Big 12 Football: 50 best players of all-time

Big 12 Football best players of all-time: 3. Vince Young, QB, Texas football

Whenever the name Vince Young comes up, there’s one major memory that comes to mind — the 2006 Rose Bowl. That season was absolutely magical for Young and the Longhorns. He finished as a runner-up for the Heisman Trophy but then had a shot at taking down not only the man who won it that season, Reggie Bush but also the winner from 2004, Matt Leinart.

Bush and Leinart were part of a tremendous USC program that also had LenDale White. They were expected to defeat Texas and win the NCAA Championship, but Young had other plans. The dual-threat quarterback was credited with nearly 500 yards of offense in that game as he threw for 267 yards and ran for another 200.

Young capped that game off with a 9-yard touchdown run— his third rushing score of the game — giving them the win 41-38. The upset capped off a great career for Young that saw him throw for 6,040 yards with 44 touchdowns while running for another 3,127 with 37 more touchdowns in his career.

He has since been named to the College Football Hall of Fame and has several awards under his belt including the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, the Maxwell Award, the Manning Award, and the Davey O’Brien Award — all of which he earned for his 2005 season.

In the NFL, Young didn’t have as much success but he was still good enough to hear his name called third overall and he then spent five seasons with the Tennessee Titans. No matter how his pro career went down, Young was one of the best to ever play the game collegiately.