2004 Holiday Bowl The 2004 Holiday Bowl was the third bowl game ( also the second of three in California ) played of the 2004 - 2005 bowl season on December 30 , 2004 . The game was held at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego , pitting the Pac - 10 ' s California Golden Bears and the Big 12 ' s Texas Tech Red Raiders . Cal was edged out for a BCS bowl berth by Texas in the last week of the regular season . Teams . In 2004 Cal posted a 10 – 1 record under head coach Jeff Tedford and quarterback Aaron Rodgers , with their only regular season loss coming against the eventual national champion , USC . They finished the regular season ranked No . 4 according to polls , and appeared to have an excellent chance to receive an at - large BCS bowl berth , most likely in the Rose Bowl . Under normal circumstances , the Bears , as Pac - 10 runner - up , would have had first crack at a Rose Bowl berth since conference champion USC was playing for the national championship . The Bears entered their final game of the regular season ranked No . 4 in BCS standings and a 24 - point favorite over Southern Miss . They won 26 – 16 in a closer than - expected game . With 13 seconds left in the game and Cal with the ball at the Southern Miss 22 - yard , Tedford elected to run out the clock instead of attempting to increase the margin of victory to possibly impress some voters . Leading up to the game , Tedford said he had no interest to run up the score . In a controversial case , the Texas coach Mack Brown made impassioned pleas to media asking poll voters reconsider their final votes . Several Associated Press ( AP ) voters were besieged by fan emails and phone calls attempting to sway their votes , apparently spurred from Brown ' s pleas to rank Texas ahead of other " less deserving teams . " Nine of the 65 AP voters switched Texas ahead of Cal , and three of them were from Texas . In the Coaches Poll , four voters moved Cal down to No . 7 and two to No . 8 , when the week before none had them lower than No . 6 . Meanwhile , two coaches moved Texas up to No . 3 when the team did not play that week . The " Los Angeles Times " wrote that accusations were raised about coaches manipulated voting , but the individual coaches votes were not released to prove or disprove the allegations . The AP Poll makes its voters ' records public . No . 6 Texas gained 23 points on No . 4 Cal in the AP poll , and the fifth - ranked Longhorns closed 43 points on the fourth - ranked Bears in the coaches poll . That allowed Texas to earn a BCS berth , finishing . 0129 points ahead of Cal in the BCS standings after being . 0013 points behind . The Longhorns went on to beat Michigan 38 – 37 in the Rose Bowl . In part because of the controversy with Cal ' s BCS ranking , the AP poll withdrew from the BCS after the season . Texas Tech entered the game with a 7 - 4 overall record and a 5 - 3 record in the Big XII . The Red Raiders entered the game with the top - ranked passing offense in the NCAA , averaging just over 399 yards per game , and with the NCAA season leader in passing yardage , Sonny Cumbie . Earlier in the season , Tech had shown its offensive prowess with a 70 - 10 victory over Nebraska , the most points ever given up by Nebraska in the team ' s history . Game summary . Cal played well at first , finishing the first quarter with a 14 – 7 lead . However , the Texas Tech passing assault exploded after that . In the second and third quarters , the Red Raiders outscored the Bears 31 - 3 , going on to record the biggest upset of the bowl season . Red Raiders quarterback Sonny Cumbie torched the Bears defense for 520 passing yards , going 40 - for - 60 with three touchdowns and no interceptions . The brightest spot for Cal was running back J . J . Arrington , who ran for 173 yards and a touchdown , making him only the third Pac - 10 running back to reach 2 , 000 yards rushing in a season . Tech got on the board first with a touchdown pass from Sonny Cumbie to Jarrett Hicks , but the Bears responded with two touchdowns on runs by J . J . Arrington and Marshawn Lynch to go up 14 - 7 in the first quarter . The Red Raiders outscored the Bears 17 - 0 in the second quarter , with an Alex Trlica field goal , a touchdown run by Taurean Henderson , and another Cumbie - to - Hicks touchdown pass . Cumbie ' s second touchdown pass came three plays after Tech ' s Vincent Meeks intercepted an Aaron Rodgers pass and returned it 48 yards to California ' s 22 - yard line . Meeks was named the Defensive MVP of the game . In the second half , Tech took the opening kickoff and marched 85 yards in just four plays , scoring on a 60 - yard catch and run by Joel Filani to make the score 31 - 14 . Tech ' s Johnny Mack scored on an 11 - yard run later in the third quarter as the Red Raiders took a 38 - 17 lead into the fourth quarter . California ' s Aaron Rodgers threw for one touchdown and ran for another in the fourth quarter , but Texas Tech added their final touchdown on a Taurean Henderson run that capped a 12 - play drive covering 74 yards .