The 2006 Rose Bowl, #1 USC vs #2 Texas for the national championship of college football (said in my best Keith Jackson voice), had everything you could ever want as a college football fan. It was simply the most anticipated, most meaningful, and greatest game of college football that has ever been played. Out of the thousands and thousands of games that I’ve witnessed in any sport, it is my favorite one. On that one night in Pasadena, we all experienced a slice of college football heaven.
But to understand the true scope of the 2006 Rose Bowl, we first have to go back to the build up to the game and what transpired in the 2005 college football season before January 4, 2006 to properly put this game into perspective.
On one side you had the top ranked USC Trojans. 2003 AP National Champions. 2004 undefeated BCS National Champions. Riding an incredible 34 game winning streak. Not one, but two Heisman winners on the roster – QB Matt Leinart (2004) and RB Reggie Bush (2005). While Pete Carroll’s 2003 and 2004 teams were great, the 2005 team was considered not only the best team in college football that year… but possibly ever.
USC had gone through 2005 as the consensus #1 team in the land. They steamrolled through their first five games winning by 32.4 points per game. That wasn’t their scoring average… that was their average margin of victory!! Then came the famous visit to South Bend, which was the zenith of the Charlie Weis era. The 9th ranked Irish gave USC everything they could handle, but the “Bush Push” won a 34-31 thriller. As USC rolled on, Bush put together perhaps the single most scintilating single-game performance in recent NCAA history, racking up 513 yards of total offense in a 50-42 win over #16 Fresno State. The USC season ended with a humiliation of crosstown rival #11 UCLA, 66-19. USC was an unstoppable force.
The Texas Longhorns stampeded through their regular season slate as well, although at #2 throughout the course of the 2005 season, they were always in the shadow of USC. QB Vince Young had stepped firmly onto the national stage in the 2005 Rose Bowl with his 4 rushing TDs in a thrilling win against Michigan. At the start of the next season, Young showed his passing credentials in a statement 25-22 victory in the Horseshoe at #4 Ohio State. Texas was simply never tested in a weaker Big XII, smashing Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout 45-12 and winning conference games by an average of 33.5 PPG. They followed up an immacualte regular season by squeaking by Colorado 70-3 in the Big XII title game. The Rose Bowl was set. #1 USC vs #2 Texas.
In the month before the Rose Bowl, the focus wasn’t on the incredible matchup between two dominant unbeatens, but on the greatness of USC. Instead of giving Texas a chance, ESPN decided that the Christmas season was to be devoted to mythical matchups between the ’05 Trojans and the greatest teams in college football history. Keep in mind, the ’05 Trojans hadn’t won the title yet, but their coronation was well underway. Kirk Herbstreit and Mark May continually said that USC wouldn’t just beat, but demolish most of the best teams in college football history. Surely Texas wouldn’t stand a chance either, but then again, nobody asked the Longhorns for their opinion. Before we get to the actual game, we can only do it justice by letting Keith Jackson set the scene…
Texas made the first statement, forcing the vaunted USC offense into a 3 and out to start the game. However, Texas CB Aaron Ross was stripped on the ensuing punt return. USC immediately capitalized on the Texas mistake through a LenDale White TD run. The run was his school record 55th TD run… hard to believe he was really good before he met his match in Jose Cuervo. Things went from bad to worse for the Horns as they were stopped on 4th & 1 on their first offensive series. It was here where USC could have delivered a decisive blow, or at least added more points, but Pete Carroll chose to go on a 4th & 1 from the Texas 17 and SC was stopped short. Texas escaped the first quarter still trailing 7-0. The second quarter would be theirs.
And it all began with a USC mistake. After a screen pass, Reggie Bush broke into the open field on the second play of the quarter. Then, in something out of your childhood backyard games, he tried a lateral as he was being tackled at the Texas 20. Now, I’ve done that playing on the elementary school field several times, so I have an idea what Bush was thinking… but in the National Championship Game?!?! It was a ludicrous combination of ballsy and boneheaded, and it led to Texas’ first score, a career long 46 yard field goal from David Pino.
Incidentally, the game turned again on another lateral, this one successful. After an acrobatic Michael Griffin interception in the Texas endzone, Young drove the Longhorns to the USC 22. Vince Young ran the option with his namesake Selvin and got the pitch away as he was going down at the 11. Selvin Young took it the rest of the way. Even though Vince’s knee appeared down, the play wasn’t reviewed and Texas took the lead 9-7 after a missed extra point.
Texas kept the pedal down and slowly took over the game forcing another three and out against the greatest offensive team ever assembled (take a moment and picture Mark May eating a live crow at this point and smile) and a 30 yard Ramonce Taylor run made it 16-7 Horns. USC finally managed their first successful scoring drive in five attempts as the half ended on a Trojan field goal. At the break, Texas had made the ghosts of history and karma happy by largely stifling a team they shouldn’t have bothered to show up against. To the surprise of those people that thought USC would flick Texas away like a gnat, the Longhorns weren’t just in the game, but ahead 16-10.
