2005-06 College Bowls

SAN DIEGO – Texas coach Mack Brown promised changes after an embarrassing loss to rival Texas A&M, and he delivered.

Not even a bizarre sideline blunder by Brown's stepson, Chris Jessie, could derail the 17th-ranked Longhorns in a 52-34 victory over No. 12 Arizona State on Thursday night in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.

"We were definitely not happy about the A&M game and wanted to prove we were a better team than that," said senior cornerback Brandon Foster of Arlington Bowie, who forced and recovered a fumble that led to a touchdown, intercepted a pass and recovered his fourth onside kick of the year.

After employing a boot-camp mentality for bowl preparations, Brown and his staff opened up the playbook, and Texas players displayed the sense of urgency Brown had been looking for. UT set a bowl record for points scored.

"These kids have worked as hard as any team in the country the last two months," said Brown, whose team finished 10-3 and dropped ASU to 10-3. "This game was so important to us because we didn't finish the regular season the way we wanted to. We wanted to be aggressive to reward these guys for the effort they had put in."

Defensive tackle Derek Lokey of Denton Ryan caught a touchdown pass. Texas ran a reverse pass and kept throwing deep. There was a fake punt that kept a TD drive alive.

Two sophomores were inserted into the starting lineup at linebacker for a defense that created five turnovers and kept pressure on ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter, who was sacked four times.

Freshman John Chiles of Mansfield Summit rotated with Colt McCoy at quarterback and led two touchdown drives and was in on a third.

UT struck quickly, scoring on three two-play drives. The Longhorns also seemed to get breaks that eluded them during the regular season.

In addition to the turnovers Foster forced, he tipped a pass that ended up in the hands of Marcus Griffin in the third quarter. Griffin had two interceptions.

Even a McCoy fumble at the ASU 4 after a 30-yard run in the third quarter was recovered in the end zone by tight end Jermichael Finley for a touchdown, putting Texas up, 34-13.

All the questions and concerns about this year's UT team – from chemistry issues between upper and lower classmen and whether the best players were on the field – seemed to disappear into the cool, California breeze at Qualcomm Stadium. What could have been a long, gloomy off-season with a loss to the Sun Devils instead turned into momentum for the Longhorns. UT earned its seventh straight 10-win season under Brown, who is 6-1 in bowl games over that span.

Texas' seniors also became the first class in school history to go 4-0 in bowl games.

Arizona State, which trailed, 28-10, at halftime, came out in the second half with more intensity. But two huge turnovers – Carpenter's second interception of the night and a muffed punt by Kyle Williams recovered by UT's Henry Melton of Grapevine – cut any comeback short.

ASU's defense also had no answer for the scrambling of McCoy, who kept drives alive with his feet. McCoy had 84 yards rushing through three quarters, including a 9-yard TD rush.

Texas overcame a fumble by McCoy, which led to an ASU touchdown right before the half, as well as injuries to linebacker Sergio Kindle (knee) of Woodrow Wilson and defensive end Aaron Lewis (shoulder).

ASU fans seemed to outnumber Texas fans 3 to 1 in a crowd of 64,020. But Texas took control from the beginning. UT needed only 81 seconds to score a touchdown, replacing an opening drive by SMU in 1980 as the fastest first drive to a TD in Holiday Bowl history. The score came on 2-yard pass from McCoy to Lokey, the short-yardage fullback for UT, who had never caught a pass or carried the ball for Texas before Thursday.

Running back Jamaal Charles continued a four-game tear to end the season, rushing for 161 yards and TD runs of 15 and 32 yards. He took a zone-read handoff from Chiles on UT's third possession and ran 47 yards to the ASU 4. Chiles scored on the next play for a 14-0 lead. That two-play drive was set up by a fumble caused and recovered by UT cornerback Brandon Foster.

Texas made it 21-0 on its second two-play drive, when McCoy threw 55 yards to Quan Cosby, setting up a 15-yard TD run by Charles on the next play.