Colt showed throughout the span between OU and A&M that he works best when complimenting a mainly JC running attack.  He is not capable of opening up the running game by throwing the ball all over the defense, whether it's waiting too long on a deep ball and letting the receiver outrun his arm, or horridly predictable hot-reads and no clear passing lanes.  Hopefully the offensive line play will be much improved next year, which should help his confidence in the pocket.  His passing game should improve, but I don't expect he'll ever get to the point that we thought he was at at the beginning of this year, and be able to carry the rest of the team and set up the running game.

That said, he has shown that he can run the offense efficiently when Jamaal Charles is the main focus, and that he can be enough of a running threat to open up holes for JC that we haven't seen since 2005 (not that he's freezing the whole LB corps and the safeties on every play, but he can keep them honest).  More, once the defense keys in on the running game, Colt can get the ball to his play-making receivers, and good things happen.

What I don't understand is that we seem to have developed that identity, culminating with the unstoppable surge that would not be stopped against Tech, and then abandoned it against A&M to revert back to exactly what didn't work for the entire first half of the season.  We've seen Colt succeed, and it wasn't in the offense we saw against the Aggies.  I guess they wanted to protect him, but I can't think of anything less safe than hanging out behind that "usually-there" offensive line waiting to get blindsided by some 300 lb friend-of-the-sheep.

Colt will impress us once again if we come out with the right game plan against ASU.  He will get more and more hate mail on this site if we keep using him like we have been.

is that he is, in essence, just an extension of Mack - a great, "aw shucks" kind of guy who doesn't seem to show a lot of emotion and doesn't get the people around him fired up to play.  The Horns need someone, anyone, to step up like VY used to and fire the team up and get them motivated to go in to battle.  

I talked with a friend of mine yesterday who is an Aggie fan and his comment to me about the A&M game was that it looked like the Texas players really didn't give a shit about winning.  He also went on to say that this team could beat ANYBODY in the country if they put their heart into it, but they just don't seem to care.  Obviously perception does not equal reality, but I see a lot of similarities between this year's team and teams of the late 80's and early 90's - tons of talent; no heart.

Is Colt to blame for this?  Certainly not completely, but at least partially.  He is the QB, and the QB is typically the leader of the team.  He needs to step it up, show some VY-like emotion and get in his team's ass.  If he can't do it, then someone else needs to take charge and get these guys going.

I'd like to see Chiles used much more - I still cannot understand why they burned the red-shirt and then barely even used the kid.

Horn Brain's comments are right on, but I have a few other comments.
First, McCoy doesn't have a laser arm. He can throw deep balls (witness deep throws to Sweed against OU and Nebraska in 2006) but they are only effective when the receiver is in single coverage with no deep safety help. In that case he can just lay the ball up and let the receiver run under it. I have not seen him successfully throw the "out and up" 15-25 yard pass where the receiver beats the CB up the field and the QB arches the ball with zip to the receiver as he heads up the sideline but before the safety can get over. Also, I have never seen him throw a deep post, which agin requires some zip to squeeze the ball between the safeties. VY, for example lived off that pattern to Billy Pittman in 2005.
That said, McCoy can be deadly accurate on short and medium routes. This would lend itself to something like a West Coast offense, with short, timed passes that go to spots on the field where the defense isn't. I believe Greg Davis was trying to implement something like that at the beginning of the year and also in the A&M game when they feared, apparently, for Colt's life. The problem is that it is extremely difficult for all the receivers and the QB to be on the same page - you just don't have enough practice time and experience to get the timing and positioning airtight (witness Nebraska and Syracuse trying to run the West Coast). Davis' version was making short passes to quick athletes like Cosby and Jones in space and trying for yards after the catch. To a large extent, that strategy worked this year, as it accounted for most of Texas' considerable passing yards. There's no reason to get away from that completely next year (or in the bowl game) because it is what Colt does well.
I agree with HornBrain, though that that passing strategy will not win you games without a strong running attack or an ironclad offensive line, because the short passing game is lousy at overcoming sacks or other negative plays when the receivers aren't getting the ball in stride.

Colt is quick and has good field vision. He also throws on the run fairly well, although not on passes much deeper than 15 yards. I think Texas can be a very good offensive team with a simpler, more aggressive running attack that features Colt more as a planned runner, not just a scrambler. His threat to pass out of a designed run, like a zone read, and ability to avoid slower defenders like LB's or tackles can keep safeties and LB's looking at him longer, which would open up other running options for Charles and McGee.

Finally, I think it would indeed be interesting to have Chiles come in with a running offense for a few series or in a few situations (inside the opponents' 50 after a turnover, or after a long kick return) each game just as a change of pace and to develop his skills. I think this whole strategy would be more effective if he can develop at least the threat to pass. Imagine the shock of having the running offense come in after a turnover and instead Chiles throws a deep ball (I'm assuming he can) to someone (Kirkendoll?).

Anyway, I think Colt has limitations, but he can be excellent at running the offense and a short-medium passing game, and there is enough other talent to add explosiveness in other ways. Teams have won national championships with less to work with (tOSU in 2002). I think the defense has farther to go than the offense, despite how weak the offense looked at A&M.

I'm a Colt McCoy fan. I loved him last year, but this year i'm starting to lose patience. The Texas Longhorns have always been a running team. Our best ever player was a running quarterback (like you don't know who i'm talking about). Our second best player (earl) was a running back. Our third best was a running back (ricky). We have a great back in Jamaal Charles and we need to get the ball to John Chiles more so he can run it, too.