The second half finally saw the offensive explosion that had been expected from teams that had scored 50 points seven times each during the regular season. After a Texas 3 and out, Leinart finally showed his Heisman form after a so-so first half (13/21, 1 INT compared to Young’s 13/15 passing) by going a perfect 4/4 on USC’s first second half drive. White ran in his second TD as the teams began to exchange the lead. 17-16 USC. Young accounted for 74 of 80 yards on Texas’ next TD drive, capping it off with a 14 yard keeper. 23-17 Texas. Leinart answered again by going 6/7 through the air on USC’s next drive. White then ran in his third touchdown on another Pete Carroll 4th & 1 gamble at the Texas 12. 24-23 USC. The third quarter took this game from an entertaining and compelling national championship game to one that was beginning to enter the stratosphere of all-time classics. The fourth quarter took it from all-time classic to greatest ever.
On the first play of the quarter, Pino shanked a 31 yarder and USC put the hammer down. Bush, who had been in the prodigious shadow of White most of the game, had his only true highlight play of the game (it was the quietest 279 total yards in the history of college football). Bush took an inside handoff at the 26 and immediately turned right. His speed took him around the edge of the entire Texas defense and he even added the typical Reggie flair with a somersault into the endzone. 31-23 USC.
After a Texas field goal, Leinart found Dwayne Jarrett between two colliding Texas defenders on a 22 yard strike and he stretched the ball over the goalline to give the Trojans a two score lead, 38-26 and only 6:42 on the Rose Bowl clock. Four second half drives, four touchdowns for the Trojans.
Alas, the looming coronation of the USC Trojans was not meant to be. When the time came, it was Vince Young that rose above both of USC’s Heisman winners, the pregame hype, and the 34 game win streak. Down two scores, Young went 5/6 through the air for 44 yards and then scrambled on a crossfield 17 yard run that actually covered 40. The 8 play drive took only two and a half minutes. 38-33 USC.
The Trojans took possession knowing they could run out the clock on another national title. They reached midfield and were faced with a 4th & 2 from the Texas 45 with 2:13 remaining. For the third time in the game, Pete Carroll went for it on 4th down. Finally, the Texas defense stopped LenDale White. As the measurement showed White short of the first down, the entire Texas defense ran off the field in jubilation. That snapshot symbolized the game. In that instance, they knew and we knew what was coming. Vince Young was going to win Texas the national championship.
After 9 plays, Young had carried the Longhorns to the USC 8 yard line with 26 seconds remaining. The ball, the game, the title, and the history books were where they should have been, in the hands and on the feet of Vince Young. It was 4th and 5 with the national championship on the line…
Texas won the greatest college football game ever played 41-38. We will never see another game like this again. In fact, this not-so-little recap can’t do the entire game justice. In some aspect, the numbers tell the story: 18 players on that field were drafted the next year including four Top 10 picks. 79 combined points and 1130 total yards of offense. Not one, but two Heisman winners. (Some would argue even three with the fallout of Bush being stripped of his Heisman and Young coming in second that year.) Unquestionably, this game featured the greatest collection of college football talent we’ve seen in one place at one time. The 2006 Rose Bowl featured absolutely everything you can ask for in an all-time classic game: great players, great plays, classic moments, an amazing comeback, and drama till the end. In the end, Vince Young outplayed his more fancied Heisman counterparts Bush and Leinart. Check these numbers:
30/40, 267 yards passing, 19 carries, 200 yards, 3 TDs
Vince Young ran and passed for 467 yards and led Texas on two touchdown drives in the last 6:42 against a team considered to be among the best ever. With all three of these players in the midst of mediocre to poor NFL careers that have each included multiple teams, it’s easy to forget just how great Leinart, Bush, and Young were in college a mere five years ago. In this game, with all the factors considered, it was Vince Young who stood tallest with arguably the best championship game performance in history.
Reflect on what we’ve had to suffer through the last twelve months in college football – a Heisman winner that was haunted by a pay-to-play scandal, Reggie Bush stripped of his Heisman, Jim Tressel’s fall from grace and the year long crusade against Ohio State, North Carolina blowing up their program, Oregon and LSU facing major off-field questions, conference realignment hovering over the sport, and perhaps worst of all… Legends and Leaders. But yet the reason why we go through all of that is for nights like January 4, 2006. Nights that remind us of the magic of sports. Nights that will stand the test of time. There may be another game that comes along that’s better played, more hyped, with more drama… but the 2006 Rose Bowl will never be duplicated. The 2006 Rose Bowl was everything that is right about college football. That’s my favorite game of all-time.
