November 15, 2003

Fiesta Bowl watches TCU rout Cincy

Fiesta Bowl reps were on hand (again) in Fort Worth to watch the Horned Frogs' presentation and TCU did not disappoint. The Frogs laid the wood to Cincinnati, winning in convincing fashion and scoring TDs on offense, defense and special teams, en route to a 43-10 victory.

TCU is 10-0 for the first time since they won their only national championship (1938) behind QB Davey O'Brien. (And here you were questioning the Frogs football pedigree!)

Everyone in Fort Worth has gone Frog crazy, but it doesn't seem to have gone to the heads of the TCU players and coaches. Head Coach Gary Patterson (who has to be starting to show up on some coaching search radars) said,

"We're one game away from winning a [conference] championship. There's no time to relax, there's no time to savor this one at all."

The Horned Frogs face off on Thursday night against conference rival Southern Mississippi to decide the C-USA championship.

Here's the skinny on the game: TCU owned the Bearcats. They beat them down the field on offense and left Cincy with very few options as the Frogs D was back in early season form. The Horned Frogs not only won in convincing fashion, but they looked better than they have all season against a UC team that already beat West Virginia this year.

TCU forced 7 punts and blocked one (which was scooped up for a TD). The Frogs gave up just 89 yards rushing, picked off two passes, had three sacks and created six fumbles (but pounced on just one). Frogs QB Brandon Hassell is 6-0 as a starter while Tye Gunn is still out with an injury. Hassell is a good runner, but he threw two picks today that could have made the score a little more impressive for TCU. Gunn may be back in the lineup against Southern Miss.

Say what you want about TCU not being "legit". They beat a decent Cincinnati team that's owned them the last two years. They're 10-0 and sitting at #6 in the BCS. While they probably won't get a boost in the human polls, they may have played well enough to see a slight bump in the computers and hang on to that #6 spot for a little while. In an even more "modern" sign of the times, TCU was approached by ESPN to play host the network's Gameday show. Corso even wanted to wear the Horned Frog mascot head for his prediction.

"Deserving" or not, I think it's time to come to grips with the very real possibility that the Horned Frogs are headed to a BCS boll.

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