We See (TC)U
Six Years ago, Gary Patterson and TCU were coming off of a 5-6 season and making a move into the Mountain West conference from the Conference-USA. Yesterday on New Year’s Day, the TCU Horned Frogs defeated the Wisconsin Badgers to win the Rose Bowl.
The Horned Frogs were nothing more than a forgotten about mid-major from a lower level non-AQ conference until they made the move into the Mountain West and started garnering National respect.
Last season, TCU finished the regular season 12-0 and were a Hunter Lawrence field goal in the Big XII Championship game away from a potential matchup with Alabama in the National Championship game.
Gary Patterson led TCU to an undefeated record and a Rose Bowl win.
Instead, TCU ended up being matched up with Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. They were playing in their first BCS bowl game and were inexperienced and overwhelmed with the environment in Glendale and fell 17-10 to the Broncos.
This season, all eyes were on the Horned Frogs with Boise State losing to Nevada late in the regular season. TCU wasn’t just playing for themselves; they were playing for the respect of all the non-AQ’s out there.
Boise State’s loss to Nevada had made people forget about their win over Oklahoma and Utah’s wins over Pittsburgh and Alabama. It seemed coming in that the respect of the non-BCS conferences was on the line with TCU playing Wisconsin.
The thought from around the nation was that the Horned Frogs didn’t really need to beat Wisconsin to gain a lot of national respect, but if they could compete and keep the game close, then it would go a long way.
TCU did more than that on Saturday afternoon in the Granddaddy of them all by beating Wisconsin 21-19 and finishing a perfect 13-0. This was no fluke. It was easy for people to write the other victories by the non-AQ’s in BCS bowls off as flukes.
I mean, Utah’s win over Pittsburgh was nothing, the Panthers were a weak team and most people think that the Big East doesn’t deserve an auto-bid anyway. Boise State’s win over Oklahoma was obviously a fluke and the Broncos had to pull out every trick in the book in order to beat the Sooners, plus Oklahoma is prone to choke in the big games.
Utah beat a half-stepping Alabama team in the 2009 Sugar Bowl that was coming off a devastating SEC Championship loss to Florida that cost the Crimson Tide a shot at the National Championship. If Alabama would have been on its game, then there is no way the Utes would have walked out of New Orleans with the win.
If you needed an accurate description of how non-AQ’s matched up in the BCS, then look no further than Georgia’s manhandling of Hawaii in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. That game obviously proved that teams from the smaller conferences had no business playing with the big boys in the BCS.
But, what excuse can be made for TCU’s win over Wisconsin yesterday? Sure, the Big Ten as a whole looked pretty bad yesterday, but this was a Badgers team that was thought to be playing just as good as anybody since their loss to Michigan State on the first Saturday in October.
Since that game, Wisconsin had reeled off eight consecutive wins, including wins over a #1 Ohio State and a road win in Iowa City over the Hawkeyes. Wisconsin was bigger and had faced better competition than TCU all year long.
Andy Dalton and the Horned Frogs might be the best team in the country.
That didn’t matter on Saturday. Sometimes, heart, grit, and determination are far more important than sheer level of talent and size. As the saying goes, it isn’t the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog. TCU proved that once again against Wisconsin. They were undersized and overpowered, but they were better coached and they wanted it more than the Badgers.
Anybody that still has any doubt that TCU could play with any team in the nation just doesn’t get it. I believe that TCU should and will be a unanimous #2 regardless of the outcome of the National Title game and they might just be the best team in the nation. It’s too bad that we don’t have at least a plus-one in college football so that they would get a crack at Auburn or Oregon.
This will be the eighth time in the BCS era that an undefeated team was not given a shot at the National Championship. That means that in the BCS era, there have in the very least eight times we didn’t have a legit National Champion. I say that as unbiased as possible, because I’m an Alabama fan and even though they did win the BCS National Championship last season, there was an undefeated team remaining with them in Boise State.
Seven of the eight times, the teams have been from non-AQ conferences with the lone exception being Auburn in 2004. This TCU team may be better than Auburn and Oregon, but we will never know. I think it is fair to say that they are more balanced than both of the teams that will be playing in the BCS Title game on January 10th.
TCU has the 12th ranked total offense in the country led by QB Andy Dalton and the #1 ranked total defense in the country led by LB Tank Carder. The Tigers and Ducks both boast two of the top offenses in the country, but their defenses are nowhere near the level of TCU’s. To Oregon’s credit, they did rank 25th nationally in total defense.
