Throughout today, we’ll break down national signing day for Texas, the Big 12 and around the nation.
We’ll start by breaking down Texas’ incoming class, position by position.
QUARTERBACKS
Even with the departure of Colt McCoy, the Longhorns are set at QB. Garrett Gilbert,
the former Lake Travis star and one of the two most decorated
quarterbacks in Texas high school history, played sparingly as a
freshman before getting handed the keys to the offense in the national
championship game.
Gilbert, the son of former NFL backup Gale Gilbert,
should give Horns fans plenty to be excited about. He’s 6-4, 207
pounds. He’s got the pedigree. He won two state titles for Lake Travis.
He’s got a solid arm with a reputation of reading defenses well and
making good decisions.
Backing him up will be Sherrod Harris, who’ll be a senior.
That leaves an open window for one of the incoming freshmen who signed Wednesday to earn a spot as a backup.
- Case McCoy, Graham: If nothing else, his signing ensures fans that Texas will have a quarterback named McCoy for a few more years.
Still, Colt’s little brother was a standout at
Graham, where he played for his father, Brad. He had a solid prep
career, completing 657 of his 1,105 pass attempts for 9,882 yards and
101 touchdowns.
But McCoy also threw 43 interceptions.
Like Colt, he also can run it when needed. He rushed for 1,194 yards and 11 TDs.
That capped a good prep career: As a junior, McCoy completed 59
percent of his passes (168 of 285) for 2,226 yards and 17 TDs, with 10
picks. As a sophomore, he threw for 2,008 yards and 22 TDs.
Last fall, we sent staff writer Kevin Robbins up to Brownwood to do a feature on the big Brownwood-Graham game, which saw Case McCoy as Graham’s QB going head to head against Brownwood WR Jaxson Shipley, Jordan’s younger brother.
(You’ll probably see Jaxson’s name on Texas’ 2011 signing list. He’s still a junior.)
He’s also an early enrollee at Texas, which means he’ll get valuable
spring practice and we should see him in the Orange-White game.
- Connor Wood, Houston Second Baptist: Even with the
signing of McCoy — who gives Texas some starpower in the last name
department — you probably should be more excited about Wood right now.
He’s the third best quarterback prospect in the country by Rivals,
and is No. 9 on our Fabulous 55. He passed for 2,669 yards and rushed
for another 668 this past season, and has that good 6-foot-4 size you
want out of your quarterback.
Back in December, Sports Illustrated tabbed Wood as one of six QB
prospects who could become that next great college quarterback from the
Lone Star State, a la Colt McCoy, Todd Reesing, Chase Daniel, etc.
Those six were Wood, McKinney’s Zach Lee (LSU), Denton Ryan’s Scotty Young (Texas Tech), Lake Dallas’ James Franklin (Missouri) and Silsbee’s Jeremy Johnson (West Virginia).
It’s interesting that Wood committed to Texas just eight days after
McCoy did, in February 2009. And, like McCoy, Wood is another early
enrollee, meaning he’s already taking classes at UT and is learning Greg Davis’ playbook.
