Colt McCoy: Why He Deserves Sportsman of the Year

December is just around the corner, which means that we are only weeks away from the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award.  The magazine is currently taking nominations, and I was pleased to see that my first choice (Armando Galarraga) was nominated today by the esteemed Joe Posnanski.

However, I have one more name for their consideration—Colt McCoy, for his courageous performance for the Texas Longhorns at the BCS Championship on Jan. 7 against Alabama.

You might be asking yourself, "Didn't Colt McCoy get knocked out of the game?"  

Yes, he did, on a play that everybody agrees was a clean hit and McCoy himself says he's run numerous times.  It was just one of those times where something bad happens at the worst possible moment.

But rather than mope or stay in the locker room, McCoy stayed out on the sideline, helping new quarterback Garrett Gilbert with the plays and generally doing whatever he could to help his team in spite of the obvious disappointment of being knocked out of the game.

After the game, however, is where we saw the true character of the Texas quarterback.

McCoy could have gone straight to the locker room without talking to the media, and nobody would have thought badly of him.  Instead, he stayed out on the field, answered what had to be difficult questions, expressed his congratulations to both Gilbert and to Alabama, and played the role of team leader right down to the last possible second.

I did not have a dog in last year's BCS Championship, but Colt McCoy earned my everlasting respect after that night.  This is why he's my nomination for Sportsman of the Year.