You can say what you want about TCU’s schedule, but they beat six teams that played in bowl games during the regular season and that’s actually more than Oregon, who only beat four bowl teams.
Before their two-point win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, TCU only had two games where they won by less than double digits. They boasted the nation’s top defense and they proved that against a bigger and more physical Wisconsin team. Even though the Badgers did rack up some yards against TCU, they shut it down when they had to and only allowed Wisconsin to find the endzone twice.
TCU’s win in the Rose Bowl went a long way in gaining respect not only for TCU, but also for the non-AQ conferences as a whole. Gary Patterson deserves a lot of the praise for TCU’s performance in Pasadena and how they performed all season long. Patterson has submitted himself as one of the best coaches in college football.
Now, with the gained respect from this Rose Bowl win, TCU will play one more season in the Mountain West before departing into BCS conference by joining the Big East in 2012. I believe that TCU will dominate the Big East and in a few years you could see Gary Patterson leading TCU not only into a BCS bowl game, but possibly even the National Championship game.
It’s time to stop ignoring the non-AQ conferences just because the league they play in isn’t up to the caliber of the SEC or others. Time and time again the non-AQ’s have proven their mettle in the big games and it’s time everyone starts taking them seriously.
We see you TCU. We see you non-AQ’s.
9 Comments
Awesome reaction.
Great article John.
TCU played great, although I admit, their feat was somewhat lessened seeing how the Big 10 has faired against other conferences. None the less, TCU won the game, but being in a major conference and playing against better athletes for a FULL year will show us whether or not they belong. App State beat Michigan, Boise beat Oklahoma, so on and so forth.
Wisconsin although a great team, was maybe a little bit overrated.
I've never doubted these non AQ teams could in fact compete and win a GAME against a major conference, I just doubt they could sustain this success as well as bowl success, doing it all year.
The current process is less than perfect, but TCU is getting tired of looking on the outside looking in. Unlike Boise, its good to see them do something about it.
I know this is not the popular reasoning, but I would not go patting TCU on their head too much.
For the record, I think TCU beats Oregon in a close game, Auburn beats TCU handily.
"I mean, Utah’s win over Pittsburgh was nothing, the Panthers were a weak team and most people think that the Big East doesn’t deserve an auto-bid anyway."
Quite an ironic statement considering TCU is heading to the Big East in 2012.
"I’ve never doubted these non AQ teams could in fact compete and win a GAME against a major conference, I just doubt they could sustain this success as well as bowl success, doing it all year."
We'll never know till they get a shot at big conference teams who need to grow a pair and schedule non-AQ teams.
Considering how spectacular the big six conferences have not been playing this year, it wouldn't be too far fetched to see TCU take a shot at the top of a conference like the Big 10, ACC or The Big 12.
Maybe even the PAC 10 or SEC…or is that too much sacrilege for one post?
I hate this article.
Oso, I was being sarcastic. I was saying what all the non-AQ doubters have been saying about past wins in the BCS.
Most conferences aren’t better than another. It’s an illusion. The SEC sucked this year. So did the Big 10 and the Pac 10.
And don’t even get me started on the Big East, ACC, and Big 12.
Every conference has like 2 good teams a year. TCU would’ve owned most teams this year, if not every team.
When they do got to the Big East and dominate that WEAK conference everyone will think they are great because it’s the Big East, forgetting that it’s a horrible conference. But because the Big East is a BCS conference they’ll get all the merit.
Want to fight about it?
Wrong Rob, you are very wrong. Auburn played 7-8 teams that are better than anything TCU faced.
Why should TCU "belong" because they can get up for one game. Yes, there may be two or three real elite teams in each major conference, but getting through the average teams who are still better than most mid major teams, every year are a real test. Playing against teams who have actual NFL talent on the other side of the ball and could change the game all by themselves.
It's all a moot point seeing as they are going to a AQ conference, but playing San Jose State and Wyoming 9-10 times a year does not make you "belong". Doing it over an extended amount of time with good solid positive results , like all the other Majors, could determine if someone belongs.
TCU proved what we all knew. Yes, a mid major can get up for one game and win. More times than not they do not get the win over a Major conference team. But hey, there is the Utah/Bama OU/Boise App State/Michigan every once in a while.
Note that WI did however have more yardage and dominated time of possession. TCU had the better coaching.
I do not know what the hell their OC was thinking down the stretch with some of the calls he made.