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Texas 37, #3 Nebraska 27
Saturday, December 7, 1996
Inaugural Big 12 Championship
Trans World Airlines Dome (St. Louis, Mo.)
In one of the biggest upsets of the 1996 college football season and one of the greatest wins in recent
UT football history, the unranked and three- touchdown underdog Longhorns stunned No. 3 Nebraska
37-27 to claim the first-ever Big 12 Championship. A career-best 353 yards on 19-of-28 passes by
James Brown and 120 yards rushing and three touchdowns by fifth-year senior Priest Holmes helped
lead the Longhorns to the stirring win against the two-time defending National Champions in St. Louis.
The pivotal play of the game came on a fourth-and-inches call with 2:48 remaining from the Longhorns
28-yard-line. Brown faked the run, rolled left and tossed a pass that TE Derek Lewis took for a 61-yard
gain to set up the game-clinching touchdown. Priest Holmes scored from 11 yards out on the very next
play and UT pulled off the upset and earned a spot in one of the four Alliance Bowls for the second year
in a row (Tostito's Fiesta Bowl). That was the first time since 1972-73 that the Longhorns advanced to
back-to-back New Year’s Day bowl games. It also secured the Longhorns’ third consecutive
conference title, marking the first time since 1971-73 that a UT team had accomplished that feat.
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