Cade McNown's Cotton Bowl imitation of Joe Montana worked just as well.
Montana still owns the Cotton Bowl's record for comebacks, bringing Notre Dame from 22 points down and throwing a touchdown pass on the last play of the game for a 35-34 win over Houston in 1979.On Thursday, McNown rallied UCLA from a 16-0 deficit to beat Texas A&M 29-23.
Tight end Ryan Neufeld's 5-yard touchdown on an end-around with 7:05 left put the Aggies away, but it was McNown and running back Skip Hicks who made the big plays in the UCLA rally.
UCLA coach Bob Toledo said he wished the 10-2 Bruins could be in a playoff for the national title. The Bruins narrowly lost their first two games to Washington State and Tennessee, then rolled to 10 consecutive wins. No UCLA team had won as many games in a row since 1946.
"I believe we should be in a playoff," Toledo said. "It's the only major college sport where there is no playoff for the championship. We should be able to win the title on the field, not in the polls."
The Aggies got a big surprise when Neufeld scored his first rushing touchdown of the year.
"We practiced that play for a month," Neufeld said. "And it paid off.."
McNown threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third, and Skip Hicks gained 140 yards on 31 carries.
"When it had to be done, Cade did it," said Toledo. "We had to make some big adjustments at half-time. Cade is poised and confident."
McNown said the Aggie defense gave the Bruins big problems.
"A&M's defense played us well, but we knew what we had to do and we did it," McNown said. "Talk is cheap when you got into a spot like we did. We stopped ourselves a lot and it got frustrating."
Hicks said UCLA was a little worried but added "we still had the confidence we were going to come back. We've been down before. It was great to end my career like this."
A&M (9-4) was led by linebacker Dat Nguyen, who intercepted a pass and had 20 tackles, 15 of them solo, in the loss.
"We had them going in the first half, but they made adjustments to our blitz," Nguyen said. "We at least proved to the nation what a good defense we have."
The Aggies beat the UCLA blitz with a reverse pitchout to split end Chris Cole, who dashed 43 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter to give them a 22-14 lead with 8:37 left. Randy McCown, subbing at quarterback for Branndon Stewart, who hurt an ankle, faked a handoff, then pitched to Cole going the other way, fooling the Bruin defense.
But McNown ran 20 yards to cut the deficit to 23-21 heading in the fourth quarter.
McNown threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Jim McElroy with two seconds left in the half, then hit Hicks with a 41-yard pass on UCLA's first possession of the second half.
Texas A&M parlayed a bizarre 83-yard interception return, a safety and Dante Hall's 74-yard touchdown run into a 16-7 halftime lead over the Bruins.
Nguyen, the defensive MVP, intercepted a McNown screen pass at the A&M 17, ran 19 yards and lateraled to safety Brandon Jennings, who went the final 64 yards for the touchdown. It was the second longest interception return in Cotton Bowl history, topped only by a 95-yard return by Colorado's Marcus Washington in 1996.
"I was in the right place at the right time for that one," Nguyen said. "I saw a receiver about to tackle me, so I just lateraled to somebody I saw out of the corner of my eye."
"Dat was all over the field. He's just a great player," Toledo said.
"I should have thrown the ball in the dirt," McNown said.
The Aggies, who sacked McNown five times in the first half, got to him for a safety in the second quarter when Zerick Rol-lins caught him in the end zone.
A 33-yard punt return by Eric Scott positioned UCLA for its only first-half score with just two seconds left on the clock. McElroy slipped into the end zone behind two Aggies and took a perfect pass for the touchdown.
"That was one of the key plays of the game," said A&M coach R.C. Slocum. "We had everything under control until that happened. We had a coverage error and you can't give them easy TDs. It was a very disappointing loss. We had our chances to win against one of the best teams in the country."
McNown said "that was a big momentum score for us. It made a big difference in the game."
McNown, the offensive MVP, hit 16 of 29 passes for 239 yards, while the Aggies managed only 55 yards passing.
Toledo, who had been fired by Slocum as offensive coordinator at A&M after the 1994 Cotton Bowl, shook hands with his counterpart after the game. Both said during the week the firing was water under the bridge, but Toledo told the team at a meeting before the game "I really want this one."