Top two Heisman Trophy vote-getters from the same conference? It’s happened.
Top two returning for the next college football season? It’s happened.

Top two Heisman returning players at such bitter rivals that message-toting airplanes invade the other campus’ airspace? That’s a first.
Quarterbacks Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, the Heisman winner, and runner-up Colt McCoy of Texas stand among the stars of college football as 2009 camps open this week, and they stand close to each other.
So close that they’ve become — hold on to your cowboy hat — friends.
“If you would have told me five years ago that I was going to become friends with the quarterback at Texas, I would have looked at you kind of strange,” Bradford said. “Colt and I have gotten past being at rival schools.”
Gasp.
The only time a Sooner and Longhorn are supposed to be close is when they’re attempting to dismantle each other on the Cotton Bowl turf.
But this is what happens through shared experiences like making the rounds last December during awards ceremonies and becoming roommates in July at Peyton and Eli’s Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La.
The quarterbacks said the room assignment was coincidence, and when word got out afterward, McCoy figured to get some quizzical looks.
“From the fans’ perspective, it was kind of like, ’What in the world are y’all doing? You can’t be friends,’ “ McCoy said. “But for me, and him I’m sure, we have a lot in common.”
Starting with football excellence.
Outside of themselves and Florida’s Tim Tebow, there aren’t many folks to whom Bradford and McCoy can relate to as college football exemplars.
Few besides Bradford can know what it was like for McCoy to hold 42 school records and an NCAA record by completing an astounding 76.7 percent of his passes last year.
Only McCoy can truly imagine what it’s like for Bradford to guide one of the most powerful offenses in college football history in 2008 and lead the nation in passing rating and with 50 touchdown passes.
They can relate to how their lives have changed since becoming stars, how their girlfriends have become cyber-gossip subjects, how they have to have their guard up in public and unusual autograph requests like the one Bradford received.
“A couple asked me to sign their baby,” he said. “They actually put the baby on the table.”
He signed the onesie.
“Sam’s the man,” McCoy said.
Texas coach Mack Brown said it was easy to see how they ended up on parallel tracks.
“They both come from athletic families, they both come from education backgrounds,” Brown said. “They had that in common before they knew each other.”
Kent Bradford is a former Oklahoma offensive lineman. Martha Bradford is a physical education teacher.
Brad McCoy was Colt’s coach in high school, and Debra McCoy is a former college basketball player.
The quarterbacks, by the high recruiting standards set by their schools, were not highly prized prospects. In the Rivals.com five-star measure, both were assigned three stars.
But both emerged from intense quarterback competitions to become starters as redshirt freshmen, and both stepped in large footprints.
McCoy became Texas’ starter in 2006, months after Vince Young led the Longhorns to the national championship.
Bradford became the starter in 2007, three seasons after the conclusion of Jason White’s career. White won the Heisman Trophy in 2003 and led the Sooners to the national championship game in each of his last two years.
They’ve more than held their own as successors. McCoy’s 32-7 record as a starter marks the most victories by a Texas quarterback—he has a clear shot at the NCAA record of 42 — and he’s the first in school history to go 3-0 in bowl games.
At 23-5, Bradford needs 10 wins to become the Sooners’ most victorious quarterback, and likely will hold most of the school’s passing records.
Of course, their ideas diverge in at least one place. When last season’s South Division race finished in a three-team deadlock among Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech—the teams beat everybody else and went 1-1 against each other—the Sooners won the tiebreaker because of their higher BCS ranking.
It turned out, Texas was the only team in the conference to have defeated both teams in the Big 12 title game, Oklahoma and Missouri.
“After beating them and seeing them play for the Big 12 championship, that was a hard pill to swallow,” McCoy said.
The Longhorns didn’t get to play for the conference championship. Oklahoma fell to Florida in the BCS championship game. For as much success as their programs and quarterbacks enjoyed last season, they share a hunger for success this season after not reaching ultimate goals.
“You put so much into it as a player, it’s all you think about, it’s all you dream about, to play for a national championship,” Bradford said. “To come up short, it’s not a good feeling to have.”
It’s one of the reasons why Bradford and McCoy turned down potential NFL millions to return.
“You want to leave on top,” McCoy said. “People always remember the ones that leave on top.”
That feeling may be the strongest tie that binds.