The 2006 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team's head football coach was Mack Brown. The Longhorns (also known as Texas or UT or the Horns) played their home games in Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR), which during 2006 was undergoing some renovations to improve older sections as well as to add extra seating capacity.

The 2006 team was the defending national champions since the previous year's team won both the Big 12 Conference championship and the National Championship. That was the program's second Big 12 Championship (27 conference championships total, including 25 in the Southwest Conference), and fourth consensus national championship in football. Their championship victory in the 2006 Rose Bowl was also the 800th win for the program and the Longhorns entered the season ranked third in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage (.7143).

In 2006, the Longhorn's game against Ohio State University in September was one of the most anticipated college football games of the regular season. Texas lost the game to Ohio State and completed the regular season with an overall record of 9 wins – 3 losses, and a 6–2 record in conference games. They were ranked 19th in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings, issued prior to the bowl season. The Longhorns ended their season with a victory in the 2006 Alamo Bowl against the unranked, 6–6 Iowa Hawkeyes to improve to an overall record of 10 wins – 3 losses. They were ranked 13th in the final national rankings by both the Associated Press AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll As of May 1, 2007 seven players from this team had been drafted by professional football teams and two more had signed professional contracts as free agents.

Leading into the 2006 season

In most preseason rankings, Texas was listed in the top five. In the initial USA Today Coaches' Poll, which is part of the Bowl Championship Series formula for determining which two teams play for the national championship, Texas was ranked number two. The same poll had Ohio State number 1, meaning that if both teams held their ranking until their September 9, 2006 match-up, it would be a rarely seen early-season meeting of the two most highly ranked teams in the sport. The teams did keep their respective ranking until game day and played the earliest ever meeting of the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams.

Stadium renovations Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium underwent renovations just prior to the season. US$15 million were allocated by the board of regents for stadium renovations. Stage one, which began on November 14, 2005, involved updating Bellmont Hall – which sits in the west end of the stadium – to meet newer safety codes set by the Austin Fire Department. Also included were water sealing the stadium and expansion of both the Centennial Room and eighth-floor press box. $8 million was spent on audiovisual improvements, including a high-definition Daktronics LED scoreboard, nicknamed "Godzillatron". At the time of its creation, Godzillatron was the first high-definition video screen in college sports and the largest high-definition video screen in the world, though it was quickly surpassed by a larger screen in Tokyo. It is still the largest high-definition video screen in collegiate sports.

A new temporary bleacher seating section was added behind the south endzone bringing the stadium's stated capacity to 85,123 for the 2006 season. In mid-July 2006, The University of Texas announced that Memorial Stadium was completely sold out for the upcoming 2006 season. For the first time, tickets would not be sold on an individual game basis.

Stage 2 of the project began just after the final home game, as the north end-zone was expanded to include luxury boxes and an upper-deck. The lower deck was rebuilt in 2007, while the upper deck was ready for the 2008 season.

Schedule

Rankings

Game summaries North Texas

The win extended Texas' streak to 21 games, the longest in the NCAA at the time. The game's attendance was 85,123, a new school record and the 34th consecutive sellout.

Ohio State

The game against Ohio State University was one of the most anticipated college football games of the regular season. The two teams had combined for 1,576 victories in 231 total years of football prior to meeting, with the Horns ranking third on the NCAA all-time victory list with 801 wins and the Buckeyes ranking sixth with 775.

Ohio State was ranked No. 1 with Texas No. 2 in both the Associated Press and the coach's polls. The September 9, 2006, game between Texas and Ohio State became a match-up of college football's No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams for the 36th time in NCAA history.

Ohio State is only the second top-ranked team to ever play as a visiting football team in Austin, Texas. The other was SMU when then-No. 7 Texas beat the Mustangs 23–20 on November 4, 1950. Ohio State has participated in three No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups in school history and holds a record of three wins and no losses (2–0). The most recent such win for Ohio State occurred when they beat No. 2 Michigan in their annual matchup later that same season. Texas has a 4–0 record in No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups with all four previous victories coming en route to national championship seasons. The last time UT played in a No. 1 vs. No 2. regular season game was a win over the top-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks in one of the most famous games of the UT-ARK rivalry. The game marked the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the regular season since 1996, when No. 2 Florida State beat No. 1 Florida 24–21. The September 9 meeting was the earliest for the No. 1 and No. 2 teams to ever face each other in any college football season.

