Three seconds never lasted so long.
That's how much official time elapsed during Phil Dawson's 50-yard, game-winning field goal in Saturday's game.
"This was a heroic kick, to say the least," Texas coach John Mackovic said.
Dawson almost didn't get a chance at a game-winner for the second week in a row. Unbeknown to Dawson, Texas actually had a fake planned before Virginia called time out, Mackovic said.
"I never really thought we were going to lose this game," Mackovic said. "I just didn't know how we were going to win."
Dawson said the timeout called by Virginia head coach George Welsh actually helped him make the last field goal.
"I think it was a blessing that they called that timeout," Dawson said. "I don't think I was mentally ready to kick that first one. [The timeout] really calmed me down. I went out there the first time and I'm saying to myself 'I don't know if I can make this,' and that's unlike me."
Dawson's Longhorn teammates felt different.
"I knew he could make it," quarterback James Brown said. "Phil's a good Christian."
"It feels great because we played a really, really tough game out there," fullback Ricky Williams said.
The field goal culminated a 14-play, 47-yard drive that began on the Texas 20 with 3:12 left and was led by vintage James Brown. Brown had struggled with the wind and the Cavalier defense all afternoon, but when the game was on the line he delivered. He was responsible for 39 of Texas' 47 total yards on the winning drive.
"We have confidence in ourselves that we can make those big plays when they come up," Brown said.
Several of the plays Texas converted on the final drive were not just big, they were huge.
The Longhorns faced third down three times and fourth down twice en route to victory. With fourth-and-one from the Texas 43, Wane McGarity carried the football and made the first down with only inches to spare.
Three plays later and nary a yard gained, the Longhorns stared at fourth-and-10 with 21 seconds left.
Brown took the snap and rolled toward the Texas sideline and let the ball fly. Wide receiver Mike Adams, who had five of his six receptions in the second half, made the catch in front of his teammates for 12 yards and a Texas first down at the UVA 44.
After Brown downed the ball, stopping the clock with nine ticks left on the clock, Texas faced decision time.
"We really felt we had to get to the 20-yard line and we'd settle for the 25-yard line," Mackovic said. Dawson had informed the coaching staff during pregame warmups the wind limited his range to around 40 yards in that direction. Dawson called the Virginia game his worst in burnt orange because of field goal misses from 52 and 57 yards earlier with the wind at his back.
Brown scrambled 11 yards to the Virginia 33 and set up Dawson's kick. That was when Welsh made his fateful decision and called for a timeout, hoping to ice the Texas kicker. Not only was Dawson good, but for the first time all afternoon he got a little luck.
"I'm lining up for that first field goal and looking at those flags and they're right at me," Dawson said. "Then they called time out and I go into the huddle. I come back out and get my spot and I look up and those flags aren't blowing nearly as hard."
Dawson said that many of his teammates offered coaching advice to him before his pressure-filled field goal attempt.
"Ya'll just block and I'm going to kick and we're going to win this game," Dawson told them. "That was as good as I can kick a ball."
Saturday it was good enough by a yard or so.
* The Cavaliers joined Kentucky (1980), Louisville (1989) and Eastern Michigan (1991) as the only teams to have lost two games on the final play in one season. The NCAA only has records on this back to 1971.
* Before he was picked off by Ronde Barber in the first quarter, James Brown had thrown 74 passes without an interception. The previous record of 72 was set in 1993 by Shea Morenz.
* Texas' win over 14th-ranked Virginia marked the first by a Southwest Conference member against a nationally ranked non-conference team.
Texas' Phil Dawson has said he dreams about kicking a field goal with no time left to decide the national championship.
Kicking a field goal with no time left to decide any game will also do just fine.
Dawson nailed a 50-yarder into a 20 mph wind as time expired to lift No. 16 Texas over No. 14 Virginia, 17-16, in front of 70,427 Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Dawson's heroics marked only the second time in Texas' 103 years of football that the Longhorns have won the game on the final play. It was also the first time the feat occurred at home and the first time that a field goal decided the outcome on the final play.
"I guess I learned my lesson -- kick the field goal," said Texas head coach John Mackovic, who passed up a field-goal attempt late in a tied game last week against Oklahoma. "What a great victory and what a great way to end the game. We've worked hard for so long and I don't remember if we've ever won a game like this before."
The sophomore place-kicker atoned for missed field goals from 52 and 57 yards out earlier in the game.
"I knew I had to hit it with all I had," said Dawson, who was carried off by his teammates after he tied his career record for length. "I knew it had a chance and I knew it was going to be close. I can't believe it. ... Thank God it went in."
The victory, which moved the Horns to No. 13 in the USA Today/CNN Top 25 football poll and No. 15 in the Associated Press poll, was the Longhorns' 700th. It was also their first win over a ranked team this year. Texas fell to No. 21 Notre Dame and tied 13th-ranked Oklahoma earlier in the season.
"It was just time to stop giving the game away, and we almost did it again," Texas quarterback James Brown said. "Today, we played the [type of] football that we can play and made the plays and we won the game."
