Portal:College football/Selected article/February, 2007



The 2005 Texas Longhorns football team (variously "Texas" or "UT" or the "Horns") represented the University of Texas at Austin in the college football season of 2005-2006, winning both the Big 12 Conference championship and the National Championship. The team was coached by head football coach Mack Brown and led on the field by quarterback Vince Young. The team played its home games at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium.

The team's penultimate victory of the season, in the Big 12 Championship Game, featured the biggest margin of victory in the history of that contest. Their ultimate victory in the 2006 Rose Bowl against the University of Southern California Trojans for the national championship, as well as their overall season, have both been cited as standing among the greatest performances in college football history by publications such as College Football News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Scouts.com, and Sports Illustrated. The Longhorns and the Trojans were together awarded the 2006 ESPY Award by ESPN for the "Best Game" in any sport. The Longhorns finished the season as the only unbeaten team, with 13 wins and zero losses overall.

The season gave Texas its second Big 12 football championship (26 conference championships total, including 24 in the Southwest Conference), and fourth consensus national championship in football. It was the ninth perfect season in the history of Longhorn football.

The team set numerous school and NCAA records, including most points scored in a season. After the season ended, six Longhorns from this championship team were selected by professional football teams in the 2006 NFL Draft: Vince Young, Michael Huff, Cedric Griffin, David Thomas, Jonathan Scott and Rodrique Wright.