Vince Young recalls what he was feeling, thinking before scoring game-winning touchdown vs. USC

On Jan. 4, 2006, the world stood still forward a few hours while the two best teams in college football battled it out for the national championship. Texas and USC were the only two undefeated teams remaining teams in the country.

The Trojans had won the previous two national titles and were appropriately ranked No. 1 in the country. Moreover, they had Reggie Bush on their team, who was widely-regarded as the best player in college football.

Alas, he wasn’t the best player on the field in the 2006 Rose Bowl. That honor belonged to Texas quarterback Vince Young, who ran in a game-winning 9-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left to boost the Longhorns to victory. During an appearance on The Triple Option podcast, Young reflected on his iconic play in one of the best games in college football history.

“I was definitely nervous,” Young said. “That is one of the scariest moments ever because Coach [Mack] Brown can vouch for this, Lyle Sendlein is one of those snappers that, if you’re not paying attention, it’ll go past your head. So I had to make sure that I catch the damn snap first.

“I was just thinking about just basically getting the first down to try to keep the clock running and keep the ball out of their hands. But, Coach [Pete] Carroll ran that blitz a couple of times on me in that game, and [Jonathan] Scott and Justin Blalock did what they were supposed to do. Everybody didn’t try to do no superman plays. Everybody did what they were supposed to do.”

Young’s game-winning touchdown was only the cherry on top of an all-time great performance. In the win, Young completed 30-of-his-40 pass attempts for 267 yards. He also tallied 200 yards and three touchdowns in the ground game.

For his efforts, Vince Young was named the Rose Bowl MVP. Pete Carroll, who was USC’s head coach at the time, said Young’s performance was “the greatest he’s ever seen by any one guy.”

The victory was Texas’ first national championship win since 1970. The Longhorns haven’t captured a national title again since. The game is still the most-watched college football game in history. It reportedly had 35.6 million viewers.

For reference, 22.1 million viewers tuned into last season’s national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. In 2018, Vince Young was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. He is the only Big 12 player to ever win the Rose MVP award twice.