Longhorns’ case gets a big assist

Texas football players, as well as Coach Mack Brown, arrived in Southern California no longer needing to apologize about squeaking past Nebraska in the Big 12 Conference title game.

The Cornhuskers’ 33-0 victory over Arizona in the Holiday Bowl took care of that.

“They shut them out,” Texas quarterback Colt McCoy said. “Their defense is really good and they played great. It’s good for our conference and for us.”

Very good for the Texas psyche, that of the players and their fans. The Longhorns beat the Cornhuskers, 13-12, on a last-second 46-yard field goal by Hunter Lawrence to earn a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game against Alabama on Thursday in the Rose Bowl.

Nebraska held Arizona to 106 yards in the Holiday Bowl, a performance that played well . . . clap, clap, clap . . . deep in the heart to Texas.

“I think that was a good thing for us,” Brown said. “Instead of sitting around thinking about how poorly we played, people could see that Nebraska was not only a great defensive team, but a great offensive team, and our defense did a good job against them.”

Texas had only 202 yards against the Cornhuskers. The game, played with a national audience, probably cost McCoy the Heisman Trophy.

McCoy completed 20 of 36 passes for 184 yards and had three passes intercepted.

“[Nebraska’s] defense gave up 106 yards to an Arizona team that had moved up and down the field, scored a lot of points against a defense like USC. . . . It’s the best preparation we can have for a great defense like Alabama,” Brown said.

The ‘U’ word

Texas has won 26 of its last 27 games, the only loss coming on a last-second touchdown pass at Texas Tech in 2008. The Longhorns have won five consecutive bowl games and have been favorites in every game they have played this season.

Yet, they are 4 1/2 -point underdogs against Alabama, and seem to relish mentioning it, possibly for no other reason than to make the Alabama folk squirm just a bit.

Besides slipping past Nebraska, the Longhorns also struggled with Texas A&M before winning, 49-39, which are now selling points to Brown.

“Our guys understand that a lot of people don’t think that we’ll win the game on Thursday night,” Brown said. “We didn’t have great momentum coming out of the season, and Alabama did, so give them credit. What a great game they played against Florida, who’s a tremendous team, and showed that last night.”

Key return

The Longhorns get back D.J. Monroe, one of the top kickoff returners in the nation. He was suspended after being arrested for allegedly driving drunk and sat out the last three regular-season games.

Monroe, who pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, ranks second nationally in kickoff returns, averaging 35.8 yards with two touchdowns.

Marquise Goodwin handled the chore in Monroe’s absence. He averaged 22.1 yards per return, with one touchdown, overall.

“Well, we’re looking at D.J. to see if he’s missed too much work on kickoff return. . . . One of them or both of them will return kicks on Thursday night,” Brown said.

chris.foster@latimes.com

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