Part of the Doc's Big 12 Week.

A couple weeks back, I got in touch with the Austin American-Statesman's sports department to inquire about a strange thing had popped up as a "related story" in the sidebar of a story on the oncoming hype for Colt McCoy:

That's an emblem a bigshot Austin advertising firm worked up for the Longhorns' trip to the Rose Bowl in 2005; its sudden appearance three-and-a-half years later, next to a random offseason fluff piece, was an unexplained accident. It caught my eye because, initially, it struck me that Texas was launching a new campaign trading on the nostalgia of its only national champion of the last 35 years as an analogue to the ambitions of the '09 'Horns.

Alas, they're not so bold. But even though that characterization would be presumptuous, yes, it's also in keeping with the general atmosphere of destiny at Texas, given just how much the '05 champions share with the outfit hitting the field this fall:

• Both teams began the season ranked No. 2 (that's a safe assumption for this year's polls when they're released next month), behind a defending national champion (USC in '05, Florida in '09) that returns a stunning array of talent -- including in both cases a Heisman-winning, golden boy quarterback gunning for a final, triumphant exit as a senior (Matt Leinart then, Tim Tebow now; they're even both lefties) -- from a team that beat Oklahoma in Miami for the championship and subsequently swept the preseason polls. If you thought the Trojan hype was over the top then, it will be nothing next to the tongue bath awaiting 13-0 Florida this winter.

• Both teams are coming off a dramatic, come-from-behind win over a Big Ten power in a BCS game (Michigan in the '05 Rose Bowl, Ohio State in the '09 Fiesta Bowl) that cemented an 11-1 record and a top-five finish.

• Both teams yielded three straight division titles to Oklahoma (from 2002-04 and 2006-08) but were slightly favored to end the Sooners' respective runs and take the conference.

• The mythical championship game is back in the Rose Bowl in January.

And of course, most importantly:

• Both teams were led by a Heisman-contending quarterback whose specific, unique skills nearly singlehandedly powered one of the most prolific offenses in the country despite a lack of surrounding talent.

Unofficially, anyway, this is clearly the serendipitous narrative Texas hopes to ride all the way to No. 1 this time around, and as such begs the question: For Texas to fulfill its championship destiny, does Colt McCoy have to be Vince Young?

The VY comparison has followed Colt from the beginning, and it's always been unfair. Nobody can be Vince Young, at least in the sense of being a 6'6", 230-pound mustang who can run circles around even the most talented defenses in the country and put the team on his shoulders seemingly at will. The only heir to that kind of physical absurdity on a current roster (college or pro) is Terrelle Pryor. McCoy, who even on a significantly buffed-up frame still looks like a gangly 14-year-old, could never imitate that kind of looming, intimidating presence; when the inevitable "All-Decade" teams are unveiled at the end of the year, it's very unlikely any of them will consider McCoy over Young if they consider him at all, because he hasn't had -- and seems unlikely to have -- a defining "wow" moment, the kind VY could elicit just striding onto the field.

If not in style, though, it's certainly fair to ask whether McCoy can match Young in substance -- if he hasn't matched him already. This is probably the more appropriate question, since McCoy's junior season was jaw-dropping in its own right: He set the single-season record for completion percentage, had six 300-yard passing games, led the team in rushing and would have easily won the Heisman if the UT defense had hung on after McCoy led the late, go-ahead drive at Texas Tech. He's perhaps the mst robotically accurate, consistent quarterback in modern college history; even if you include Young's five-touchdown masterpiece in the Rose Bowl win over Michigan, McCoy probably has the better resumé going into his final season.

But that's also the rub: Does McCoy have another gear he hasn't demonstrated yet, the extra big play sizzle Young flashed in both Rose Bowl victories and throughout UT's scorched-earth run to the championship? Colt was so good in 2008, so consistent, that it seems frankly impossible for him to actually improve, and even if he matches that record-breaking pace, will that get them over the hurdle that kept the Longhorns out of the promised land last year?

It's not an outrageous stretch to imagine the 'Horns averaging 50 yards and 50 points, just like the dominant '05 team, after putting up 475 yards and 42 points per game last year. But they can't honestly ask more from McCoy or the offense at large than an encore, which would be a fairly spectacular feat in itself. The extra gear, the one nearly imperceptible element that separates a very good season from a miracle year for the ages, is going to have to come from the defense, which was not in the same zip code last year as the '05 unit that finished in the top-10 nationally in total and scoring D under Gene Chizik. The difference is nearly random but crucial: Young doesn't get a chance to weave his now-legendary heroics if the Texas defense doesn't stuff LenDale White on a decisive 4th-and-1 at midfield to prevent USC from running out the clock, and UT almost certainly waltzes undefeated into the national championship game last year if Blake Gideon holds on to the easiest interception ever, or if Curtis Brown and/or Earl Thomas knocks down Graham Harrell's last-second prayer to Michael Crabtree in Lubbock.

Even if we assume Colt McCoy is going to spend the entirety of his senior season operating in a kind of zen-like trance that redefines the concept of "the zone," his ultimate legacy -- as one of the elite quarterbacks of the modern era on one hand or as a smart, tough kid who couldn't lead his team to even one conference championship in four years as a starter on the other -- is not necessarily up to him.