PASADENA, California, 3 January 2005 — Dusty Mangum kicked 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 match-up of two of US college football’s elite programs.
The Longhorns proved they did indeed belong in the Rose Bowl. The Longhorns (11-1) earned their trip West when they leapfrogged fourth-ranked California in the final Bowl Championship Series standings, helped by coach Mack Brown’s public pleas.
And 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 rushed the field.
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. Freshman quarterback Chad Henne was 18-of-34 for 227 yards for the Wolverines (9-3) and tied a Rose Bowl record with four touchdown passes, three to All-American wide receiver Braylon Edwards.
Edwards finished with 10 receptions for 109 yards and teammate 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 back in 1969.
Garrett Rivas kicked three field goals, the last a 42-yarder that squeezed just inside the right upright with 3:04 left to give Michigan a 37-35 lead.
No. 5 Utah 35 No. 19 Pittsburgh 7: In Tempe, Arizona, Alex Smith completed 29 of 37 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns, and No. 5 Utah dominated 19th-ranked Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.
Paris Warren caught 15 passes - breaking the Fiesta record of 11 set by Miami’s Kellen Winslow in 2003 — for 198 yards. Smith’s 78 percent completion rate was also a Fiesta Bowl mark. Utah (12-0) scored touchdowns on five of its first seven possessions, including all three in the third quarter, and the defense was just as impressive. The Utes sacked Pitt’s Tyler Palko nine times, a Fiesta Bowl record.
Pitt (8-4) was overmatched in its final game under coach Walt Harris, who is leaving for Stanford after eight seasons with the Panthers. Pittsburgh was the unwanted team among the eight BCS squads. The Panthers automatically qualified for one of the four elite games as Big East champions, even though they were only 21st in the BCS rankings.
Iowa 30 LSU 25: In Orlando, Florida, just when it looked as though coach Nick Saban would go out a winner at LSU, the Iowa Hawkeyes came up with a miracle finish.
Drew Tate threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Warren Holloway on the final play. The score capped a wild fourth quarter and spoiled a comeback by the Tigers, who overcame a 12-point deficit with 8 1/2 minutes left.
Saban, who will become the coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins next week, threw up his arms in frustration and then watched as the entire Iowa team mobbed Holloway in the end zone.
LSU freshman JaMarcus Russell came off the bench to spark the rally by throwing two touchdown passes. When he hit Skyler Green for a 3-yard score, the Tigers led 25-24 with 46 seconds to go. After Tate completed two passes, a penalty pushed Iowa back to its 44 with 14 seconds left. Tate wound up and threw long to an open Holloway, who caught the pass in stride at the 10 and dashed to the end zone as time expired.
No. 17 Florida State 30 West Virginia 18: In Jacksonville, Florida, Florida State overcame mistake after mistake to avoid an unprecedented third straight bowl loss. Coach Bobby Bowden, facing his former school for the first time since the 1982 Gator Bowl, moved within one bowl win of Joe Paterno’s NCAA record of 19 at Penn State.
Leon Washington ran for 195 yards and Chris Rix crafted two long second-half touchdown drives. Rix played poorly for much of his final game of an up-and-down career. Bowden’s first four-year starter at quarterback fumbled three times and threw two interceptions, one of which led to a touchdown.
But Bowden stuck with Rix and he eventually gave the Seminoles (9-3) a spark.
Rix completed five straight passes during a 90-yard drive, capped by his 14-yard touchdown pass to Craphonso Thorpe late in the third quarter. Thorpe leaped for the ball over Dee McCann in the right corner of the end zone for a 23-15 lead. It was only Rix’s third TD pass of the season.
Quarterback Rasheed Marshall and West Virginia’s platoon of running backs shredded the nation’s top run defense for 238 yards. Kay-Jay Harris carried 25 times for 134 yards and scored twice. But the Mountaineers (8-4) failed to find the end zone three times after advancing inside the 20-yard line.
No. 15 Tennessee 38 No. 22 Texas A&M 7: In Dallas, Rick Clausen looked nothing like the third-string quarterback he was most of the season, leading No. 15 Tennessee to five touchdowns in just 2 1/2 quarters, and the defense had its way with No. 22 Texas A&M in a 38-7 victory in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.
The Volunteers (10-3) had lost four of their last five bowl games, the last two by a combined 40 points. After never leading in either of those games, they made things different just seven plays into this one when Clausen’s short pass to C.J. Fayton turned into a 57-yard touchdown.
Tennessee wound up with the most lopsided victory in its 45-game bowl history. The Vols came within 5:13 of their first bowl shutout since the last time they played the Aggies, way back in the 1957 Gator Bowl.
No. 8 Georgia 24 No. 16 Wisconsin 21: In Tampa, Florida, David Greene, the winningest quarterback in NCAA history, enjoyed one last victory in the Outback Bowl.
Greene threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns in his last game for the Bulldogs (10-2), continuing his assault on the Southeastern Conference record book and adding victory No. 42 to his NCAA mark.
The senior from Snellville, Georgia, has started every game since Mark Richt took over as Georgia’s coach in 2001. He surpassed Peyton Manning’s SEC and NCAA mark for career wins (39) this season and finished 17-1 against non-conference opponents.
Greene completed 19 of 38 passes, but was also intercepted twice after only throwing two during the regular season. Wisconsin’s Andy Crooks returned the second pick 11 yards for a touchdown, and John Stocco’s 2-point conversion pass to Jonathan Orr cut Georgia’s lead to three points with 4:13 to go.
The Bulldogs improved to 42-10 in four years under Richt, the second-best run for a Georgia senior class behind the 43-4-1 record compiled while winning a national championship and three straight SEC titles in the early 1980s.
