Young Pushes Old Aside
Longhorns Dethrone Southern Cal
Vince Young gets to the corner of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. The Texas quarterback finishes with 200 rushing yards and accounts for 467 of the Longhorns' 556 total yards. (Harry How - Getty Images)
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Thursday, January 5, 2006
PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 4 -- Two historic and star-studded offenses traded blows Wednesday night in a national championship game for the ages that produced a new king of college football.
Texas claimed its fourth national championship and ended Southern California's 34-game win steak with a 41-38 victory in a Rose Bowl game that lived up to the nearly unprecedented hype it received over the past month.
Texas (13-0) extended its win streak to 20 games thanks to the all-around brilliance of quarterback Vince Young, who led the Longhorns on a game-winning scoring drive in the final two minutes after USC failed to convert on a fourth-and-two play at the Texas 45.
Finally, on fourth and five at the USC 8, Young took off to the right and outran everyone into the end zone with 19 seconds remaining. For good measure, he converted the two-point conversion on a sneak.
"It is a really surreal feeling when you are sitting there in the fourth quarter down two scores and still think you are going to win," Texas Coach Mack Brown said.
If Young felt he had something to prove after finishing a distant second to USC's Reggie Bush in the Heisman Trophy race, his resounding message has been well-received across the country. One year after single-handedly beating Michigan in this very stadium, Young rushed for 200 yards on 19 carries and passed for 267 yards to leave fans of both teams wowed.
A crowd of 93,986 watched Young upstage a cast of stars for the Trojans (12-1), who lost their first game since September 2003 and failed to become the first team in history to win three consecutive Associated Press national titles.
There was USC running back LenDale White, who scored on three touchdown runs, and wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, whose acrobatic 22-yard touchdown reception midway through the fourth quarter stretched the Trojans' lead to 12 points.
Not to be overlooked was last year's Heisman winner, quarterback Matt Leinart, who completed 16 of 19 passes in the second half and finished with 365 passing yards in his final college game.
And finally there was tailback Reggie Bush, this year's dazzling Heisman winner who was held in check early but responded with a flurry in the fourth quarter. On a 26-yard scoring run, Bush became a blur down the sideline and then flipped head over heels into the end zone for a score that gave USC a 31-23 lead.
After what is expected to be the final college game for Bush, who finished with 82 rushing yards, the junior simply said, "We tried to do too much."
Texas players seemed amused all week at the paeans heaped on USC's offense, which was hailed by many as the best ever. But when the Trojans needed only two yards with 2 minutes 13 seconds remaining, White was stopped short. USC Coach Pete Carroll said he felt he had to go for it on fourth down near midfield.
