Hook'Em!

It was a perfect confluence of events: a big game that lived up to the hype, the fall of a dynasty and the birth of a legend. Texas beat USC 41-38 behind the legs and arm of Vince Young who accounted for 467 yards of offense.

Young saved his best for the end of the game. With just over six minutes remaining, USC scored to go ahead by 12 points. Texas came down the field and scored a touchdown to cut the lead to five. USC then elected to go for it on 4th and 2 from the Texas 45 and when they didn’t make it Young led the Longhorns down the field and kept the ball himself on 4th down to score the winning touchdown. A two-point conversion play that forced USC to burn their last time out put Texas up by three. USC got the ball to the Texas 43 with eight seconds left, but Matt Leinert couldn’t find a receiver and time ran out on the Trojans.

So, Texas has returned to the top for the first time in 35 years. Now UT fans will have to hope that Vince Young decides to return to school and lead them again in 2006.

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images via ESPN

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By Peter Trinkle on January 5, 2006 2:01 PM

Comments [rss]

tobys_blog_is_ugly_AND_stupid

you watch too much tv dude

Toby

At least I am not hiding behind a faux name, schmuck.

toby_is_a_putz

toby's posts these past few weeks aren't worth the life of a TWU member. The game and the night before were both well worth the time, even for a non-NCAA fan like myself. Would have liked to see USC pull it off, but they shot themselves in the foot a couple of times. You can't take anything away from Texas on this one.

tien

i gotta say, this year's bcs has been one of the best since it started.

amy

the hands to the face penalty in the last minutes cost USC the game. USC defense did a great job stopping that drive until then. Duh.

Iko Iko

Texas shouldn't have won, and probably wouldn't if the officials hadn't screwed the pooch in the first half (Vince's knee was down before he shovel-passed for that one touchdown).
Whatever, though -- this game lived up to the hype. Was worth staying up past midnight for.

Scott

Hmm, I see Toby is officially the angriest poster on Gothamist

Daniel

Thanks for the recap Peter. I was expecting this game to be a Reggie Bush highlight reel; instead I saw more action out of Texas' #5. Any chance he was trying to avoid becoming this year's Willis McGahee?

Toby

Really, who cares.

Football is a stupid waste of time and the state of Texas really needs to do something to make up for having crappy presidents from there.

Becoming their own independent nation again would be a start.