2004 Texas Longhorn football team

The 2004 Texas Longhorn football team represented The University of Texas (UT) in the college football season of 2004-2005. The team was coached by head football coach Mack Brown and led on the field by quarterback Vince Young. The third-winningest program in Division 1-A college football history,cite news | url=http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/doc_lib/usatoday.com_%20brown_has_texas_savoring_possibilities.pdf |title=Brown has Texas savoring the possibilities | publisher=USA Today | author=Steve Wieberg | date=2 December 2005 | accessdate=2006-06-27] the University of Texas has traditionally been considered a college football powerhouse,cite web | url=http://www.ncaaticketsnow.com/texas-tickets.asp | title=2004-2005 NCAA football tickets | accessdate=2006-06-27] cite news |publisher=The Daily Tarheel | author=Fitt, Aaron | url=http://www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2002/09/14/Sportsaturday/Its-Not.About.Mack-1349746.shtml?norewrite200606280132&sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.com | title=It's not about Mack] but Brown had not managed to lead the Longhorns into a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game. The 2004 season included some controversy related to the selection of Texas as an at-large team to attend the 2005 Rose Bowl.cite news | url=http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2004/12/06/TopStories/Roses.Are.Red.Texas.Is.In-822559.shtml?norewrite200607301809&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com | publisher=The Daily Texan | title=Roses are red, Texas is in - Last-minute changes to standings send Longhorns to the Rose Bowl | date=6 December 2004 | accessdate=2006-07-30] Brown coached the team to win that game with a thrilling last-second victory. It was the first time the Rose Bowl, which as the first college bowl game is sometimes called "The Grandaddy of them all", had ever been decided on the closing play. The victory brought the Longhorns to 11 wins and 1 loss for the season (11-1) and it earned the Longhorns a top 5 finish in the polls.

chedule and results

eason highlights

In 2004, the Longhorns began the season with a #7 ranking nationally and started out with a 65-0 blowout of North Texas, setting several UT school records in the process. This was followed by a narrow 22-20 win against unranked Arkansas. They defeated Rice and Baylor 35-13 and 44-14 respectively.

This left them ranked fifth coming into the annual matchup with then #2 Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. Oklahoma shut-out the Longhorns 12-0. Texas dropped to #9, before rebounding with wins over #24 Missouri 28-20, at #24 Texas Tech 51-21, and at Colorado 31-7.

Then Texas set a record for the largest come from-behind-win in school history, beating #19 Oklahoma State 56-35 after falling behind 7-35. After this performance, Texas again fell behind against Kansas but squeaked out a win 27-23. The Kansas coach stirred up controversy by claiming that the officials were biased in favor of Texas.

This brought UT back up to #5 in the rankings as they welcomed arch-rival Texas A&M to Austin and won 26-13. However, Oklahoma stood undefeated, which meant the Sooners would represent the Big 12 South in the Championship game against a much lower ranked team from the North Division. Once again, the loss to Oklahoma had kept Texas out of playing for a National or Conference Title, and had seemingly destined them to a non-Bowl Championship Series bowl as well.

However, Brown began lobbying the voters in the two polls based on human voters (one on college football coaches, the other on Associated Press writers) to place the Longhorns high enough in the rankings to ensure they received a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl-bid. The rules of the BCS were such that Texas might get left out of the eight chosen teams even though they ranked fifth nationally. A lackluster win by Cal over Southern Miss gave the Longhorns the sufficient swing votes they needed to make it into the Rose Bowl, one of the four BCS bowls.cite news | url=http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2004/12/06/TopStories/Roses.Are.Red.Texas.Is.In-822559.shtml?norewrite200607301809&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com | publisher=The Daily Texan | title=Roses are red, Texas is in - Last-minute changes to standings send Longhorns to the Rose Bowl | date=6 December 2004 | accessdate=3006-07-30] This lobbying effort and ensuing result led to criticism of Brown for playing politics to get his team into a top bowl. Thus, he was no longer criticized for failing to get into a top bowl, he was criticized for doing so (and the way he had done it).

The appearance in the "Grand-daddy" of all bowl games was the first visit by the Longhorns, due mainly to the fact that the Rose Bowl traditionally pitted the winner of the Pac 10 against the winner of the Big Ten. Texas' opponent was Michigan, whom Texas was playing for the very first time. Texas and Michigan each had over 100 years of football history. The meeting of the two teams set a college football record for the most games played collectively by two opponents before facing each other for the first time. [cite news | url=http://www.statesman.com/search/content/metro/12/12comparison_rs.html | title= A Tale of Two Cities - Just what do Austin and Ann Arbor have in common? - Michigan fans, like Texas rivals, are passionate about football. | author=Laura Heinauer | publisher=Austin American-Statesman | date=December 12 2004 | accessdate=2007-03-13]

Texas won the game 38-37 on a last second field goal kick by Longhorn Dusty Mangum in what had been called one of the greatest Rose Bowl games of all time.cite news | url= http://texas.scout.com/2/336787.html | title=Hollywood ending! | publisher=College Football News | author=Frisbie, Bill | date=January 2 2006 | accessdate=2006-12-13] It was the only time in the history of the Rose Bowl that the game has been decided as time expired off the clock. Vince Young set several Rose Bowl records and also won the Rose Bowl MVP award.cite news | url= http://texas.scout.com/2/336787.html | title=Hollywood ending! | publisher=College Football News | author=Frisbie, Bill | date=January 2 2006 | accessdate=2006-12-13] In the end, all the BCS controversy was put to rest when Texas Tech, a team that lost 21-51 at home to Texas, beat #4 Cal in the Holiday Bowl 45-31, a score which only seemed closer due to a late Cal touchdown.

After the season

In the NFL Draft that followed, three Longhorns were drafted - RB Cedric Benson went 4th overall to Chicago Bears and Derrick Johnson went 15th overall to the Kansas City Chiefs. TE Bo Scaife was picked in the 6th round by the Tennessee Titans and would be later reunited with quarterback Vince Young

With the exception of these players, most of the team returned to play for the 2005 Texas Longhorn football team, including redshirt sophomore quarterback Vince Young. Therefore, expectations were high coming into the 2005 season. At the trophy presentation in Pasadena, Vince Young had proclaimed, "We'll be back!", referencing the fact that the Rose Bowl was the host for the next year's BCS National Championship.

References

External links

* [http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com The official website of UT football]