Rafael Garcia had put the Cavaliers (6-3) ahead 16-14 after he kicked his third field goal of the afternoon, a career-best and school record-tying 56-yarder with 3:12 left to play.
But the Longhorns (5-1-1) marched 47 yards on 14 plays for the game winner, including two fourth-down conversions to keep the drive going. Brown scrambled for an 11-yard gain to the Virginia 33 with only 3 seconds remaining to set up Dawson's attempt.
"I didn't think [Dawson] could make a 50-yarder into the wind," Virginia coach George Welsh said. "He must have summoned something extra from somewhere."
Said Garcia: "I've got to give [Dawson] a lot of credit. He missed two from the 50 with the wind then comes back with three seconds left to kick against it. I didn't think it was going to make it, to tell the truth."
Garcia had appeared to have kicked a 33-yard field goal with 12:10 left in the fourth but it was ruled no good. The field goal would have given Virginia a 16-7 advantage.
Instead, Texas took its first lead of the second half when fullback Ricky Williams scored on a 1-yard dive with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter to give the Longhorns a 14-13 edge. The drive was aided by a 29-yard reception by Mike Adams from Brown on a fourth-and-10 play from the Virginia 33.
"I saw how we had struggled on both sides of the ball, I had struggled, special teams had struggled," Dawson said. "I knew that Virginia was a great team. ... I realized that if I got out there and made that field goal, this was going to be a momentum builder for the conference race coming up."
While the scoreboard wasn't exactly lit up -- both teams average over 30 points per game -- they did combine for 864 yards of total offense.
Brown was 17-of-33 for 197 yards and one touchdown for the Longhorns while Virginia quarterback Mike Groh finished 15-of-31 for 226 yards and one TD.
Texas amassed 256 yards on the ground and was led by Williams' 139 yards on 14 carries -- the fourth-best rushing day by a Texas freshman.
"We decided to hammer away with the run as much as we could," Mackovic said. "Ricky Williams really wanted the football."
Running back Tiki Barber led the Cavaliers with 123 yards on 27 carries, but he was held out of the end zone for the first time in 10 games.
"We were making plays, but we couldn't put points on the board," Barber said. "If you look at the tape, the ball can be moved on the them. We made some mistakes in the red zone.
"The football gods are against us. We've been beat on the the last play of the game twice."
Michigan's Mercury Hayes caught a TD pass with no time left as the Wolverines' edged the Cavs 18-17 in the season opener.
Texas went 72 yards on only three plays to take a 7-0 lead with 2:18 remaining in the first quarter. Brown fired a screen pass to a wide-open Jeffrey Clayton, who scampered 30 yards down the left side of the field before diving into the end zone.
The Cavaliers answered with a 5-minute, 31-second drive that covered 70 yards and resulted in a 27-yard field goal from Garcia at the 11:47 mark of the second to make it 7-3.
Virginia grabbed a 10-7 advantage when Groh and Walt Derey connected on a 1-yard TD pass with 1:35 left in the half. The drive, which featured a 20-yard scramble from Groh, began at the Texas 23 after Mark Schultis shanked a punt that traveled 11 yards.
The Cavs capped their 13-0 second-quarter scoring run when Garcia kicked a 45-yarder as time expired to take a 13-7 edge into the locker room.
Virginia nearly doubled Texas in offensive plays (50-to-26) and time of possession (19:33-to-10:27) in the first half.
Ronde Barber's interception of a Brown pass with 7:45 in the second marked the 25th consecutive game in which a Cavalier has come away with a pick.
Virginia 0 13 0 3 -- 16
Texas 7 0 0 10 -- 17
Tex--Clayton 30 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
Vir--FG Garcia 27
Vir--Derey 1 pass from Groh (Garcia kick)
Vir--FG Garcia 45
Tex--Williams 1 run (Dawson kick)
Vir--FG Garcia 56
Tex--FG Dawson 50
A--70,427.
Virginia Texas
First downs 19 23
Rushes-yards 40-158 43-249
Passing 253 197
Return Yards 0 2
Comp-Att-Int 16-32-0 17-34-1
Punts 6-41 4-39
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 8-57 7-48
Time of Possession 30:11 29:49
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Virginia - T Barber 27-123, Brooks 7-15, Groh 6-20.
Texas - Mitchell 18-63, Williams 14-139, Brown 6-39, Clayton 2-4,
McGarity 2-4, Adams 1-0.
PASSING
Virginia - Groh 15-31-0-226, Brice 1-1-0-27.
Texas - Brown 17-33-1-197, McLemore 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING
Virginia - Jeffers 7-87, Allen 3-102, Derey 2-11, McKiver 1-27,
Crowell 1-13, T Barber 1-7, Medley 1-6.
Texas - Adams 6-65, Fitzgerald 3-40, Clayton 2-33, Williams 2-30,
McGarity 2-11, Davis 1-13, McLemore 1-5.