2010 BCS Championship

Jan. 7, 2010, Rose Bowl Stadium
Alabama 37, Texas 21

No one could have predicted that Alabama would go scoreless in the first and third quarters, score 37 points total and yet win by 16. Much less imagine that the winning quarterback would throw for less than 60 yards, and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy would only take five snaps in the entire game.

Imagine the odds, but all of the above did happen, and then some, as No. 1 Alabama won the 2009-2010 national title over No. 2 Texas, 37-21.

“I would like to make a statement,” is how Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban opened his postgame press conference. “I’ll tell you what I told the team, that I’ve never been prouder of a group of guys for their resiliency, their buy-in, their hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that they put forth to accomplish what they accomplished this season.”

The craziness started from the first set of downs. After appearing to go three and out, Alabama, facing fourth and 23, faked a punt that Texas’s Blake Gideon intercepted at the Tide’s 37-yard line. From there, McCoy led his Longhorns to first and 10 from the Alabama 11. On the next play, Texas’ star quarterback was sacked, and to the horror of the Longhorn faithful, left the game for good, with a shoulder injury.

In came Garret Gilbert, and Texas conservatively plodded to a 3-0 lead. On their ensuing kickoff, however, the Longhorns recovered and got the ball back on the Alabama 30-yard line, cashing in for three more points and a 6-0 lead.

“This is the most bizarre start to a big game in memory,” wrote Darren Everson of the “Wall Street Journal” in his live blog. “Texas leads, and Alabama has had two turnovers in less than seven minutes, but has such an advantage ever felt so tenuous?”

Alabama played the second quarter as if to make a prophet out of Everson. On the opening few plays, the Tide started the second quarter how it would end it – with seven points. Heisman Trophy-winner Mark Ingram, who ran for a game-high 116 yards on 22 carries, punched in the first of his two touchdowns in the game less than a minute in. Trent Richardson added seven more with a 49-yard scamper (the first of two for him as well), and a Leigh Tiffin field goal made it 17-6, Tide.

Then, to bookend a disastrous second quarter for the Longhorns, Alabama lineman Marcel Dareus picked off a shovel pass – yes, you read that right – and ran it back 28 yards for the score and what would be an insurmountable 24-6 halftime lead.

“All I was thinking about was doing moves I didn’t think I could do,” Dareus said as he recounted his pick six for reporters after the game.

“Imagine you’re a Texas fan,” Everson wrote at halftime. “Can you imagine what it feels like right now to have dropped a grand (or likely more) to fly all the way out here to see this? … Texas had virtually no shot the instant McCoy went down. And what little chance there was has been snuffed out by Gilbert’s two picks.”

But Mack Brown and Gilbert didn’t just rollover. The quarterback completed two touchdown passes – of 44 and 28 yards – to Jordan Shipley, and a successful two-point conversion brought the score to 24-21.

That glimmer of hope was extinguished, though, with a fumble and two interceptions – the total of four by Gilbert is a BCS title game record – as Alabama ran up 13 more points to cement its 13th national title.

Game Stats

Scoring

Texas Lawrence, 18-yard field goal
Texas Lawrence, 42-yard field goal
Alabama Ingram, 2-yard run (Tiffin kick good)
Alabama Richardson, 49-yard run (Tiffin kick good)
Alabama Tiffin, 26-yard field goal
Alabama Dareus, 28-yard interception return (Tiffin kick good)
Texas Shipley, 44-yard pass from Gilbert (Lawrence kick good)
Texas Shipley, 28-yard pass from Gilbert 
 (Buckner pass from Gilbert good)
Alabama Ingram, 1-yard run (Tiffin kick good)
Alabama Richardson, 2-yard run (Tiffin kick failed)

MVPs
Mark Ingram, Marcell Dareus (Alabama)