DMN File
Quarterback Robert Brewer scored on a 30-yard run to start the Texas comeback.Texas wins Cotton Bowl, 14-12
4th-quarter rally upsets Alabama
1/2/1982
It took some time – three full quarters and almost five minutes into the fourth. It took some extra thinking – a quick timeout with one tick remaining on the 25-second play clock. It took a call that the chagrined, most valuable defensive player of the game later termed "brilliant" – a quarterback draw.
But the University of Texas Longhorns finally found their way into the Alabama end zone with 10:22 remaining in Friday's Cotton Bowl. And once they learned there indeed was a way through the Crimson Tide defense, it took the Longhorns just over eight minutes to find their way again.
And when the game ended two minutes and five seconds later, Texas was the 1982 Cotton Bowl champion, 14-12 victors over Bear Bryant's Alabama team before 73,243 spectators.
"They just whipped us in the fourth quarter," said Alabama coach Bear Bryant, who is now 1-7-1 against Texas and 314-74-16 against the rest of the world in his college coaching career.
Texas, ranked sixth, finished 10-1-1. Alabama, co-champion of the Southeastern Conference with Georgia and ranked third, dropped to 9-2-1. Alabama has never beaten Texas. The Longhorns are 7-0-1 against the Tide. Bryant's only victory over Texas came when he was at Texas A&M.
"I think this game shows why you play four quarters of football," said Texas coach Fred Akers. "In the last quarter we got better position and our defense wasn't allowing the big play."
Alabama scored the only touchdown of the first half midway through the second quarter when quarterback Walter Lewis scrambled out of the grasp of blitzing safety Bobby Johnson and threw a 6-yard touchdown to Jesse Bendross. Peter Kim kicked the extra point and added a 24-yard field goal 2:33 into the fourth quarter and the rolling Tide led, 10-0.
Akers and his Longhorns were still waiting for their big play. The Longhorns took Terry Sanders' kickoff after Kim's field goal, moved 30 yards until the offense, as it had done all game, bogged down. This time on the Alabama 30.
In the huddle, quarterback Robert Brewer called a sprint-out pass over the middle to Donnie Little. At the line, however, after seeing the defensive alignment, Brewer had second thoughts. With one second to get the play off or be called for delay of game, Brewer called timeout.
"If we ran the play I had called there would have been a sack for sure from their outside pressure," said Brewer, who should have known. He was sacked seven time by the Tide defense.
"I thought it was a great call," Brewer said. "They were very surprised. I called the draw and by the second step it went completely open. The only worry I had was if I could get my slow butt in there."
Brewer did. Raul Allegre kicked the extra point and Texas trailed, 10-7.
"We had a full blitz on," said Alabama linebacker Robbie Jones, voted the game's most valuable defensive player. "The call was brilliant. The play was perfect for what we were in."
Still, Texas trailed by three. The Longhorns got the ball back 80 yards from the Alabama goalline with 5:59 remaining. But Brewer's passes to Little and Herkie Walls fell incomplete.
On third and 10, Brewer, who completed 12 of 21 passes for 201 yards and was named the game's most valuable offensive player, hit tight end Lawrence Sampleton with a 37-yard pass to the Alabama 43. It was Sampleton's first catch of the day.
Five plays later, Brewer and Sampleton hooked up again, this time for 19 yards to the Crimson Tide 18. A 10-yard pass to Donnie Little put the ball on the eight.
One play later, Terry Orr, the Longhorns' third-string fullback, went off tackle and found the end zone from eight yards for his first touchdown this season. Allegre kicked the extra point and Texas, for the first time, led 14-10.
With just over two minutes remaining, Joey Jones, the Tide's kickoff return specialist, game Alabama excellent field position for its final push. Jones took Allegre's kick on the one and returned it 61 yards to the Texas 38.
Alabama's Lewis tried to put the Tide up one play later. But his pass, intended for Tim Clark, was picked off by the free safety William Graham on the 1-yard line. He was tackled immediately. He was 99 yards from the Alabama end zone. But more importantly, Alabama was 1-yard from the Texas goalline.
Three Brewer sneaks pushed the ball to the 4-yard line. A 2-yard penalty for delay of game moved the ball back to the two with 56 seconds remaining. Alabama would get its chance.
Punter John Goodson took the snap one foot from the backline of the end zone and did an eight-second, one-shoed dance before he stepped out of the end zone for a safety.
"We didn't have to think very hard," said Akers. "We wanted the safety. We wanted the chance to move them as far away from the end zone as we could."
After Goodson's free kick and a 17-yard return by Jeremiah Castille, the Tide, with no timeouts left, got the ball back on their 41.
But defensive end Kiki DeAyala dropped Lewis for an 8-yard loss. Lewis picked up seven yards on the next play, but could not make it out of bounds to stop the clock and the Longhorns had their victory.
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