King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Vince Young leads Texas over USC in a Rose Bowl worthy of months of hype.

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Jan. 5, 2006 | It had to end the way it did, with the game-winning touchdown coming in the final seconds. And that touchdown had to be scored by Vince Young, who owns the Rose Bowl, who has dominated it for two years now.

Young ran eight yards for the winning score with 19 seconds left -- on fourth down, of course -- and Texas beat USC for the national championship in a game that lived up to every ounce of the anticipation that's been building since August. Down 38-26 with less than five minutes to play, the Longhorns scored, stopped the Trojans on downs, then scored again to win.

The stunning comeback ended USC's 34-game winning streak and denied the Trojans a second straight national championship -- a third straight if you're the kind of person who thinks Enron's accountants were straight shooters.

This was supposed to be the Reggie Bush show. And for just a moment, it looked like it was going to be just that. But that changed the very next moment. As you must know by now, the game turned on a hideous mistake by Southern Cal's Heisman Trophy winner at the end of a dazzling run.

One play into the second quarter, USC led 7-0 and had the ball on its own 45, second and 10. Bush took a screen pass from Matt Leinart at the line of scrimmage and set off on one of his trademark jaunts, juking a tackler out of his jock at the Texas 45, outrunning another as he crossed the 35 and making a third miss at the 25 before being hauled down by Drew Kelson and Aaron Ross around the 20.

As he was going down in the arms of the two defenders, Bush tried to lateral to teammate Brad Walker. A better lateral to a teammate who had any idea it was coming might have worked out, though it still would have been dumb. This one went off the surprised Walker's hand and fell to the ground, Texas recovering at the 18.

So much for USC threatening to go up 14-0. Texas drove 62 yards and kicked a field goal, and the game was on.

Bush was never quite the same after that, maybe because the fumble rattled him or maybe because Texas just did a great job of bottling him up, though LenDale White, the Trojans' other great tailback, had a big game.

Bush ran for 82 yards and added 95 on six receptions, but only once more did he make a play for the highlight reels, a 26-yard touchdown run that featured a sideline high-wire act and a somersault into the end zone.

Bush's lost fumble was the second time in a row that USC had gone deep into Texas territory without scoring. On their previous possession, their second of the game, the Trojans went for it on fourth-and-inches at the 16. Leinart's quarterback sneak fell short. In a game like this one, failing to score when you have the chance can be fatal.

Next page: Is Pete Carroll's go-for-it philosophy why he failed in the NFL? Plus: Keith Jackson and ABC