The heart of Texas
PASADENA, Calif. — A winning kick put the controversy to rest. The Texas Longhorns proved they did belong in the Rose Bowl.
Dusty Mangum made a 37-yard field goal as time expired and No. 6 Texas, behind quarterback Vince Young, edged No. 13 Michigan 38-37 Saturday in the first matchup of two of college football’s elite programs.
With flashbulbs popping throughout the Rose Bowl, Mangum sent a wobbly kick through the uprights as the final two seconds ticked off and the Longhorns players rushed the field. The kick came after Michigan took its final two timeouts.
“I was hoping they would quit calling timeouts,” said Mangum, a walk-on senior. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about. To come down to a pressure kick – why not?”
It was exactly the kind of ending Texas coach Mack Brown wanted.
“There will never be a better game in the Rose Bowl,” Brown said. “You had two of the top four winningest programs and it should come down to two seconds left.”
All week, Brown and his Texas players were barraged by questions about their worthiness to play in a Bowl Championship Series game.
The Longhorns (11-1) earned their trip West when they leapfrogged fourth-ranked California in the final BCS standings, helped by Brown’s public pleas.
“I don’t think we’ll ever answer all the critics in sports,” Brown said.
Young ran for 192 yards and four touchdowns while passing for 180 yards and another score. He led the final drive to Mangum’s kick, giving Brown his biggest win in seven years at Texas.
Michigan freshman quarterback Chad Henne tied a Rose Bowl record with four TD passes, three to All-American wide receiver Braylon Edwards.
Garrett Rivas kicked three field goals, the last a 42-yarder that squeezed inside the right upright with 3:04 left to give Michigan a 37-35 lead.
By bumping Cal, Texas also crashed the Rose Bowl’s long-standing tradition that the “Granddaddy” of bowl games pits a Pacific-10 team against the Big Ten champ.
Michigan (9-3) ranks No. 1 in college football with 842 wins and Texas No. 3 with 787. While it took more than 100 years for them to meet on the field, their first was a doozy.
With Young’s razzle-dazzle on TD runs of 20, 60, 10 and 23 yards and Henne’s scoring throws to Edwards, the game was an offensive showcase that came down to who had the ball last.
Michigan’s Steve Breaston set a Rose Bowl record with 315 yards total between his catches and kick returns, breaking the mark of 276 set by O.J. Simpson in 1969.
The Wolverines nearly spoiled it for Texas, but Young wouldn’t let them.
Michigan was vulnerable against mobile quarterbacks all season and never contained Young, who calls his ability to avoid tacklers in the open field the “Texas Two-Step.”
“He was tough to tackle, but we should have gotten to him several times,” Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. “I was disappointed with the loss and with the tackling.”
Young ran for a TD and passed for another in the first half, and Henne matched him with a pair of scoring strikes to Edwards that made it 14-all at halftime.
Young’s second TD was a longer version of his first. Dropping back to pass, he took a quick read of the field then took off.
He shook off a tackle 15 yards upfield and then out-raced All-America safety Ernest Shazor to the end zone to make 21-14.
Breaston, who gave the Wolverines good field position with his kick returns all afternoon, brought the ball out to the 50. Three plays later, he hauled in a pass from Henne and sprinted for the end zone, diving for the pylon to make it 21-all.
By early in the third quarter, Texas had taken the lead three times only to have Michigan tie it. The Longhorns came in having outscored opponents 105-3 in the third quarter but gave up two TDs on Michigan’s first two drives of the second half.
The Wolverines took their first lead when Henne hit Edwards from 9 yards out and stretched it to 31-21 when Rivas kicked a 44-yard field.
But the Michigan defense had nothing left to stop Young from running wild.