Texas College Football Capsules: McGee reflects on star-crossed A&M career

COLLEGE STATION - Stephen McGee finally snapped.

He'd taken hard hits and played through pain, faced criticism from fans and media and championed a losing cause when Dennis Franchione came under fire. He was forced to trust a new coach, learn a new system and then fight for his job after two seasons as Texas A&M's starting quarterback.

And then he went down with a injury to his throwing shoulder two games into his final season - against New Mexico on Sept. 6 - and feared that his playing career might end just when he thought it was finally about to take flight.

He was angry and depressed, wondering what he had done to deserve a career so fraught with adversity. He let his emotions show, losing sight of his stature as the Aggies' role model on and off the field.

"It was rough. I was just down," McGee said Monday. "It was my senior year and all the crap that I went through since I've been here - it seemed like, ‘I can't get a break, I can't get break."'

His demeanor changed so dramatically after the game that A&M coach Mike Sherman called McGee to his office for a meeting.

Sherman talked about McGee's family, the master's degree he'll earn next spring, his Christian faith, even his possible future in the NFL. He reminded McGee of the 29 consecutive starts he made before the shoulder injury, including two straight victories over archrival Texas.

"I said, ‘You think I'm going to feel sorry for you?"' Sherman said. "I said, ‘What else is there? It's going to work out. Just have faith and keep working.' And he has. That was the only time I ever saw him sulking around a little bit."

McGee walked out with a brighter outlook and a renewed commitment to the team. The shoulder injury has lingered and sophomore Jerrod Johnson has started eight of the last nine games, but McGee has patiently helped Johnson learn the position and looked for other ways to lead.

"I can't be out there on the field. I can't be looking at guys in the huddle," McGee said. "I can only do what I can do on the sidelines. Whatever my role is for that weekend, I'm going to do the very best I can to make the people around me better. That's always what I felt my No. 1 goal is, as a leader. I feel like that's what leaders do to make people better."

The Aggies (4-6, 2-4 Big 12) play at Baylor (3-7, 1-2) on Saturday, and McGee isn't likely to play unless Johnson gets hurt or the game turns into a rout.

He's thrown only 29 passes since getting injured, hardly the season he envisioned after Sherman brought a pro-style offense that was a better fit for his skills than former coach Franchione's zone-read option.

Sherman is confident that McGee will play in the pros. McGee just wants a chance to impress scouts and hopes they don't judge him by the end of his college career.

"God had a different plan for me this year, and I look back on it and hopefully I'll be able to do this down the road," he said. "I wish I could've thrown for a bunch of yards and had a lot of success, but there are a lot of things I've learned through the tough times and the adversity."

This time last year, McGee was acting as team spokesman as the pressure mounted for Franchione's dismissal after news broke about a secretive newsletter that one of his assistants was distributing to boosters for a price. McGee was one of Franchione's most vocal supporters, but Franchione resigned after the Aggies' 38-30 win over the Longhorns Nov. 23.

Earlier last season, McGee lashed out at reporters who questioned why A&M wasn't passing more effectively. Then, he returned to College Station after the Aggies' 34-17 loss in Miami and found a nasty note from a fan on the windshield of his car.

Looking back, McGee says it's all made him a better person, taught him lessons that he wouldn't have learned if he'd accepted one of the scholarship offers he said he got from Southern Cal, Georgia or Texas.

"I don't regret ever, for one second, coming to Texas A&M," said McGee, a former record-setting quarterback at Burnet High School. "Certainly, everybody else, it seems like, has had success and we haven't. But, hey, this is a special place, a special university with so many great people.

"You don't get to win at everything you do," he said. "You're going to have bumps along the way and you've just got to learn to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep marching on with the right approach and the right attitude. You've just got to have that faith and that trust and keep doing things right. In the end, it's going to be for good."

The Aggies have an ordinary 17-12 record since McGee became the starter for the last game of 2005. He got a standing ovation when he came onto the field late in Saturday's 66-28 loss to Oklahoma, his final game at Kyle Field. He guided A&M on one last scoring drive in the fourth quarter and finished 10 of 19 for 82 yards.

Through it all, McGee will go down as one of the most prolific passers in school history. He's one of only five quarterbacks to top 5,000 passing yards and he'll rank among the top 5 in career completions and completion percentage.

But McGee said he'll measure his career by much more than the numbers.

"I've learned so much here, handling the tough things. That's priceless," he said. "That's not just a trophy you can look at. Maybe I have an impact on one guy, maybe he remembers down the road, ‘I remember when Stephen went through some stuff, and that helped me see some things and grow as a person.' If that's the case, I can feel good about what I've done here."

Horns say dismissal was emotional and appropriate

AUSTIN - A Texas Longhorns team leader said Monday he approved of the way coaches handled the dismissal of a player who posted a racial slur on his Facebook page about President-elect Barack Obama.

Backup center Buck Burnette left No. 4 Texas on Wednesday for what was announced as an unspecified violation of team rules. Burnette, a sophomore, played in seven games this season.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Burnette apologized and said he made a "terrible decision" to post a text message he received about Obama's victory that contained a racial slur.

