2006 Alamo Bowl 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 . Pre - game build - up . Texas began the 2006 season as the defending national champions but lost early in the season to No . 1 ranked Ohio State University and finished the year with back - to - back losses to Kansas State University and Texas A & M University to end all hopes of repeating as national champions . With their loss to Texas A & M , Texas looked north to the Oklahoma vs . Oklahoma State Bedlam Series rivalry . If the Oklahoma State Cowboys had defeated the Oklahoma Sooners , then Texas would still have played in the Big 12 Championship Game with a chance to play in the Fiesta Bowl . That is because both the Longhorns and the Sooners would have had a 6 – 2 conference record , but the Longhorns would have won the tie - breaker by virtue of winning the head - to - head game against Oklahoma . Oklahoma won the game , however , so the next game for Texas would be their bowl bid , with speculation originally centering around the Cotton Bowl Classic or Gator Bowl on New Year ' s Day . The Holiday Bowl and the Alamo Bowl were also mentioned as possibilities . The Longhorns ' starting quarterback , Colt McCoy , was injured on the first drive of the Kansas State game . He played against Texas A & M the following game , and final week of the regular season , and was injured after a controversial hit by Aggie defensive tackle Kellen Heard . Longhorns trainer Kenny Boyd said the injury was a severe pinched nerve in McCoy ' s neck . Boyd said that McCoy was expected to make a full recovery , but no timetable was initially set for McCoy to return to play and no announcement was initially made about his status for the bowl game . Meanwhile , Longhorn defensive coordinator Gene Chizik accepted the head coaching job at Iowa State University and therefore could not be with the Longhorns for their bowl game . Also , on November 29 the " Austin American - Statesman " cited unnamed sources saying back - up quarterback Jevan Snead would transfer from Texas and that his availability for the upcoming bowl game was also uncertain . On December 1 , the Longhorns issued a statement confirming that Snead , along with sophomore defensive end Chris Brown and sophomore offensive tackle Greg Dolan , had left the team and would transfer to unspecified schools . On December 3 , Texas officially accepted a bid to play in the Alamo Bowl against the University of Iowa Hawkeyes , who finished the regular season at 6 – 6 overall and in eighth place in the Big 10 . This was the first appearance for Texas in the Alamo Bowl , which is played only 75 miles from the University of Texas campus . On December 21 , UT announced that McCoy was cleared to play in the bowl game . He did start at quarterback and played the entire game for Texas . Texas and Iowa had only faced one another once before , in the inaugural playing of the Freedom Bowl in 1984 . In the 1984 season , Texas had climbed as high as No . 1 in the rankings before losing the last two games of the season and falling to No . 19 . In the Freedom Bowl , an unranked Iowa squad jumped out to a 14 – 0 first - quarter lead and ended up winning 55 – 17 . Iowa quarterback Chuck Long said , " That game didn ' t put us on the map , but it was the one that kept us on the map " . The next year Iowa made it to the Rose Bowl , and Long finished second to Bo Jackson in the voting for the Heisman Trophy . For the Iowa Hawkeyes , the 2006 Alamo Bowl was the 22nd bowl game for the school ( 3rd most in the Big 10 ) and continued a streak of six bowl game appearances . It was the fourth time for Iowa to play in the Alamo Bowl , with their most recent appearance being a 19 – 16 victory over Texas Tech in 2001 . The game was the second time in three years for Iowa to face the defending national champion in a bowl game ; the Hawkeyes beat Louisiana State University 30 – 25 in the 2004 Capital One Bowl in Orlando , Florida . Iowa had a 6 – 6 record for the 2006 season , after going 5 – 1 in the first half of the season but only 1 – 5 in the second half . They were ranked as high as fifteenth before the slide . The Hawkeyes were led on the field by quarterback Drew Tate , who ranks second behind Chuck Long in most major school passing categories . In his senior season at Iowa ( prior to the bowl ) , Tate had completed 58 percent of his passes for 2 , 349 yards and 16 touchdowns with 12 interceptions . This was a slightly disappointing performance since he had completed more than 60 percent of his passes his previous two years , throwing for more than 20 touchdowns each year . Tate attended high school in Texas . In the Hawkeyes ' final regular - season game November 18 , 2006 , Drew Tate completed 26 of 36 passes for 354 yards and two touchdowns , but