Colt started out pretty damn hot. Second play of his career was a 50+ yard td pass. We got stomped by Ohio State but for a baby faced freshman Colt looked decent in the game. We were in the MNC hunt his freshman year, if it wasn't for Colt getting hurt in the K-State game I'm confident we would have won the conference and probably gone on to the title game. Upsets happened the same day we lost to K-state, which would have put Texas at #3, with Michigan and Ohio State as #2 and #1 with a meeting the following week.
People obviously didn't think he could be the next VY, but pretty quickly Colt won people over. He had a really serious sophomore slump, though, and went in to his junior year pretty quietly. It wasn't until the OU game 2008 that Colt McCoy became a star in the national picture. But by that point, most Texas fans were already pretty much sold on Colt.
I remember the summer between Colt and Vince, telling my roommate at the time, "wouldn't it be crazy if when it was all said and done, we'd be looking back saying 'The only QB who could possibly follow Vince Young, was Colt McCoy?'"
Sam Ehlinger's early game at USC gave me Colt McCoy freshman flashbacks. Not in the style of football they play, but just that general "this dude is a winner" vibe.
Thing is, even including VY, until you win it all, there will always be naysayers. Shit, there are still naysayers about Colt McCoy. "He never won." The summer before the title year, people were still talking about how Vince Young would never be a competent passer, how we almost lost to Kansas, etc. You have to win to shut people up. People look back at VY and Colt with a lot more rose tinted glasses overall because of hindsight. There are always haters.