page_title: 2007 Holiday Bowl
section_title: Texas
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Holiday Bowl / Pre-game notes / Texas
caption_attribution_description: UT Cheerleaders perform at the Battle of the Bands (2007-12-26) prior to the 2007 Holiday Bowl between The University of Texas Longhorns and the Arizona State Sun Devils
context_page_description: The 2007 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 27, 2007 in San Diego. It was part of the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season and one of 32 games in the 2007–08 bowl season. It featured the Texas Longhorns against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Texas won 52–34 and set Holiday Bowl records for the earliest score and for most points scored in the first quarter. Texas also set a school record for most points scored in a bowl game. A bizarre play involving Chris Jessee, a member of the Longhorn football operations staff and the stepson of the Texas head coach, has been cited as one of the strangest plays of the season.
context_section_description: The bowl was the 10th straight bowl invitation for Texas, setting a new school record by beating the previous streak of nine straight bowl games from 1977–85.  The Horns entered the game with a 6–3 bowl record under head coach Mack Brown, including victories in five of their last six bowl games and three consecutive bowl wins for the first time in school history. Texas beat Michigan 38–37 on a last-second field goal in the 2005 Rose Bowl and defeated USC 41–38 in the final minute of the 2006 Rose Bowl.   They beat Iowa 26–24 in the 2006 Alamo Bowl.  It was the Texas’ 47th bowl appearance, which ranks second all-time in NCAA history behind Alabama's 54 appearances.   
  That made Texas one of only four schools nationally to win three bowl games in a row. Including six seasons at North Carolina, Brown had directed his teams to 16 straight bowl games – the second-longest active streak in the nation.
  The game was UT's fourth appearance in the Holiday Bowl.  Except for BYU with eleven appearances, Texas has played in the Holiday Bowl more times than any other team.  All three previous UT appearances were close contests, decided by a total of 17 points.  UT defeated Washington, 47–43, in 2001, and fell to Oregon, 35–30, in 2000 and Washington State, 28–20, in 2003.  In the 2001 game, quarterback Major Applewhite led Texas to set a Holiday Bowl record by overcoming a 19-point second-half deficit to win the game.  UT scored 27 fourth-quarter points to secure the win.
  Brown said, "As a team, our focus will be on getting that 10th win and keeping our bowl winning streak alive.  We've got a lot of work to do and the Holiday Bowl always seems to be a wild game with lots of sudden changes so we're looking forward to getting back on the practice field and preparing to play."
  The game was the sixth time in the eight consecutive seasons that the Longhorns had played in either this game or in the Rose Bowl; both are held in southern California.  This led Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist Bob Keisser to joke that the team would be renamed "the University of Texas-La Jolla."  Entering the game, the Longhorns were averaging 462.0 yards of total offense (13th in the NCAA), 199.8 rushing yards (25th in the NCAA), 262.2 passing yards (36th in the NCAA) and 36.0 points per game (19th NCAA).  Defensively, Texas was allowing 24.6 points, 374.8 total yards, 99.3 rushing yards per game (10th in the NCAA).
  Because of the loss to Texas A&M, Mack Brown put the Longhorns through a boot camp in preparation for the bowl.  Practices began at 6:00 am, starting positions were declared open to the best player, and players who made mistakes were forced to take ownership of those mistakes in front of the team.
caption: UT cheerleaders perform at the Battle of the Bands, one of the events leading up to the 2007 Holiday Bowl.
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