On September 4, 2006, five days prior to the game, two UT players and one former UT player were arrested in Austin and charged for marijuana possession, a Class B misdemeanor. The two current players, Tarell Brown and Tyrell Gatewood, were suspended from the team and did not play in the September 9, 2006 game against the 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes football team. Brown was also charged with a Class A misdemeanor weapons violation for being in possession of a firearm without a permit. Tarell Brown was listed as a starting cornerback and may have covered Ohio Statewide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. in that game. Replacements included Ryan Palmer and Brandon Foster, neither of whom had started a college game. The former player, who was the owner of the handgun, is former UT linebacker Aaron Harris.

"I think it will be one of the most exciting games in the history of this school", said Texas coach Mack Brown. He said he had listed Ohio State at the top of his ballot in the coach's poll prior to the game. Ohio State coach Jim Tressel stated in a news conference that he cast his vote for Texas as the number one school coming into the game, but it was later revealed that his ballot listed Ohio State as number one.

Two United States Senators, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, placed a wager on the game. DeWine promised to deliver his wife's homemade chocolate-covered peanut butter Buckeye candies to Hutchison if Texas won, while Hutchison promised to give DeWine some Blue Bell ice cream, made in Texas, if Ohio State won. In sports book betting in Las Vegas, Nevada the day prior to the game, Texas was favored to win the game by 2 to points.

Ohio State won the game 24–7. The attendance was 89,422, the most people to ever watch a football game in the state of Texas.New attendance record for the state of Texas

Texas's loss made it unlikely that Texas would repeat as National Champions. Since the Bowl Championship Series was formed in 1998, 11 of the 16 teams were unbeaten going into the game. The only time the national champion has not been unbeaten during that stretch was in 2003 when LSU and USC claimed a share of the title as each finished with one loss. Ohio State tackle Kirk Barton said "There'll probably be two undefeated teams at the end of the road and if you're not one of them you're probably not going to be playing for the championship. So you've got to treat every game like it's the Super Bowl. You only get one opportunity."

Rice

Texas and Rice met in 2006 for the 89th time. The series, which began in 1914, is the fourth oldest (by number of games) in Texas history.

Texas and Rice were once conference foes in the Southwest Conference, despite the usual mismatch in ability on the field (66 Texas wins vs 21 wins for Rice, with one tie). President John F. Kennedy compared the challenge of going to the Moon to the challenge faced when Rice played Texas. In addition to renewing a traditional rivalry, playing Rice in a "home and away" series allows for Texas to play games in Houston, Texas, a city that is an important recruiting base for UT, along with having a significant Texas Exes alumni population.

The game was the first time Rice offensive coordinator Major Applewhite faced his former college team, where he enjoys "cult legend" status. Applewhite was a quarterback for Texas from 1998 to 2001 and set 48 school records. Many of these still stand, including the longest pass play (97 yards), most touchdown passes in a career (60), career yards (8,353), consecutive passes without an interception (156) and most yards passing in a game (473). At Rice, Applewhite has taken the team away from the "Wishbone" offense and moved them to a more modern, one-running-back formation similar to that used by Texas.

Rice won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, allowing Texas to start the game on offense. Texas' opening drive used 7 rushing plays (no passes) and just over 3 minutes to drive for a touchdown. Texas followed up by scoring a touchdown on its second possession and a field goal on its third possession to earn a 17–0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Texas won the game 52–7.

Iowa State

Texas began conference play on September 23, 2006, vs the Iowa State Cyclones. This was the 6th match-up between the two teams and Texas had won all five previous games.

Both teams scored in the first quarter. Iowa State opened the game on offense and failed to gain a first down, going "three and out" and punting to Texas. Texas scored a touch-down on the resulting drive. Iowa State was stopped again on its second possession. As Iowa State went to punt, the ball went out of the back of their end zone, resulting in a safety for Texas. Texas scored another touch-down on their second possession. Iowa State answered to make the score 7–16 as the first quarter ended. In the second quarter, Texas scored two touchdown and Iowa State scored one, to make the score 30–14 Texas at the half. Texas scored one more touchdown while holding Iowa State scoreless in the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, the officials called a delay due to lightning in the area. When the game resumed, neither team scored in the fourth quarter, giving Texas a 37–14 win.

Sam Houston State

With the decision by the NCAA to allow teams to expand to a 12-game schedule, Texas added Division I-AA Sam Houston State to its schedule. The game was the first UT game since 2004 not to be televised nationally on broadcast or cable, though it was available on pay per view from DirecTV and Dish Network. This was the first-ever meeting of the Texas Longhorns and the Sam Houston State Bearkats and the first time Texas played a Division I-AA team in fourteen years.

Texas won the game 56–3.

Oklahoma

Source: ESPN

The Longhorns and the 2006 Oklahoma Sooners football team met at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for their annual rivalry game known as the Red River Shootout. This was the 101st meeting between the schools. Texas came into the game leading the series 56–39–5 overall.