he also lost a fumble and threw three interceptions in a 34 – 24 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers . Iowa did not have a super - star receiver to catch Tate ' s passes . No player on the team had more than 46 receptions or 614 receiving yards . Iowa coach Ferentz said the month off should give his team an opportunity to get healthy . The time off allowed for the return of starting cornerback Adam Shada and defensive end Kenny Iwebema after both missed most of the second half of the season . The Alamo Bowl announced that both schools sold their entire allotment of tickets , resulting in the fastest sellout in Alamo Bowl history . The actual 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 . As of December 11 , the betting line was Texas by 11 points . Game summary . Texas won the coin toss and elected to defer their possession to the second half . UT therefore kicked off to Iowa , who went on offense . The Hawkeyes drove 77 yards for a touchdown . Texas was unable to score , and returned the ball to Iowa . Iowa ' s Drew Tate threw a pass to Andy Brodell , and he ran 63 yards for a touchdown . Texas was able to get some points on the board when walk - on placekicker Ryan Bailey made a 27 - yard field goal to make the score 14 – 3 at the end of the first quarter . In the second quarter , Tate threw an apparent touchdown pass to tight end Scott Chandler . Tate was seen celebrating by making an upside - down Hook ' em Horns hand signal . However , the officials ruled that Chandler was an ineligible receiver . On the next play , Tate again tried to find Chandler in the end zone but instead threw an interception to UT defensive back Aaron Ross . Texas got the ball at their own 20 . Colt McCoy capped an 80 - yard scoring drive with a 20 - yard touchdown pass to Limas Sweed . This made the score 14 – 10 in favor of Iowa as the teams went into half - time . The Longhorns began the second half by scoring on another Ryan Bailey field goal , this one for 43 yards to bring the score to 14 – 13 . Later in the third quarter , McCoy threw a rarely used wheel route to running back Jamaal Charles , who ran 72 yards for a touchdown to give the Longhorns their first lead of the game at 20 – 14 . This touchdown pass was McCoy ' s 29th touchdown pass of the season , tying the national record for touchdown passes by a freshman . Iowa answered with another touchdown pass from Drew to Brodell that made the score 21 – 20 at the end of the third quarter . In the fourth quarter , McCoy scrambled on fourth down with 11 minutes to go in the game to set up what would prove to be the winning touchdown . McCoy bootlegged to the right with fullback Chris Ogbonnaya as a blocker , running 8 yards to the Iowa 2 - yard line . Running back Selvin Young then regained the lead for Texas with a two - yard touchdown run . Texas failed at an attempted two - point conversion , leaving the score at 26 – 21 . Iowa drove into Texas territory but settled for a Kyle Schlicher field goal to make the score 26 – 24 with 6 : 20 left on the game clock . With 3 : 35 left to play , Iowa attempted a trick play – an attempted flanker pass that has posed problems for Texas all season . Safety Marcus Griffin stuffed the play for an 11 - yard loss . Commenting on stopping the trick play , Griffin said , " I knew it was coming – we ' d been beaten by that play in the last 10 games . We knew it had to come , I guess that was the best time for it . " Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz described the call as " totally my fault . I was being greedy , I thought we had a secure play . " Tate then threw two incomplete pass es and the Hawkeyes punted with a little more than two minutes to play . Texas , assisted by an 11 - yard end - around run by flanker Billy Pitman , used all but 10 seconds of the game clock before punting to Iowa . One play later , the game was over . The final score was Texas 26 , Iowa 24 . Game statistics . " References : " After the Game . ESPN announced that the 2006 Alamo Bowl was the most watched bowl game in the history of that television network . Official Jeff Robinson released a statement to clarify the call which nullified the pass to Chandler : " The man who caught the ball ( # 87 ) came in motion and came across the line , which made him ineligible to go down field to catch the ball . There was already a man outside of him . The official term for the call on the field is ' covered up on the line . ' " The Texas Longhorns were ranked 19th in the Bowl Championship Series ( BCS ) rankings , which were issued before the bowl season . They received a final - ranking of 13th in the nation by both the Associated Press AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll The Iowa Hawkeyes finished the season unranked .