Texas snaps Southern Cal's 34-game win streak

PASADENA, Calif. — Holy Bevo.

What can you say about what happened here Wednesday night, just before somebody released a cascade of airborne glitter behind the Texas bench? What do you conclude about a game that might have been the most anticipated in college football history, and built to a stunning, stupefying climax?

What can you possibly add to the lore of Vince Young, who made a pretty compelling case that he shouldn't have been a landslide loser to Reggie Bush in the Heisman Trophy balloting?

When it was done here, so was USC's appointment with immortality. The Trojans, on the doorstep of an unprecedented third consecutive national championship, couldn't crease the threshold and fell — nobly, gamely, gallantly — to Texas and Young's astonishing abilities, 41-38.

With 6:42 left, the fat lady had all but cuddled the Trojans to her bosom and called them champs again, atop the ones from 2003-04. It was 38-26, the first time in the second half anybody owned more than a one-score lead.

Then Young marshaled his team 69 yards in eight plays, covering the last 17 of it himself. After a critical fourth-down stop by his defense, he was at it again, starting from his 44 with 2:09 left, picking here, scrambling there. And finally, on fourth-and-five at the USC 8, Trojans end Frostee Rucker lost containment, a blitz voided the right flat, and Young hustled it the final 8 yards with 19 seconds left, as thrilling a finish as this grand old stadium has seen.

"I looked in his eyes, and even when we were down, he was confident," said Texas receiver Limas Sweed. "Vince took what they gave him."

And to think: "A year and a half ago," said Texas coach Mack Brown, "some people questioned whether he could be a major-college quarterback or not."

As glorious as was Young's effort, it was every bit that galling for USC on a night when the operative number was 35. The Trojans stumbled trying to win their 35th in a row, and Texas won its first national championship since the 1970 season, 35 years ago.

So what do we make of these Trojans, who rode herd on college football so irresistibly?

Today, they will be second-guessed. After Young brought the Horns within 38-33 with 4:03 left, USC, having marched for touchdowns on four consecutive possessions, had only to run the clock out and they'd be posterity's darlings.

At the Texas 45 with 2:13 left, they faced fourth and a yard and a half. Conventional wisdom might have suggested a punt, something heroic to make even Young flinch. But USC coach Pete Carroll opted for the dive to the left with LenDale White, and he was halted inches short by cornerback Aaron Ross.

"For us at the time, it was exactly the thing to do," said Carroll. "You make that first down, you win the football game. You're going to have to stop them anyway [with a punt]. It's not even close.

"It was a night we had to do it on offense."

No complaints here with that call, or with the defense on the ensuing Texas series, when USC blitzed time and again, trying to fill lanes, hoping to throw Young off-balance, looking for the one play that might bleed the Longhorns to death.

"I've been in those situations before," said Carroll.

"It's how you want to dish it out, how you want to deal with it. The last thing you want to do is sit back."

You don't become a champion by shrinking back and playing prevent defense, not with a unit that struggled all season to overcome inexperience. If anything, USC erred in calling its final timeout before Texas' two-point conversion with 19 seconds left, and in burning its last play at the Longhorns 42 without a short pass to set up kicker Mario Danelo for a tying field goal.

But this was Vince Young's night, to the tune of 200 yards rushing on 19 attempts and 30 completions in 40 tries for 267 yards and no interceptions. He may have made himself millions, more millions, with this effort.

"That's an extraordinary football player," said Carroll, who added that Young's night was "no question" the best anybody has thrown at any of his teams.

"He's so unique," said Carroll. "He's an X-factor."

It had been more than 2 ½ years since the Trojans lost, and when he wasn't trying to cajole his defense, Carroll said he pondered it: "One of the thoughts I've had all along was, who was gonna get it," he said. "Who was gonna take it."

That was a 6-5, 233-pound uber-athlete, who, on fourth-and-five, wove around right end and wrote a scintillating end to the night.

Later, Rucker described it in detail, and then cut to the chase.

"He was gone," Rucker said philosophically.

Gone, just like Mack Brown's long struggle for his due, and USC's quest for history. Gone.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com