Colt McCoy wanted to get what he could from the play.
With four receivers running down field, McCoy decided to hit running back Chris Ogbonnaya on a flat route. Ogbonnaya was forced out of bounds for a 1-yard gain.
McCoy would take it back if he could, considering it was fourth-and-eight from Kansas State's 46-yard line. Instead, Texas turned the ball over on downs and that was the last anyone saw of McCoy for the rest of Kansas State's 41-21 upset over the Longhorns on Saturday.
The Texas quarterback looked reliable at the onset of the game. McCoy completed six-of-six passes and drove the Longhorns 68 yards on their first series of the game.
But for the remainder of the Big 12 Conference opener, McCoy was out of rhythm and out of sync with his receiving core.
"I felt like I had a hesitant quarterback, and you have to have that guy free-flowing out there," said offensive coordinator Greg Davis. "We made some mistakes on Saturday that we haven't made in a long time. I've got to find the right mixture, or whatever term you want to use, to get him back."
For now, we'll use the term simplification.
What Texas coaches want to do is give McCoy fewer reads to make at the line of scrimmage. Use more designed plays with fewer options so there is less room for confusion. It's not a knock on McCoy's ability, but it's something to calm McCoy's hesitation.
He doesn't really know what to call it though.
"I just think they were putting a lot of pressure, and as the game went on I just tried to hard to make plays," McCoy said. "Overall, the whole team game and whole team part of it wasn't working for us, so we'll all just need to go back to work."
There's no one that can question McCoy's willingness to learn an offensive system. You can't say it's because he's not studying defenses, because McCoy lives in the film room during the week leading up to each game.
"He's an extremely bright kid, and his idol is Peyton Manning, so you can imagine how much he studies," Davis said.
Maybe Texas coaches have given him too much to study.
After a phenomenal freshman season that included a freshman-record 29 touchdown passes, McCoy was already being labeled as one of the greatest quarterbacks in Texas history.
Things have changed a bit this season.
There have been flashes of brilliance from the sophomore gunslinger. He's better at eluding the pass rush and can throw a good ball on the run. But some are beginning to question his decision making.
So it might be time to slow things down for McCoy.
"Greg and I have to go back and figure out what's best for him, and if we are giving him too much, then we need to limit a few things that make him more hesitant," said Texas coach Mack Brown. "If we don't have those four turnovers, we probably still, [will] win the game despite the kicking game problems. The biggest thing to show the kids is that while everyone was mad at Colt, he's getting hit and you're not sure where it's coming from so you get hesitant."
In McCoy's defense, his offensive line hasn't protected him as well as it should this season. McCoy is one of those guys that will hold onto the ball as long as possible to find the open receiver, even if it means taking the big hit.
But there are many plays he has forced out of the pocket after a protection breakdown that didn't allow him enough time to find the open receiver.
For all these reasons, McCoy's coaches want to simplify the offense.
There will still be different jumbo packages that Texas will use. There will still be different personnel subbing in and out of the game.
Rather, things will be just a bit more formulated.
"What I was talking about and coach Brown was eluding to is we do a lot of things at the line of scrimmage, some are true checks or passes where we let the quarterback determine different routes based on what he's seeing," Davis said. "We may have to revisit that and see if we're giving him too many choices."
For now, the Longhorns are more worried about where they are as a team.
"We have to concentrate on fixing our mistakes and our team before we can even think about OU," Brown said.
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