2006 Alamo Bowl - Game Summary

Game Summary

Texas won the coin toss and elected to defer their possession to the second half. UT therefore kicked off to Iowa, who went on offense. The Hawkeyes drove 77 yards for a touchdown. Texas was unable to score, and returned the ball to Iowa. Iowa's Drew Tate threw a pass to Andy Brodell, and he ran 63 yards for a touchdown. Texas was able to get some points on the board when walk-on placekicker Ryan Bailey made a 27-yard field goal to make the score 14–3 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Tate threw an apparent touchdown pass to tight end Scott Chandler. Tate was seen celebrating by making an upside-down Hook 'em Horns hand signal. However, the officials ruled that Chandler was an ineligible receiver. On the next play, Tate again tried to find Chandler in the end zone but instead threw an interception to UT defensive back Aaron Ross. Texas got the ball at their own 20. Colt McCoy capped an 80-yard scoring drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Limas Sweed. This made the score 14–10 in favor of Iowa as the teams went into half-time.

The Longhorns began the second half by scoring on another Ryan Bailey field goal, this one for 43 yards to bring the score to 14–13. Later in the third quarter, McCoy threw a rarely used wheel route to running back Jamaal Charles, who ran 72 yards for a touchdown to give the Longhorns their first lead of the game at 20–14. This touchdown pass was McCoy's 29th touchdown pass of the season, tying the national record for touchdown passes by a freshman. Iowa answered with another touchdown pass from Drew to Brodell that made the score 21–20 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, McCoy scrambled on fourth down with 11 minutes to go in the game to set up what would prove to be the winning touchdown. McCoy bootlegged to the right with fullback Chris Ogbonnaya as a blocker, running 8 yards to the Iowa 2-yard line. Running back Selvin Young then regained the lead for Texas with a two-yard touchdown run. Texas failed at an attempted two-point conversion, leaving the score at 26–21. Iowa drove into Texas territory but settled for a Kyle Schlicher field goal to make the score 26–24 with 6:20 left on the game clock.

With 3:35 left to play, Iowa attempted a trick play – an attempted flanker pass that has posed problems for Texas all season. Safety Marcus Griffin stuffed the play for an 11-yard loss. Commenting on stopping the trick play, Griffin said, "I knew it was coming – we'd been beaten by that play in the last 10 games. We knew it had to come, I guess that was the best time for it." Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz described the call as "totally my fault. I was being greedy, I thought we had a secure play."

Tate then threw two incomplete passes and the Hawkeyes punted with a little more than two minutes to play. Texas, assisted by an 11-yard end-around run by flanker Billy Pitman, used all but 10 seconds of the game clock before punting to Iowa. One play later, the game was over. The final score was Texas 26, Iowa 24.