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October 9, 2005

Yes, Young's for real

Clay Horning

• Longhornquarterback proves himself all over again

DALLAS — When it was over, just a few minutes after the gun, Vince Young was surrounded by reporters on the Cotton Bowl turf. He broke from that little crowd and made a line for his teammates, just about all of them huddled and celebrating in the northeast corner of the stadium.

He broke free from that crowd, too, and just like the Sooners used to do, started a half-lap round the field just an arm’s length from the front row. Funny that nobody else thought of the victory lap first, but when Young started it, the team followed, just as it had the previous 60 minutes on the clock and 31/2 hours in real time.

First, the Longhorns followed their quarterback to a 45-12 victory over Oklahoma. Then, they just plain followed him.

Why not? He’d done almost everything right.

It may go down as the game Texas coach Mack Brown finally won, but it was Young who won it on the field and won big.

If the Sooners wanted to make Young beat them through the air, they succeeded. Young completed 14-of-27 passes for 241 yards and, more importantly, three touchdowns.

“We’ve always recognized that he’s an excellent player,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said, “and it’s obvious he’s made a lot of progress.”

He gained 45 yards on the ground, or about 37 less than his average. But with his arm and decision-making, he directed an offense that averaged 6.6 yards per snap and gained 444.

“He played as good a game at the line of scrimmage as I’ve ever seen,” Brown said.

His first touchdown pass, 15 yards to Ramonce Taylor, put the Longhorns up 7-0 just 5:56 into the game.

It was his next two that came with a sense of timing and a flair for the dramatic.

Leading 17-6 with the ball at the Texas 36, Billy Pittman broke free down the left sideline and Young didn’t just find him, but hit the wide receiver in perfect stride for what became 64-yard touchdown 17 seconds before the half.

The Sooners could have gotten back in the game if they’d struck first in third quarter.

But OU went nowhere in two drives before Young, throwing off his back foot, once again hit Pittman in the numbers with a scoring strike that covered 27 yards with 5:26 left in the third quarter.

That was pretty much the game.

“The thing that people are missing about him,” Brown said, “is his competitive spirit.”

As to the quarterback he’s become, as opposed to the quarterback he was for previous tussles against OU, Young said it’s just a matter of “taking everything everybody’s put on my plate and eating it.”

Whatever that means, it spelled success Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Bowl.

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