Ask any college football fan what the best game they’ve seen in the past two decades or so and the vast majority will instantly recall Texas’ 2006 BCS Championship Game victory over USC as the gold standard. After all, who could forget Heisman winner Reggie Bush’s inexplicable lateral or Vince Young’s game-winning romp to the end zone? Memories of that contest have returned to the sport ad nauseam this week as the Trojans took on the Longhorns once again and many were hoping for a similar bit of magic to the last time they met a few miles up the 110 North over a decade ago.
For three and a half quarters that was not the case, as fans were treated to sloppy play from both sides and dozens of mental mistakes. But it turns out there was a little bit of that Rose Bowl pixie dust left after all in the final few minutes. True freshman Sam Ehlinger saved his best for last and channeled old number No. 10 in burnt orange to lead a remarkable go-ahead drive and give Texas a glimmer of hope to pull off another remarkable upset of a top four team.
The problem was... USC’s Sam Darnold still had time to keep writing his own remarkable legend in cardinal and gold. As a result, No. 4 USC got their long awaited revenge and held on for a surprisingly narrow 27-24 win in double overtime over Texas in front of the biggest crowd for a football game Los Angeles will likely see until January.
The one-time Heisman Trophy front-runner didn’t have his sharpest outing as a starter but still finished with 397 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions to dazzle deep into the night once again. Darnold got the ball down three with just 45 seconds left in the fourth and marched USC right down for a game-tying field goal attempt that send the game into over time and then needed just one play into the extra frame to find the end zone once again.
After the Trojans’ defense finally got an elusive stop against Ehlinger by forcing a fumble, walk-on kicker Chase McGrath secured the victory with a 43-yarder that send sighs of relief up from the packed house at the venerable old L.A. Coliseum.