lit in a
Special Configuration in honor of the 2005 National Championship football team.
1.]] The (variously "Texas", "UT" or the "Horns") represented
The University Of Texas At Austin during the
College Football Season Of 2005–2006 , winning the
Big 12 Conference Championship
2 and the
National Championship .
3 The team was coached by
Mack Brown , led on
Offense by
Quarterback Vince Young , and played its home games at
Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium .
The team's penultimate victory of the season, the
Big 12 Championship Game , featured the biggest margin of victory in the history of that contest. They finished the season by winning the 2006
Rose Bowl against the
University Of Southern California Trojans for the national championship. Numerous publications have cited this victory and this team's season as standing among the greatest performances in
College Football History ,
456789 and
ESPN awarded the 2006
ESPY Award for the "Best Game" in any sport to the Longhorns and the Trojans.Fisher, Gerren LaQuint
10 The Longhorns finished as the only unbeaten team in
NCAA Division I-A football that year, with thirteen wins and zero losses.College football team records are conventionally expressed in number of wins/losses. 13–0 means 13 wins and zero losses.
11
Texas earned their second Big 12 Conference football championship
12 to make 27 conference championships total, including 25 in the
Southwest Conference .
13 It was their fourth
Consensus National Championship in football
14 and the ninth
Perfect Season in the history of Longhorn football.
15
The team set numerous school and
NCAA records, including their 652 points which set an NCAA record for points scored in a season. After the season ended, six Longhorns from this championship team joined professional football teams through the
2006 NFL Draft .
16 Seven more Longhorns followed suit in the
2007 NFL Draft and they were joined by two free agents to make a total of fifteen players who entered into the
National Football League (NFL).
See Also: American football rules
American football strategy
Media and fans of college football consider the UT program one of the great powerhouses of the game because of the school's winning record as well as their previous national championships in 1963, 1969 and 1970.
17181920 From 1936 to 2004, the team finished the season in the top ten team of the
Associated Press Poll 23 times, or one-third of the time. At the start of the 2005 season, the Longhorns were one of the most victorious programs in college football history; they were third in total victories and fourth if measured by winning percentage.
2122
In the
2004 Season Vince Young led the team to the
2005 Rose Bowl , the school's first
Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game, and a top 5 finish in the major polls. Young returned for the 2005–2006 season, as did most of the other key players from 2004–2005, with the exception of
Cedric Benson ,
Derrick Johnson , and
Bo Scaife . Texas was given a pre-season #2 ranking (behind the defending National Champions, the University of Southern California) by ''
Sports Illustrated '' magazine, the
Associated Press Poll and the ''
USA Today ''
Coaches Poll .
23
During the summer of 2005, a period free of official team practices, Young and his receivers spent extra practice time working on their timing and team-work.
24 The
Fall Orange and White intra-team
Scrimmage was held on
August 21 2005 as an event open to the public.UT's colors are
Burnt Orange and white. Normally, they wear Orange when at home and White when playing "away" games. For intra-team
Scrimmage s, one team wears orange while the other team wears white, leading to the name.
Running Back Ramonce Taylor returned the opening
Kickoff 94
Yards for a
Touchdown . Young completed 5 of 7
Passing attempts for 68 yards and one touchdown. Senior
Richmond McGee made two 33-yard
Field Goals and emerged as the top candidate to handle field goals, kickoffs and
Punts . Brown said of McGee, "We've never had one person do all three, so it's a concern, but right now, he would be the guy."
25
The success of the 2004 team and the efforts during the off-season fueled anticipation by sports writers that Texas would play for the national championship if they could win their away game against
Ohio State University 26 and end their five-game losing streak against
Oklahoma . The BCS system required any team competing in the championship game to be ranked either number one or number two in the
BCS Standings at the end of the season.
. The I formation is often used for short-yardage situations,
27 the case here with Texas just outside Colorado's goal-line. The 2005 UT team more commonly used the
Shotgun Formation .
28]]
vs. Indicates neutral field
Opponents listed in are conference games.
† Denotes first national championship in football for the University of Texas since 1970 (BCS, AP).
The final roster of the season:
30
See Also: American football positions
Glossary of American football
Texas had very few problems affecting the roster. Only one
Defensive Starter missed a game due to injury.
31 On
Offense , starting running back Selvin Young injured his ankle in the game against Louisiana-Lafayette and re-injured it the following week against Ohio State.
32 He did not play in the games against Rice or Baylor.
33 Receiver Jordan Shipley missed the entire season due to a pulled
Hamstring .
