universe where injuries don’t exist, Texas still doesn’t win the national championship against Alabama. In fact, that game never takes place.
The Longhorns don’t even win the Big 12 or make it to the Big 12 championship game. It’s Oklahoma who does those things.
2). ALABAMA DEFENSE
The Tide defense was simply dominant the entire season. Alabama gave up 130 points in the regular season and surrendered 20 points or more just three times in that 12-game span, which included a season- high 24 in a 34-24 win against Virginia Tech in the season opener.
The Tide didn’t struggle in the SEC championship game as it limited a Tim Tebow-led Florida offense to just 13 points in a 32-13 rout of the Gators. Alabama didn’t miss a beat in the BCS national championship game either.
Defensive lineman Marcel Dareus made arguably the two biggest plays of the first half. The first big play was a hit on McCoy at the line of scrimmage which took him out of the game.
The second was an interception return for a touchdown on the final play of the first half. Dareus stepped in front of a Gilbert shovel pass and rumbled into the endzone from there to increase the Tide’s lead to 24-6 at the break.
Alabama also forced Texas to kick a field goal on its opening drive the same drive which McCoy was injured. The significance behind that drive was two plays after Dareus’ tackle of McCoy, the Longhorns had a first-and-goal from the Tide 1-yard line but were unable to push the ball into the endzone.
On that same opening drive, McCoy completed a pair of passes for a grand total of nine yards. Not to mention, Texas had just four plays of longer than 20 yards and was limited to just 81 yards rushing on 28 carries.
1). BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
I like to call this one, “3-2-1-oops.” Trailing 12-10 with time ticking down, McCoy scrambled out of the pocket and threw a pass out of bounds.
The clock read 0:00 after the play - or so we thought. The replay official ruled that McCoy’s pass hit the ground out of bounds with one second left.
This allowed Texas to get one last play in — a 42-yard field goal. Hunter Lawrence drilled the kick through the uprights to give the Longhorns a 13-12 victory against Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game.
This was the biggest break Texas caught this season. If the replay official lets the ruling on the field stand, Nebraska wins the Big 12 and the best Texas can do is likely a Sugar Bowl berth against Florida.
In the aftermath of the BCS national championship game, the Big 12 underwent a major facelift. In June 2010, Colorado and Nebraska applied for membership in the Pac 10 and Big 10, respectively, and both schools were selected as members of those conferences.
The following year, Texas A&M and Missouri both apply for membership to the SEC. Both schools joined the conference in June 2012.
TCU and West Virginia joined the Big 12 in June 2012 to make it a conference of 10. The Big 12 eliminated the divisional format after the 2010 season when the conference was reduced to
10 schools. Then, last July, Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC. The Big 12 has now expanded to 16 schools as Colorado rejoined the conference and Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Houston and Utah joined the conference over the last two years.
Hopefully these reasons are enough to convince someone that McCoy’s injury didn’t cost Texas the 2009 national championship. But we’ll likely hear about it decades later.
Jason Chlapek is the area editor of the Elgin Courier and Taylor Press. He can be reached at jason.chlapek@granitemediapartners. com.
