This Lone Star From Texas Two-Steps It Up to Victory

If anyone was going to lead a team that wasn’t supposed to be here, it might as well have been a quarterback who wasn’t supposed to do this.

Those Texas Strangers, the Longhorns who brought burnt orange and Bevo to the Rose Bowl at the expense of the Pacific 10 Conference’s own California Golden Bears, looked right at home in Pasadena. You don’t have to like the system that brought them here -- you shouldn’t, really -- but even the white suits at the Tournament of Roses House had to love the show that Texas and Michigan put on in the 91st Rose Bowl game Saturday, a good ol’ time that wasn’t decided until a guy named Dusty kicked a wobbly field goal over the crossbar on the last play to give Texas a 38-37 victory.

“I think we proved we belong,” Vince Young said.

Young belongs in Rose Bowl lore right along the Heisman Trophy winners and future No. 1 NFL draft picks that have played in this game.

He was that good Saturday. Good enough to account for five touchdowns and all but five yards on the drive that led to Dusty Mangum’s winning field goal. Good enough to single-handedly overcome the pair of Michigan receivers who set Rose Bowl records -- three touchdown catches by Braylon Edwards and 315 all-purpose yards by Steve Breaston.

When Young’s teammates tried to join him on the makeshift stage where he accepted his award as offensive player of the game, a Rose Bowl official shooed them away. Truth is, they didn’t belong up there. This was his show.

“It wasn’t me that was doing that,” Young insisted. “My offensive line, I can’t stop talking about those guys. They made some big plays and made big blocks, and the receivers were making plays down the field.”

It was his way of trying to pass off, but it was as errant as some of his throws that were wildly off-target. He wasn’t at his best talking, or even passing. But he was peerless when he took off and started running.

It wasn’t his offensive line that allowed him to turn a third-and-nine scramble into a 60-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.

“He’s fast,” Michigan linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. “He’s a pretty strong guy. He moves his feet well. You have to wrap him up.”

And sometimes that’s not enough. Michigan defensive lineman Patrick Massey had Young in his grasp behind the line of scrimmage, and somehow Young escaped and sprinted 10 yards into the end zone on another third-down play.

“Strong legs,” Young said. “Squats.”

Running back Cedric Benson was supposed to be the strength of the offense. He was the guy who rushed for almost 1,800 yards and 19 touchdowns this season, the Doak Walker award winner as the nation’s top running back.

Young? His last name has him at the back of the team’s media guide, and his shaky passing numbers (as many interceptions as touchdowns for his career) had him behind Michigan freshman Chad Henne in the QB buzz last week.

While Henne missed on a couple of touchdown plays and two key third downs, Young did the necessary, the unexpected and the impossible, connecting on enough short passes to pick up 180 yards and a touchdown, while using his legs to run for 192 yards and four touchdowns.

Benson got hurt on the game’s first play and got tackled quickly on every subsequent carry by a Michigan defense geared toward stopping him.

“They were not going to let him win the game,” Texas Coach Mack Brown said. “Vince Young took over the ballgame. I’ve never seen an athletic performance from a quarterback -- running, throwing and competing and making plays -- like Vince Young did tonight.”

We saw the emergence of a true force Saturday.

“He really grew up tonight as a quarterback,” said Texas tight end David Thomas, who caught four of Young’s passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. “Cedric got a little banged up and Vincent just took this team on his shoulders.”

Or his skinny legs, to be more accurate.

“For the people that didn’t know anything about me, you’ve just got to keep watching me,” Young said. “I’m going to keep playing hard.”

The Longhorns played as if they had to prove they belonged. That certainly was in doubt when they capitalized on the corrupt and flawed BCS system. Brown didn’t add any dignity to the process when he pleaded for votes after Texas’ final game of the regular season. In his defense, he didn’t make the rules, he just played the game.

“The BCS should be answering those [questions] instead of me,” Brown said Saturday night. “There should be questions about Utah, there should be questions about Louisville, there should be questions about the last three years, ‘Why didn’t Texas get in?’

” ... Cal had a great team, Cal deserves to be in the BCS, in my estimation. But I don’t think anybody that knows football questioned whether Texas should be here.”

The Granddaddy is no longer your father’s Rose Bowl. Big 12 teams have won it twice since the last Big Ten victory in 2000.

The Longhorns reveled in their Texas-ness. As if the marching band’s U-T formation wasn’t enough, the band also formed the state of Texas and the longhorn logo. Then some helping hands unfurled a Lone Star flag that was almost as big as the end zone. And in the first half, their mascot, Bevo the big-horned steer, ambled out of the tunnel and onto the sideline.

But if you ignored that ugly shade of orange that dominated the seats and looked at the field, you saw a beautifully played game by both sides, featuring three ties and four lead changes.

Rose Bowl executive director Mitch Dorger called it “one of the most amazing Rose Bowl games I’ve ever seen.”

And the Longhorns won it. They did their part, which means we have to do ours. Say it in your best Texas twang: “Y’all come back now, hear?”

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Young Game by Game

Game-by-game statistics for Texas sophomore quarterback Vince Young:

*--* PASSI RUSHI NG NG OPPONENT RESULT CMP ATT YDS TD INT ATT YDS AVG TD North Texas Win 65-0 14 21 153 1 0 8 49 6.1 0 at Arkansas Win 11 22 150 2 0 14 56 4.0 0 22-20 Rice Win 11 18 161 3 2 8 64 8.0 0 35-13 Baylor Win 15 20 189 2 0 5 55 11.0 0 44-14 Oklahoma Loss 8 23 86 0 0 16 54 3.4 0 12-0 Missouri Win 3 9 19 0 2 5 53 10.6 1 28-20 at Texas Win 10 15 142 1 0 25 158 6.3 4 Tech 51-21 at Colorado Win 31-7 8 15 71 0 2 15 68 4.5 2 Oklahoma St. Win 18 21 278 1 2 12 123 10.3 1 56-35 at Kansas Win 22 40 289 1 2 19 114 6.0 1 27-23 Texas A&M; Win 12 18 131 0 0 19 93 4.9 1 26-13 Michigan Win 16 28 180 1 1 21 192 9.1 4 38-37

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.