Afternoons were spent rolling around in sandlot games and watching the NCAA Division II school, where their fathers had been teammates and roommates.

Their talent soon outgrew their dreams. The Wildcats’ loss turned out to be the Texas Longhorns’ gain.

Although the best friends went to different high schools in small towns several hours apart, those playground games proved serendipitous when quarterback McCoy and receiver Shipley both ended up in Austin, connecting for touchdown passes at Texas.

“We talked about playing together a long time ago,” McCoy said. “We didn’t know it would be Texas. I guess we one-upped ourselves.”

Shipley, who was born in Temple and whose father, Bob, was a Temple assistant coach, has emerged as McCoy’s best deep threat this season. He has four touchdowns, including a 60-yard play last week against Rice on the night McCoy became the school’s career leader in TD passes with 62.

“It has been a lot fun to share this thing together,” Shipley said as No. 7 Texas (3-0) geared up for Saturday’s home game against Arkansas (2-1).

Shipley makes it look easy now, but the road from catching TDs in Abilene to doing it in front of 98,000 at Royal-Memorial Stadium was long and painful. One of the state’s most prolific high school receivers ever lost two full seasons in college because of knee and hamstring injuries.

Helping him work through the frustration was McCoy, the guy who drew up the plays in the West Texas dirt when they were kids.

“It was a struggle (for Shipley). It was tough,” McCoy said. “When something like that happens, you definitely have to have someone you can talk to.”

The boyhood friends had split apart when Shipley’s family moved to Burnet, a Hill Country town about an hour northwest of Austin, where his father led the Bulldogs to back-to-back Class 3A Division I state title games. A high school all-American, Shipley ranked No. 2 nationally in receiving yards (5,424) and No. 3 in touchdown catches (73) and signed with Texas in 2004.

McCoy stayed at tiny Tuscola Jim Ned, where he developed into a big-time quarterback and one of the top passers in Texas high school history while playing for his father, Brad. When he signed with the Longhorns in 2005, the buddies were back together.

But Shipley’s college career was already on the wrong track.

A serious knee injury at the start of training camp forced him to miss all of the 2004 season. Hamstring problems forced him to miss out again in 2005, the year Texas won the national championship. He has a championship ring, but he gave it to his mother to keep and he seldom even looks at it.

“We thought he’d start as a freshman and we lost him for two years,” Texas coach Mack Brown said.

Brown understands the physical and psychological toll that injuries can take on player. He has struggled most of his adult life with knee injuries suffered when he was a college player and had to have knee replacement surgery.

“Most would have quit,” Brown said. “But he’s tough.”

McCoy redshirted and watched Vince Young lead Texas to the 2005 national title. Shipley was still struggling to find his role when McCoy took over the job in 2006, throwing a touchdown on his second career pass.

McCoy was off and running while his best friend felt like he was standing still.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” Shipley said. “I learned more from what I went through my first couple of years here than the rest of my life.”

Shipley never had had a serious injury before, or at least one that would keep him out of a game. In fact, he had always been the tough guy.

As a high school junior, he played in the state title game with an ingrown toenail that developed a staph infection and put him in the hospital for three days. As a senior, he returned the opening kickoff of the title game for a touchdown. He also played defense and suffered a concussion on the first drive but kept playing.

“I learned a lot of patience, for sure,” he said of his college injuries. “It was one of those deals where I couldn’t do anything about it. It just increased my mental toughness.”

He knew he had the support of a friend.

Just like their dads were, McCoy and Shipley are roommates and more like brothers than friends. They compete in everything, pushing each other to the limit whether it’s hunting, fishing, playing golf or shooting basketballs.

“I beat him three times in golf this summer, which he was hot about,” McCoy said.

They challenge each other on every shot, from driving distance to putts.

“We go back and forth, and we use the same driver so it’s fair,” McCoy said.

They love to hunt but disagree over who’s a better shot.

“I don’t want to throw him under the bus. He’s pretty good,” Shipley said.

“Ask him who shot the biggest deer. He’s caught the biggest fish,” McCoy said. “I smoke him in basketball. He’s faster than me. I always say I’ve got better hands; they just don’t throw me the ball.”

Although Shipley is a year older than McCoy and is a fifth-year senior, he’s thinking of petitioning the NCAA for a medical hardship sixth year of eligibility. If he does, he could help McCoy set just about every Texas passing record.

But Shipley doesn’t want to count on anything that isn’t guaranteed, just like it wasn’t in 2004 and 2005 when he sat and watched the Longhorns go 24-1 without him.

“I have to approach it like I don’t have another year, because it’s not guaranteed,” Shipley said. “The way I’m kind of going about it is that this is my senior year.”