Portal:College football/Selected article

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June 2007

Portal:College football/Selected article/June, 2007

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May 2007

Portal:College football/Selected article/May, 2007

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April 2007

The 2006 Alamo Bowl Game was a college football bowl game, part of the 2006–2007 bowl season of the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The 2006 Alamo Bowl was played in the 65,000-seat Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on December 30. The game matched the Texas Longhorns versus the Iowa Hawkeyes and was televised on ESPN and ESPN-HD. It was the most-watched bowl game in ESPN history.

Alamo Bowl officials announced that both schools sold their entire allotment of tickets, resulting in the fastest sellout in Alamo Bowl history. The attendance for the game was 65,875, which established a new record for the most people to gather in San Antonio to view a sporting event. Texas won the game 26-24.

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March 2007

Ralphie the buffalo is the name of the live mascot of the University of Colorado Buffaloes. She has been called one of the best live mascots in sports and is often erroneously labeled male.

Handlers, known as "Ralphie Runners," run Ralphie around Folsom Field, the University of Colorado's football field, in a loop before each half of each home game. Ralphie can reach speeds of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). Female bison are used because they are smaller and less aggressive, as well as for insurance reasons, although Ralphie has knocked over her handlers on more than one occasion. Because of this, whether or not Ralphie runs is at the sole discretion of her handlers, and her run may be canceled if she is unusually nervous or upset.

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February 2007

The 2005 Texas Longhorn football team (variously "Texas" or "UT" or the "Horns") represented The University of Texas at Austin in the college football season of 2005-2006, winning both the Big 12 Conference championship and the National Championship. The team was coached by head football coach Mack Brown and led on the field by quarterback Vince Young. The team played its home games at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

The team's penultimate victory of the season, in the Big 12 Championship Game, featured the biggest margin of victory in the history of that contest. Their ultimate victory in the 2006 Rose Bowl against the University of Southern California Trojans for the national championship, as well as their overall season, have both been cited as standing among the greatest performances in college football history by publications such as College Football News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Scouts.com, and Sports Illustrated. The Longhorns and the Trojans were together awarded the 2006 ESPY Award by ESPN for the "Best Game" in any sport. The Longhorns finished the season as the only unbeaten team, with 13 wins and zero losses overall.

The season gave Texas its second Big 12 football championship (26 conference championships total, including 24 in the Southwest Conference), and fourth consensus national championship in football. It was the ninth perfect season in the history of Longhorn football.

The team set numerous school and NCAA records, including most points scored in a season. After the season ended, six Longhorns from this championship team were selected by professional football teams in the 2006 NFL Draft: Vince Young, Michael Huff, Cedric Griffin, David Thomas, Jonathan Scott and Rodrique Wright.

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January 2007

A trick play, also known as a gadget play, is a play in American football that uses deception and unorthodox strategies to fool the opposing team. Trick plays are highly risky, usually with a large potential for a loss of yards or turnover, but the payoff is often high with large gains and even touchdowns.

Trick Plays take advantage of the fact that nearly all American football plays are either a pass from the quarterback or a run by the halfback. As a result, defenses will think pass when the quarterback has the ball and run when the running back has it. Trick plays try to do something different in these situations. Trick plays are unusual plays, and therefore tend only to work if they are unanticipated.

In college football, the Boise State Broncos used several trick plays in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl:

• Trailing Oklahoma 35-28 with less than 20 seconds left in regulation and the ball at midfield, the Broncos executed a hook-and-ladder play. Quarterback Jared Zabransky connected with wide receiver Drisan James on a 15-yard pass over the middle. James then lateraled to Jerard Rabb, who ran the rest of the way for the touchdown with 7 seconds left. They successfully converted the extra point to force overtime.
• In overtime, with the Broncos down 42-35, they faced a fourth-and-2 from the Oklahoma 6-yard line. They lined up in the shotgun, but sent Zabransky into motion and snapped to backup wide receiver Vinny Peretta, who was playing as a running back. He then ran an option pass, throwing to tight end Derek Schouman for the touchdown that narrowed the lead to 42-41.
• Broncos coach Chris Petersen then opted to go for two to win the game rather than kick the extra point to send the game to a second overtime. Zabransky faked a pass to a wide receiver on the far right side with his bare right hand; all the while holding the football behind his back with his left hand. He handed the ball off behind his back to star running back Ian Johnson, who ran into the end zone untouched to complete the two-point conversion and win the game.

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