Mike Cotten
| Texas Longhorns No. 12 | |
|---|---|
| Position | QB, DB |
| Class | 1962 |
| Major | Government |
| Career history | |
| College | Texas (1959–1961) |
| Bowl games | |
| High school | Stephen F. Austin |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth | December 12, 1939 |
| Place of birth | Uvalde, Texas |
| Height | 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) |
| Weight | 189 lb (86 kg) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Michael Barry Cotten (born December 12, 1939) is a former American football player who was the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns and the Quantico Marines in the early 1960s. He was an All-Southwest Conference back in 1961 and the Outstanding Back in the 1962 Cotton Bowl.
Mike Cotten was born in Uvalde, Texas in 1939 but after moving with his family to Amarillo in 1943 he landed in Austin in 1946, with a 1 year detour to Abilene in 1949, and went to high school in Austin and, by coincidence lived in the same neighborhood as Darrell Royal at the time. He was an All-District, All-State and All-America quarterback who led Austin High School to the state semi-finals and their last playoff win in of the 20th Century. Widely recruited, the only campus he visited was Texas.
He also played catcher and center field on the school's state championship baseball team. In 1957, he tied the state record for most doubles in the playoffs with 2, a record that wasn't broken until 2002. He made the all-tournament team his senior year and played a little baseball in college. In high school, he also ran track and played basketball.
As a freshman, Mike Cotten led the freshman team - the Yearlings - to their first undefeated team since 1941.
In Mike Cotten's sophomore year, he was one of four players to take snaps under center, but he was the primary backup to starter Bobby Lackey. He also played defensive back and returned punts and kickoffs on a team that went 9-2, and finished #4 in the nation before losing to #1 Syracuse in the Cotton Bowl.
For the next two years, Cotten was the starting quarterback for Texas and in the second year ran Royal's first great innovation - the Flip Flop offense, a winged-T formation that simplified the offense. In 1960, the Longhorns went 7-3-1 for a disappointing 2nd place finish in the Southwest Conference and finished the season with a 3-3 tie against #9 Alabama in the school's first Bluebonnet Bowl appearance.
In 1961, Cotten was quarterback and co-captain of the first Darrell Royal Longhorn team to contend for the national title. The team, powered by All-American Jimmy Saxton, went 10-1 and rose to #1 in the rankings for the first time since 1946. After beating everyone but Oklahoma by at least 3 touchdowns and with only two very beatable teams left on the schedule, they seemed to be a lock to finish the season ranked #1. But they suffered their only loss in a shocking 6-0 upset at the hands of 24-point underdog TCU on a trick play. Despite the disappointment of that loss, Cotten led the Southwest Conference in passing touchdowns, became and All Conference selection at back and led the team to a share of the conference championship with Arkansas. Texas went to the Cotton Bowl, by virtue of their head-to-head victory over the Razorbacks, and there Cotten ran the offense with such efficiency that he was named the Outstanding back in the team's 12-7 win over #5 Mississippi. It was Royal's first bowl victory.
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