Remembering the 1995 season, Texas’ final year in the Southwest Conference - Pt. 2
One of the ideas of Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian and athletic director Chris Del Conte during this month’s Texas Fight Tour has been a call to win the Big 12 Conference title in the Longhorns’ final year in the league.
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“We won the final Southwest Conference title in our last year, how nice would it be to win the last Big 12 title in our final year (in the conference),” Del Conte has said and Sarkisian has repeated through the whistle-stop series of meetings with Texas Exes around the state.
The Longhorns’ final year in the SWC was in 1995, a season that saw Texas go 10-2-1 overall and 7-0 in conference play under fourth-year coach John Mackovic. The Longhorns were ranked ninth in the country before losing to No. 13 Virginia Tech 28-10 in the Sugar Bowl.
The 1995 season was one of the most memorable for the Longhorns for myriad reasons, not the least of which was a six-game winning streak to end the regular season, the contributions of kicker Phil Dawson, running backs Shon Mitchell and Ricky Williams and quarterback James Brown and wild story of reserve safety Ron McKelvey.
Here are the recaps for the final six games of that historic season. Part one of this series was posted Wednesday and recapped the first seven games that included a trip to Hawai’i, a wild win over Pitt, a drubbing on the road at Notre Dame, Dawson’s clutch game-winning field goal over Virginia and a tie with Oklahoma.
Week 8: Texas 48, Texas Tech 7
The 13th-ranked Longhorns dominated No. 23 Texas Tech from start to finish, rolling to an easy win on Nov. 4 in Austin. Williams ran for 113 yards and Mitchell shined with 105 yards on just 11 carries and scored three times, on runs of 32, 6 and 36 yards. Brown passed for 174 yards and two scores. Texas scored the game’s first 48 points and gave up the shutout late in the fourth quarter.
Week 9: Texas 52, Houston 20
Texas, now ranked No. 11, rolled into the Bayou City and thrashed the Cougars on Nov. 11 in the Astrodome. The Longhorns trailed in the second quarter but scored the game’s final 42 points as Brown threw for 338 yards and four touchdowns, including a 66-yard connection to Justin McLemore. Mitchell racked up 106 yards rushing and Williams added 86. It’s the most recent time the two teams have played a conference game, a series that will be continued in 2023 in Houston.
Week 10: Texas 27, TCU 19
The 10th-ranked Longhorns got a late 2-yard touchdown run from Mitchell after Tyson King caused a Horned Frogs’ fumble and held on for the victory on Nov. 18 in Austin. Mitchell finished with 109 yards rushing and also scored on a 24-yard carry in the first quarter and Wane McGarrity added a 1-yard TD in the win. Chris Carter had two interceptions and tied Tony Brackens with a team-high 16 tackles in the win.
Week 11: Texas 21, Baylor 13
Richard Walton started for the injured Brown and hit Pat Fitzgerald for a 70-yard TD in the first quarter as the ninth-ranked Longhorns scored the first 21 points and did just enough to the win an ugly game on Nov. 23 in Austin. Mitchell ran for 106 yards and a 27-yard touchdown and Williams added 86 yards on the ground in a game that Texas was outgained 382-308 and completed just five passes.
Week 12: Texas 16, Texas A&M 6
Williams produced his real coming-out party with touchdown runs of 21 and 3 yards highlighting his 163 yards on the ground as the ninth-ranked Longhorns held off the 16th-ranked Aggies on Dec. 2 in College Station. Mitchell was limited to 89 yards rushing and Brown returned to pass to 147 yards but Texas was outgained for the second straight game. Carter produced his second two-interception game, Jason Reeves also had a pick and Brackens forced two fumbles in the win, which clinched the Longhorns’ perfect SWC campaign.
Bowl Game: Virginia Tech 28, Texas 10
The Longhorns came into the Sugar Bowl on a six-game winning streak but laid an egg in the Big Easy, falling to the 13th-ranked Hokies on New Year’s Eve. Texas scored the game’s first 10 points on a Brown-to-Fitzgerald 4-yard pass and Dawson’s 52-yard field goal but was shutout over the final 43 minutes. Mitchell and Williams were held to 121 yards combined and the Longhorns finished with just 226 total yards of offense. Brown was sacked five times and was picked off thrice. Virginia Tech scored on a 60-yard punt return and a 20-yard fumble return and partied into the wee hours on Bourbon Street.
The night before the game a story broke that Texas reserve defensive back Ron McKelvey was not who he said he was and instead Ron Weaver, a 30-year-old Californian who was playing his seventh year of college football.
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Mackovic and other Texas officials claimed to know nothing of Weaver’s fraud until he was caught. Despite some initial concerns, there was no danger of the Longhorns having to forfeit any games in which he played because he rarely saw the field. Ultimately, the NCAA cleared Texas of wrongdoing, accepting school officials’ explanation that they did not know and could not have known of Weaver’s deception.
