Colt McCoy Reveals The One Player From 2023 Longhorns He Would Have Wanted On His Team

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The Texas Longhorns had their hearts broken back in 2009 when Colt McCoy got injured in the national title game vs. the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Tide went on to win that game, sending the Longhorns home empty-handed.
Despite that, however, the 2009 Longhorns remain one of the best teams in program history, thanks in large part to McCoy. In fact, the 2008 team might have been even better, despite not making the Big 12 Championship or national title game.
So it is hard to imagine a way to make either of those teams more impressive than they already were.
That said, there is one player from the 2023 iteration of the Horns that McCoy wishes he could have had on his teams.
Texas star tight end, Ja'Tavion Sanders.
“Sanders, right away. When (Texas tight end) Blaine Irby got hurt … we ended up spreading it out," McCoy said on the Horns Up podcast. "We adjusted, right? I mean, having Quan (Cosby) and Jordan (Shipley) was like a luxury. But had we had a tight end, you know, being able to get into some different personnel groups, it would have been a big factor for us.”
Sanders is certainly an elite talent, and it's easy to see why McCoy would want him on his Horns teams.
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This season with Texas, Sanders has been an absolute nightmare for opposing defenses, hauling in 39 passes for 607 yards and two touchdowns, while averaging 15.6 yards per catch.
Not only that, but he helps draw attention away from the Longhorns' trio of star receivers, Xavier Worthy, Jordan Whittington and Adonai Mitchell.
And if time machines existed, it certainly would be a fun exercise to see what Sanders could have done for an offense with Jordan Shipley and Quan Cosby.

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writers’ Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014, covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.
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