page_title: 2007 Texas Longhorns football team
section_title: Nebraska
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Texas Longhorns football team / Game summaries / Nebraska
caption_attribution_description: Panorama of DKR- Texas Memorial Stadium on October 28, 2007 (Texas vs. Nebraska)
context_page_description: The 2007 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Mack Brown. The Longhorns played their home games in Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium.
  The Longhorns entered the 2007 season ranked third on all-time college football lists in both total wins and winning percentage. A pre-season ranking by ESPN writer Mark Schlabach had the Longhorns ranked eighth, while College Football News ranked Texas third. The Longhorns came into the season ranked fourth in both the Coaches Poll and AP Poll. During the preceding summer five players had been disciplined for legal infractions, another suspended for NCAA rule violations, and a coach had undergone surgery for cancer. Additional players were suspended during the season.
  The Longhorns played games against two opponents they had never faced previously: Arkansas State University and the University of Central Florida. The Longhorns narrowly achieved a victory in their home opener with Arkansas State, and in their first road game of the season, Texas was the inaugural opponent for the UCF Knights in their new stadium.
context_section_description: Texas first played the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1933, and the Longhorns held a 7–4–0 record against Nebraska though 2006. As with Kansas State and Iowa State, Texas plays the Cornhuskers two out of every four years as part of the Big 12 Conference schedule.
  On the morning of the game, oddsmakers favored Texas to win by 21 points.  The weather forecast called for a high of 76 °F (24 °C) and sunshine with winds NNE at 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h).  Texas stuck with their passing game for three quarters and was trailed Nebraska most of the way; the Cornhuskers led 17–9 to start the fourth quarter.  The Associated Press reported, "Once Texas figured out it should be running against one of the nation's worst run defenses, things turned out all right for the Longhorns."
  Early in the fourth quarter, McCoy took a hard hit as he scrambled outside the pocket. He was shaken up badly enough to leave the game for a play. John Chiles came in at quarterback; his one play, a zone-read handoff to Jamaal Charles, produced 24 yards.  According to the Associated Press recap of the game, "suddenly Texas had figured out how to beat a Cornhuskers' team that had been steamrolled on the ground in recent weeks. Texas only threw three passes in the fourth quarter."
  Once Texas switched to the zone read offense, they quickly started gaining yards and points. Charles ran for a career-high 290 yards, including 216 yards and three long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.  His tally also set a new record for rushing against the Cornhuskers, surpassing the old record of 247 yards by Oklahoma's Billy Simms.  Charles explained "It was my time to show everyone what I can do.  When I saw a hole, I blasted through it."  Texas finished with 181 yards passing and 364 yards rushing; Nebraska had 315 yards passing and 132 yards rushing.  The running back was named the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Offensive Player of the Week.
  The game was a milestone for one coach and a millstone for another; it was the 100th win for Mack Brown at Texas; and it put more pressure on beleaguered Nebraska coach Bill Callahan.  Brown remarked on his victory, "A hundred is nice.  I knew the game was going to come down like it did.  It didn’t surprise me.  They made sure that I’ll remember it the rest of my life."  Callahan was fired five weeks later.
caption: A panorama of Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium during the Nebraska game.
exif: {}