Top Ten Worthy Finish In Ft. Worth?

Photo by Willie Martin "Mr. Will"2013 was a year that the TCU Horned Frogs would truly like to forget.

A 4-8 record with heartbreaking losses to Kansas State 33-31, Oklahoma 20-17, West Virginia 30-27 in overtime, Big 12 Champion Baylor 41-38, and of course the ten point opening day loss to LSU 27-1 at ATT Stadium.

Four losses by 11 points. Five by 21. Could very easily have been an 8-4/9-3 mark in 2013.

"With our group last year, they fought and came back. ... This group here learned how to fight back," Patterson said. "We just didn't have quite enough firepower last year."

2014 is a different matter entirely as Big 12 Conference play began for TCU on a weekend of upsets in College Football. 

Coach Patterson made those remarks after #25 TCU pulled off a huge upset of #3 ranked Oklahoma before over 47,000 fans at Amon Carter Stadium. The win touched off a wild post game celebration. One that I happened to be in the middle of as the clock expired.

Trevor Knight and Trevone Boykin went back and forth with their arms, legs and receivers. A 24-24 score at the half escalated to 31 apiece before Paul Dawson plucked a Knight pass and ran it back 41 yards for the final lead of the game in a four point win.

TCU: You are now 4-0, you have matched your win total of 2013 and you're now off to Baylor for a game to determine a Big 12 champion. How does that feel in the big picture? 

"It basically gives us confidence," dual-threat quarterback Trevone Boykin said. "Knowing that we can play with guys like OU, because a lot of Big 12 championships have went through there."

TCU jumped out to an early 14-0 lead when Cliff Murphy recovered an end zone fumble and BJ Catalon had a seven yard score on drives of 75 and 65 yards before the Sooners bounced back.

Samaje Perine would collect the first of three touchdowns from a yard out while Sterling Shepard caught a 75 yard bomb that took all of 12 seconds to end the first period at 14-14.

Perine and BJ Catalon would again find the goal via the run and a 39 yard pass on a mixup in the Oklahoma secondary. Michael Hunnicutt and Jaden Oberkrom added field goals to cap off an exciting first half.

Statistically this was as evenly matched a game as you could ask for. Trevor Knight 14 of 35 passing for 309 yards and 2 interceptions. Trevone Boykin 20 of 39 for 309. 88 yards rushing for Trevone-79 for Trevor.

When it counted late go back to what Gary Patterson said post-game about TCU being able to close out a tight game. Two tight defensive stops with picks by Paul Dawson and Chris Hackett to ensure a victory and dare I say a Top Ten ranking next week when going to Baylor? 

A very drained but matter of fact Gary Patterson summed up the day like this.

"Well, I knew it was going to be struggle for us with them having two weeks off. They caught us on a couple of big plays early. We had to change up some coverages and we finally got a chance to slow them down a little bit. That's a good football team. Like I told my team after, you shouldn't get overly excited. You have Baylor next week. Now we get done, go eat a little dinner and let's get started with Baylor. You may say it's coach speak but I promise you that's what'll happen. Maybe you guys didn't expect it, but these kids did. I told them in pregame to not look at the scoreboard and play every minute. That's how you beat really good football teams; you play every minute. Each team got breaks, but you have to find a way to win. You still have a long way to go. We're 4-0, 1-0 in the conference. We'll get ready for Baylor, then we'll get ready for Oklahoma State and then we'll get ready for Texas Tech. Right now, we're going to get ready for Baylor. They get the same speech."

And how did it feel to finally give Bob Stoops a defeat in Texas?

"With our group last year, they fought and came back. You don't lose to five teams by less than 11 points total without fighting back. This group here learned how to fight back. We just didn't have quite enough fire power last year. You have a big play for a touchdown and then we tried to give it back with a blocked PAT for goodness sakes. That was a big deal. They had to use their timeouts early and that was a big point in the ball game. We had to keep mixing up coverages and doing some stuff. You have to have a little luck with all of it. I have a lot of praise for Bob Stoops, my hats off to them. They've won the last two, but we finally got one. It's been since 2005 but I'll take it where I can get it."

Earlier in the week I had a hunch that if speed indeed did kill then Kolby Listenbee was the guy who cold perhaps be a disruption for the Sooners. Over 100 yards on fibve catches for #7. All Kolby wanted to talk about was the fans and getting back to a bowl game of some sort.

"It was crazy. All the stands were more packed than I've ever seen them before. All the fans that came out gave us a lot of energy. It kept us pumped up the whole game."

"Last year, we didn't go to a bowl game, and this year we came back hungry. I relate this to Missouri last season. After falling off the season before, they came back strong the next year. If we go out there and stay focused, stay hungry, and stay humble, then we can go out there and have a really good season, a BCS-type season."

You know you've played a good game when the opposition gives you kudos, fair and square.

Oklahoma Head Bob Stoops:

"I have no qualms about how our team played, we came in here ready to play. Our guys had a great two weeks of work. We knew it was going to be a big challenge. The bottom line is they made plays and we didn't. They outperformed us in different areas. We had our opportunities and chances late in the second half and we couldn't take advantage of it. I give TCU credit. We made too many mistakes.They just beat us."

If you like parity then this game was for you. Total plays were even at 78. Rushing yards favored Oklahoma 152-151. Passing yards 318-309 TCU. The only real disparity was the amount of yards Sterling Shepard collected in the air (215).

Inside the Four Sevens Conference Room post game Defenseman Chucky Hunter came up with a slogan that could bode well for TCU the rest of this season. 

"One Team-One Heartbeat!" 

With the Horned Frogs (4-0 1-0) joining Mississippi State, Arizona, and Ole Miss to knock off the #2, #3, #4, and #6 seed on this day I fully expect TCU to crack the Top Ten in the AP Rankings. 

Last week I said openly that TCU could defeat Oklahoma. Now I say to thee that if ESPN Gameday fails to choose Waco for their headquarters next week they are going to miss another upset when TCU gets to 5-0 and the eyes of the world are on Fort Worth, Texas.

Is TCU on the cusp of a very special season? Indeed they are. This is a team that believes.

Count me among them!

Over and out in Big D.

Mr. Will