Senior defensive end Brian Orakpo said he considered the dismissal "appropriate."

"I thought the coaches did a good job on handling the situation," Orakpo said. "My prayers are for him, but we've got to move on. Guys got to make better decisions for their future."

Orakpo said players should know their personal Web pages such as MySpace and Facebook can be sources of controversy.

"With the way the media and the Internet is evolving, everything you say can get you in trouble," Orakpo said.

Quarterback Colt McCoy, who counted Burnette among his good friends on the team, said it was an emotional decision for the coaches.

"I don't really want to talk about it that much but I feel super sorry for him and I think the team does, too," McCoy said. "I just told him to keep his head up. Things will blow over, things will get better. That's a situation that's tough."

Coach Mack Brown said his players are told to be careful about what they post on personal Web pages. Brown would prefer his players didn't have personal Web pages, but says he can't ban them.

"It's a public right they have as students," Brown said. "We've told them we'd rather they not have them, and we've told them they need to obviously not be putting anything their mom wouldn't want to see."

The coach cut off questions about the matter when asked if he feared the racial slur could divide his team.

"Folks, I'm not going there. At all. I'm through," he said. "We played well."

Obama's election prompted at least one visible but low-key celebration by a Texas player. Senior defensive end Henry Melton wrote "Obama" on the black patches he wore under his eyes during Texas' 45-21 win over Baylor on Saturday.

Texas (9-1, 5-1 Big 12) is still in contention for the conference and national championships. McCoy said the Longhorns moved on soon after Brown told them what happened and Burnette sent a letter of apology to the team. McCoy called the apology "extremely sincere."

"I did not think for a second this would be a distraction," McCoy said. "Everybody knows Buck. With this team's chemistry, we're all so close. It's a tough deal for everybody."

-- Jim Vertuno

Leach isn't interested in talking other jobs

LUBBOCK - Mike Leach's success this year at unbeaten No. 2 Texas Tech will probably bring offers from big-time programs on the lookout for new coaches.

Leach said Monday he isn't paying "any attention" to his name being tossed around midseason for jobs like Washington or Tennessee.

"Playing OU is enough of a handful without worrying about any of that," the coach said about the Red Raiders' showdown with No. 5 Oklahoma for the Big 12 South title Nov. 22.

Texas Tech, which hasn't beaten Texas and Oklahoma in the same season under Leach, remained at No. 2 in the rankings for a second week and the Red Raiders are one of five unbeaten teams in the country.

The ranking is the highest ever for the program. The Red Raiders winning streak is 12 straight, best in the nation and in school history. Texas Tech is 10-0 for the first time since 1938.

Leach has two years remaining on a five-year contract and is making $1.75 million this season.

His boss, athletic director Gerald Myers, declined to comment Monday about Leach's contract other than to say discussions about an extension will wait until after the season.

If Texas Tech plays its way into the national championship game those discussions would be in January

Most coaches don't go below four or five years remaining on their contracts before they get an extension.

Next season Leach will receive $1.85 million with a $800,000 bonus if he finishes the 2009 season; the contract's final year ups his pay to $2.15 million with a $200,000 bonus if he completes the 2010 season.

If he stays at Texas Tech, that is.

Leach's name has surfaced for openings in recent years at places like Arkansas and UCLA but he stayed put. Now, officials at Tennessee and Washington could come calling Leach's name.

Phillip Fulmer is being forced out after 17 years as Tennessee's coach, a run that included a national championship and a 150-51 record with the Vols. Tyrone Willingham, who was fired late last month after the Huskies lost their ninth consecutive game, was ousted because he failed to restore Washington to national prominence.

Leach's pass-happy offense has proved effective in the years since he came to Tech in 2000. The coach with a law degree and a penchant for all things pirate related has taken the Red Raiders to bowl games every year.

Now, with back-to-back wins - 39-33 over then-No. 1 Texas and 56-20 over then-eighth Oklahoma State, the fervor for Leach and the Red Raiders seems at an all-time high.

His quirky ways - and now his unbeaten season - have endeared him and his team to a loyal following in West Texas.

But Leach's wall-in approach to player availability to media is about as restrictive as any in the country and might not fly at bigger programs. Even standout players can be insulated from reporters for weeks at a time.

Leach claims the policy minimizes distractions and players stay better focused. He picks players he thinks can handle the media exposure.

"We're tighter than some places and we're more generous than some places," Leach said last week. "Then we have to make decisions and so that's what we do. We're diligent about calling media back the best we can and other places don't do that."

How, though, would his media policy play in, say, Knoxville, a bigtime Southeastern Conference program where Tennessee fans are accustomed to hearing from players regularly?

"That'd be very interesting," said quarterback Graham Harrell, a contender for the Heisman Trophy along with favorite receiver Michael Crabtree. "He'd keep his players limited in their availability. I think he feels that winning football games is going to make you a lot more popular than having his players" available for interviews. "I feel that's his philosophy ... and that's what he's going to stick with."

-- Betsy Blaney