You know it’s been a tough year when Senior Night arrives and the healthiest ones in the group photo are the moms and the dads.
But amidst the roses for mom, the limps and the crutches Saturday night, a prize could still await TCU’s departing football class:
A bowl invitation. A trip to, maybe, the Texas Bowl in Houston or the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
A well-earned prize, if you ask me.
If you’ve never seen a Senior Day/Night celebration, please put down that beer and leave the tailgate early. TCU lists 23 seniors on its roster, and they all deserve your applause.
Some football seasons storm mightily to their regular season conclusion anxious for further validation. (TCU Peach Bowl team, 2014)
Some reach the end, wishing upon a star. (TCU Rose Bowl team, 2010)
And other seasons, having endured their dents and tribulations along the way, are simply gratified to be playing another game.
The 2018 Horned Frogs would be in that last group. After all, a third-team quarterback and running back could be in the starting backfield against Oklahoma State on Saturday night.
Coach Mike Gundy’s Cowboys already have their six victories needed for a bowl invite. It will mark the 13th consecutive year that Oklahoma State has gone to a bowl game.
During Gary Patterson’s 20 previous seasons at TCU, the only ones without a bowl reward at the end were 2004 and 2013.
So there’s that at stake Saturday night. And any lingering doubts about the Frogs’ motivation at this point should have been dispelled last weekend in Waco, a foxhole fight won by TCU 16-9.
Who dares to play 16-9 football games these days in the Big 12?
The two best teams in the league played a breathless 59-56 regular season finale Friday night in Morgantown. The damage to the defenses included 58 total first downs, 14 touchdowns and more than 1,300 yards.
The team that won, Oklahoma, gave up 704 yards, including 539 passing.
But in the Big 12, you do what you have to do. The Sooners only threw 27 passes Friday. Kansas, just one week ago, rushed for twice as many yards (348) against Oklahoma as West Virginia did.
Patterson had a good point this week when he wondered publicly why the Rams-Chiefs NFL game (105 points, 1,001 total yards) was lauded as an all-timer, while a weekly Big 12 shootout gets painted as a disrespect to football.
“Everybody should get an opportunity to be a defensive coordinator in the Big 12,” Patterson quipped.
The Frogs coach pointed out another set of numbers:
17-14, 17-14, 14-13 and 16-9.
Those are scores that TCU games have produced this Big 12 season.
“But nobody plays defense . . . ,” Patterson said, stifling a smirk.
Injuries and all – five who started early in the season are no longer available – TCU leads the conference in total defense, allowing 350.3 yards per game. The Frogs are first in the league in passing yards allowed, 204.5
I’m going to guess that some Big 12 team had that many yards in one quarter this season.
But you do what you have to do in the Big 12.
Speaking to reporters in Stillwater this week, Gundy was asked about injuries, not only to his team but also to TCU.
“The players now are like finely tuned sports cars,” he said. “The game is more physical than it ever has been.
“[The Frogs] are still playing really good, so I don’t know what it would have been like with the other guys.”
Turnovers also have played a major part in TCU’s season, as it’s been well-chronicled. The Frogs have given the ball away 21 times, compared to 14 takeaways of their own.
Here’s a staggering statistic: TCU has fumbled 28 times, but somehow has lost only 10 of them.
Were it not for a fumble at the 7-yard line at Kansas, the Frogs would already be bowl-eligible.
So there’s that, too.
On the wall where the players meet Patterson posts a pyramid of goals each season. As TCU defeats an opponent and climbs towards the peak of the pyramid, the corresponding section gets colored in purple.
“The pyramid doesn’t look the way we’re used to,” Patterson said, looking over his shoulder to the poster.
“But you’ve got to give our players a lot of credit. We’ve had kids trying to make it what it can be.”
Applause is in order Saturday night, in other words.
And who knows? Maybe a well-earned prize.
(Photo by Melissa Triebwasser)
