It's official: Koy Detmer will not try to follow his Heisman Trophy-winning brother's act at BYU.
The younger Detmer, a record-setting prep quarterback in Mission, Texas, returned Thursday afternoon from a recruiting visit to Colorado and, after conferring with his father, Sonny, let Buffalo coach Bill McCartney know that he'd play for Colorado."I was deciding between Colorado and Penn State," Detmer said. "When I went up there (Colorado), I liked the environment and the atmosphere, and I liked the idea of their changing to a passing offense."
That change in offensive philosophy was a late-season occurrence at Colorado, initiated by coach Bill McCartney before the Buffaloes' appearance in the Blockbuster Bowl in an effort to convince a blue-chip prep QB to come to Boulder.
Colorado had made a big push to get Paul Shoemaker of Longmont, Colo., another top prep QB, but when Shoemaker committed to BYU, the Buffs set their sights on Detmer.
Colorado was something of a late entrant in the Detmer sweepstakes. Just two weeks ago, Detmer had named Penn State and Texas as his top two choices, and said he hadn't ruled out BYU. But BYU's signing of Shoemaker and a comment by Texas coach Bobby Dye that another Texas prep was the best high school quarterback in the state apparently soured the Detmer family on those schools.
Sonny Detmer had said throughout the recruiting process that a big factor in Koy's decision would be how soon he might get a chance to start. With several highly regarded quarterbacks already at BYU, Koy would have faced stiff competition. At Colorado, which just lost senior QB Darian Hagan, the starting quarterback race is wide open.
Detmer set a Texas high school record with 8,221 career passing yards, and also threw for 82 TDs. Last season he passed for 3,943 yards and 39 TDs, completing 69.3 percent. He set a national record with 44 completions in a state playoff game.
An outdoorsman like Ty, Koy was swayed by Colorado's Rocky Mountain location. "He really liked that," said Betty Detmer. "Colorado has the same atmosphere as BYU, with the hunting and fishing and all."