Remembering Texas' one-point safety versus Texas A&M

Yesterday, a thread asked the Inside Texas Members Only board the following question: What are the most surreal moments in Texas football history? Not necessarily good or bad, just bizarre things/moments that you can’t help but look back on now and wonder if it actually happened or if it was some kind of dream/hallucination.

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There’s one that stands out above the rest in my book just because of how rare it is: the one-point safety.

During Texas’ 2004 matchup with Texas A&M, Michael Griffin blocked an Aggie third-quarter punt. The ball bounced in to the Texas A&M end zone and Texas’ Bobby Tatum jumped on it for a touchdown. There were no oddities on this play, just a good ol’ fashioned special teams score.

Everything continued as usual. Texas brought its PAT unit on the field with Dusty Mangum set to kick. Mangum had already sailed a kick wide left for the Longhorns’ first touchdown, so he was looking to go 1-for-2.

Well, he went 0-for-2. Matt Nordgren mishandled the snap, Mangum kicked the ball into the back of his line, someone in maroon and white picked it up, and then advanced it before fumbling it himself. The Aggies’ Jackson Appel is listed as having recovered the fumble in the A&M end zone. That’s important.

The referee then gets onto the stadium public address speakers and says “the ball was recovered by A&M. It was fumbled into the end zone, and was recovered there by A&M. It is a one-point safety.”

ABC announcers Brad Nessler and Bob Griese were incredulous, and with good reason. Those two had seen a lot of football up to that point and they had never seen a one-point safety. It looked like a typical blocked PAT. Ball blocked. Ball goes into end zone. Defending team jumps on ball. Touchback, right?

Not since A&M had possession outside the end zone.

“Because they took possession of the football even after the kick — they took possession, then they fumbled it, and downed it in the end zone,” the ABC rules official said on the broadcast. “It’s a one-point play.”

According to the official NCAA football rule book at the time, specifically rules 8-5-1 and 8-3-1, a one-point safety results when “on a try attempt, B2 (a player on Team B) adds new impetus to a Team A fumble that is recovered in the Team B end zone by Team B.”

The A&M player who fills the role of B2 and has clear possession outside the end zone according to the officials. He adds new impetus by advancing with possession with Team A’s, or Texas’, fumble. That player then fumbles and Appel jumps on it in the end zone, giving Team A one point.

That made it a 13-13 game early in the third quarter instead of a 14-12 A&M advantage.

After entering halftime trailing the No. 22 Aggies 13-6, the one-point safety was part of 20 unanswered points for No. 6 Texas on the way to a 26-13 Longhorns victory. Following Tatum’s touchdown, Mangum hit two field goals and Cedric Benson scored on a one-yard run to cap a 12-play, 89-yard drive in the fourth quarter. Texas A&M’s Reggie McNeal had a decent 20-for-38 game for 247 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. But he was on the ground often as Texas notched eight sacks.

Benson rushed for 165 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries. Vince Young was 12-for-18 for 131 yards and rushed 19 times for 93 yards and one score.

How often has this happened? According to the appropriately named OnePointSafety.com, the 2004 occurrence in Austin was the first recorded one-point safety in Division I history. And there’s only been one other instance since..

During the 2013 Fiesta Bowl, Oregon added a point via the one-point safety after the Ducks’ PAT attempt was blocked. The Kansas State player caught the ball outside of the end zone, went back into the end zone, and tried to lateral to a teammate. His teammate was tackled by a Duck, and one point was awarded to Oregon.

Nessler knew what he was looking at when he saw it and even referenced the 2004 occurrence.

Who knows when the next one-point safety will take place. It’s never occurred in the NFL even though it’s in the rule book.

When thinking about surreal moments, Texas participating in something that has only happened twice in the history of Division I football is certainly up there.