Texas gambled. And the gamble paid off.
With time running out in the first Big 12 Championship Game in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 1996, the Longhorns faced fourth-and-inches at their own 28-yard line. Nebraska’s defense, which had already allowed 30 points, lined up to stop a sneak by Texas quarterback James Brown.
But there was no sneak. Brown took the snap and rolled to his left, tossing the ball to tight end Derek Lewis. Had the play failed, Nebraska, which trailed 30-27, would have had a shot at winning or at least tying the game with a third Kris Brown field goal. He had kicked two, from 51 and 24 yards.
The 24-yarder, early in the fourth quarter, gave the Huskers a 27-23 lead.
The toss to Lewis didn’t fail. Rather, it gained 61 yards to the Nebraska 11-yard line. Linebacker Jamel Williams made the tackle. On the next play, Longhorn running back Priest Holmes, a back-up, scored his third touchdown of the game. Only 1:53 remained. Game effectively over.
Nebraska’s hopes of possibly advancing to the Sugar Bowl and playing Florida for a third-consecutive national championship ended. Final score: Texas 37, Huskers 27.
Nebraska hadn’t allowed as many as 37 points since 1990 at Oklahoma, a 45-10 loss. The Huskers also gave up 503 total yards, the most since 1993 against Kansas State.
Brown accounted for 353 yards passing, completing 19-of-29, including a 66-yard touchdown to Wayne McGarity to give Texas the lead with 8:53 remaining in the game.
Eric Stokes and Eric Warfield intercepted Brown passes, but that wasn’t enough.
The Longhorns ran the ball better than expected, according to Tom Osborne, who said that was the difference in the game. Texas rushed 28 times for 150 yards. Holmes, a senior, accounted for 120 of the yards, and three touchdowns, on only nine carries. He scored 13 touchdowns that season.
With Ahman Green sidelined by a stress fracture, DeAngelo Evans stepped up again at I-back, rushing for 130 yards on 32 carries and scoring the Huskers’ three touchdowns, on runs of 2, 23 and 6 yards. That gave Evans 776 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns for the season.
Evans’ 776 rushing yards ranked third all-time — bowl-game stats were not yet included — by a Nebraska freshman. Green was first with 1,086 yards in 1995, Calvin Jones second, 900 in 1991. Evans was also the Huskers’ leading receiver, with six catches for 42 yards. Evans, a true freshman from Wichita, was named the ABC/Chevrolet Player of the Game.
Scott Frost completed 15-of-24 passes for 155 yards, without an interception, and ran 18 times for 47 yards. Williams led the Blackshirts with 11 tackles. Stokes had eight, Mike Minter seven. But they didn’t sack Brown. It was the only game in 1996 Nebraska didn’t record a sack.
Texas went into the game with a 7-4 record. Coach John Makovic’s Longhorns were unranked. They moved into the rankings, at 20th, losing to seventh-ranked Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl, 20-15. Nebraska dropped to sixth in the rankings, but making the Bowl Alliance to play Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Texas certainly looked ranking-worthy in St. Louis. The play on fourth-and-inches at the Longhorns’ 28-yard line with time running out “was a tremendous call,” Osborne was quoted in the Lincoln Journal Star. “It’s a gamble, but it worked.”
