NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - This is southern California at its luxurious best, the Marriott Hotel on a bluff, the Pacific in the distance, the outside temperature in the mid 70s.

Except the kid wearing the white jersey with No. 12 on the front is inside, and his view is of cameras, microphones and prying journalists.

How these arrangements are made one never is certain. But the kid, quarterback Colt McCoy, and his Texas teammates will be playing Thursday night for the BCS Championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, some 45 minutes to the northwest, depending on that infamous Los Angeles area traffic.

Maybe officials hoped to give everyone a taste of the freeway system. (Go back up the 73, swing on to the 405, turn on to the 110, and stop when you see a little old lady in tennis shoes. Or Nick Saban.

Maybe they wanted a few degrees and several days of separation from Friday's Rose Bowl game and this game, which is in the Rose Bowl but not of it.

There was McCoy, who's done everything in his four years at Texas other than win the Heisman Trophy or the national title, going through the drill for the, what, 100th time?

As we've been informed, he's from a small town, Tuscola, Texas (714 people; there were nearly as many in line at the Marriott Starbucks) somewhere south of Buffalo Gap and north of Lawn (no truth the zip code is E-I-E-I-O). Yet he's hardly a bumpkin. Or impolite.

Maybe someday if McCoy makes it in the NFL he'll say, "Enough already,'' but Tuesday, there was nary a negative groan.

He'd heard all the questions before, given all the answers before - "I expect Alabama to be the best team we ever played'' - and yet acted interested and was responsive.

McCoy was heavily recruited out of Jim Ned High, where his dad then was the coach. He implies the big universities often ignore players from the sticks, pointing out no one from Jim Ned ever received an athletic scholarship in any sport. Maybe until McCoy there was a reason not to pay attention.

Despite his skills, McCoy lacked size, a small man from a small school. He was 175 pounds on arrival at Texas, proclaiming to offensive coordinator Greg Davis, "I want to be the best you've ever coached.'' A proper skeptic, Davis thought to himself, ‘Yeah, we got Pee-Wee Herman here.''

Pee-Wee has grown. He's now 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, and Davis concedes of McCoy, "He's special. College football needs people like Colt McCoy.''

College football and Texas, which as Alabama has a 13-0 record, has him for one more time. Yes, time flies.

Four years ago, as a freshman, McCoy watched Vince Young lead the late drive over USC for the 2006 BCS title in the Rose Bowl. Vince never won the Heisman either. As McCoy he was second, but he did get the championship.

"I was along for the ride,'' McCoy said of the 2006 game. "Coach (Mack) Brown said I was a hamburger eater everywhere we went. But I enjoyed it. The full year I feel like I did a great job just soaking things in, understanding how things work, the media, the games, how Vince led the team, the way he handled himself under pressure. All those things helped in my development as a quarterback.

"When we got the fourth-down stop, I was on the sideline with the clipboard. I was always in the (sideline) huddle. What's going on? Vince said (in so many words), ‘This is pretty special. You'll be here some day. Be ready.' ‘'

In one more day, 22-year-old Colt McCoy, who was the Walter Camp Football Foundation Player of the Year, the Maxwell Award Winner, the O'Brien Award winner, the Unitas Golden Arm Award winner and a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, will be ready. He's been ready for days.

Alabama is favored. In the 2006 game, USC was favored. Texas won, Vince Young dashing for the winning touchdown.

"I'm putting all that other stuff behind me,'' said McCoy, "the similarities with Vince and the other game, that we both were underdogs, that both games are in the Rose Bowl, that we were both runner-up in the Heisman. The game is where we have to put our focus.

"I learned so much from Vince, that as a quarterback the most important aspect of the position is the team has to trust you and wants the ball in your hands.''

The ball has been in Colt McCoy's hands for four seasons. What he and Texas do with it is all that matters.