34
The
Austin Police Department charged UT receiver Myron Hardy with a Class A
Misdemeanor for carrying a prohibited weapon, a “ ‘butterylfy-style knife’ that operates like a
Switchblade , making it a prohibited weapon.”
35 Hardy appeared in four games for the
2004 Team , catching one pass for four yards. He redshirted in 2005. and returned to the roster for 2006.
36
The police investigated
Assault allegations against Cedric Griffin and Ramonce Taylor but no charges were filed. The incident allegedly occurred
December 10 2005 near the
Sixth Street entertainment district. The UT athletics department found no reason to discipline the players and they both played in the final game of the season.
37 Also in December, the police announced they were investigating a Longhorn player in a separate incident that occurred in September. This incident allegedly involved
Armed Robbery with a
Handgun . The police did not name the target of the investigation.
38
Three Longhorns, freshman running backs Michael Houston and Jerrell Wilkerson and sophomore defensive back Bobby Tatum, elected to transfer prior to UT’s
Bowl Game . All three were reserve players.
39
| |
Ragin' Cajuns
|
| |
3
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
3
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
13
|
| |
26
|
| |
14
|
| |
7
|
| |
60
|
|
This game marked the second meeting of the Texas Longhorns and the
Louisiana Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns . In their first meeting in 2000, UT fell behind 10–0 before quarterback
Major Applewhite entered the game late in the first
Quarter and threw for 315 yards and 4 touchdowns as the Longhorns scored 52 unanswered points in a 52–10 victory.
Prior to
Kickoff of the 2005 game, the stadium announcer made an appeal for donations to help those suffering in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina , which devastated parts of
Louisiana five days previously.
40 Donations were not accepted at the game because of a policy against official fund-raising.
41 As the Longhorns entered the field, special teams player Karim Meijer carried a
United States Flag that was given to the team on Thursday by former Longhorn Nathan Kaspar who flew the flag during
Missions In Southeastern Iraq .
42 For this game only, the Longhorns wore
Throwback Uniform s furnished by
Nike as a way of honoring the past. The throwback jerseys were similar to jerseys worn during their 1963 National Championship season under Coach
Darrell K. Royal .
434445 Football's origins in the
Northeastern United States have created an expectation that it is a cold-weather sport,
4647484950 but the temperature at kickoff was 90°
F (32°
C ) which is also the average temperature in Austin for the month of September.
5152
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
10
|
| |
3
|
| |
3
|
| |
9
|
| |
25
|
| |
Buckeyes
|
| |
0
|
| |
16
|
| |
6
|
| |
0
|
| |
22
|
|
|
| |
Owls
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
3
|
| |
7
|
| |
10
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
14
|
| |
28
|
| |
9
|
| |
0
|
| |
51
|
|
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
14
|
| |
10
|
| |
13
|
| |
14
|
| |
51
|
| |
Tigers
|
| |
13
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
7
|
| |
20
|
|
|
| |
Sooners
|
| |
6
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
6
|
| |
12
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
14
|
| |
10
|
| |
7
|
| |
14
|
| |
45
|
|
|
| |
Buffaloes
|
| |
0
|
| |
10
|
| |
0
|
| |
7
|
| |
17
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
14
|
| |
21
|
| |
0
|
| |
7
|
| |
42
|
|
|
| |
Red Raiders
|
| |
7
|
| |
3
|
| |
7
|
| |
0
|
| |
17
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
10
|
| |
21
|
| |
14
|
| |
7
|
| |
52
|
|
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
9
|
| |
3
|
| |
22
|
| |
13
|
| |
47
|
| |
Cowboys
|
| |
21
|
| |
7
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
28
|
|
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
6
|
| |
21
|
| |
21
|
| |
14
|
| |
62
|
| |
Bears
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
|
|
| |
Jayhawks
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
14
|
| |
0
|
| |
14
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
28
|
| |
24
|
| |
7
|
| |
7
|
| |
66
|
|
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
14
|
| |
7
|
| |
13
|
| |
6
|
| |
40
|
| |
Aggies
|
| |
9
|
| |
6
|
| |
14
|
| |
0
|
| |
29
|
|
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
14
|
| |
28
|
| |
28
|
| |
0
|
| |
70
|
| |
Buffaloes
|
| |
0
|
| |
3
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
3
|
|
|
| |
'''Longhorns'''
|
| |
0
|
| |
16
|
| |
7
|
| |
18
|
| |
41
|
| |
Trojans
|
| |
7
|
| |
3
|
| |
14
|
| |
14
|
| |
38
|
|
|
