TCU Slips Past Cincinnati, 20-13; Bowl Game, Program's Future To Be Determined

By Tom C. "Midnite" Burke

Defense was not a consistent strength of the Horned Frogs during their 2024 regular season.

In fact, poor defensive play can be attributed to TCU’s four losses this season.

Fortunately, however, with the Frogs’ offense hibernating, defense was a strength and the reason for TCU’s eighth win of the season on Saturday, November 30, in cold, snowy Ohio, as the Horned Frogs defeated the University of Cincinnati, 20-13, in front of an announced Senior Day crowd of 30,021, in historic Nippert Stadium.

The evening game was the 2024 regular-season finale for both teams. 

With the win, TCU improved to 8-4 overall, 6-3 in the Big 12.

The Horned Frogs have won eight games for the third time since 2015, with head football coach Sonny Dykes on staff for all three occasions. He was an analyst on the 11-win 2017 team and head coach of the 2022 13-victory College Football Playoff squad and this year's team.

The Frogs tied for second in the conference with Baylor and Texas Tech. 

Arizona State, BYU, Colorado and Iowa State tied for first in the conference with 7-2 records.

With the loss, Cincinnati was denied bowl eligibility. The Bearcats finished 5-7 overall, and 3-6 in the Big 12, tied for fifth with Houston.

“Freaking, just disappointed to lose on Senior Night” said Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield. “Three turnovers and three of their punts going inside our 15- to 10-yard line just killed us. Outstanding job by our defense to hold their high-power offense to 20 points. Tough for offenses in second half with the cold and snow.”

Although the Horned Frogs are bowl eligible and won five of their final six games, including three straight, the 2024 regular season basically was a failure for TCU football.

“I’m really proud of our team for winning five of their last six,” Dykes said. “We created some momentum for ourselves leading up into the bowl game and into next year. I'm proud of the team’s resilience and toughness in bouncing back from injuries and nagging issues.

“At TCU, we want to compete for championships. When you’re not playing for one in the last game of the season, then we didn’t meet our expectations. That’s the way it’s always going to be. I am disappointed in the run of three or four games in the middle of the season that weren’t very good.”

During this era of college football, all that really matters are conference championships and inclusion in the new 12-team College Football Playoff invitational tournament.

Under the overall direction of Athletics Director Jeremiah Donati and day-to-day direction of Dykes, TCU football achieved neither of those goals for the 2024 season.

The fact that the Frogs did not achieve those goals is disappointing enough, but it is even more disappointing when you realize that TCU’s 2024 schedule was set up for those goals to be achieved by the Horned Frogs.

• TCU was not paired against any of the conference’s top teams -- Colorado, Arizona State, BYU and Iowa State. 
• Kansas State also was not on the schedule. The Wildcats have been a nemesis of the Frogs in recent years, including defeating TCU, 31-28 in overtime, in the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game.
• There were five conference games at home, and four on the road for the Horned Frogs.
• There were no back-to-back conference road games on the Frogs’ schedule.
• There was an open date after the sixth game of the season, and an open date after the 10th game of the season, both of which were ideal positions for open dates during a season.
  

When all was said and done, TCU’s eight wins this season included a victory over a lower-level Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team and only one victory over a team with a winning record.

As a result, TCU was left looking up at the best teams in the Big 12 Conference, including three league newcomers – Arizona State, Colorado and BYU.

The combined overall regular-season record of the eight teams TCU beat was 35-58.

The combined Big 12 regular-season record of the six conference teams the Frogs beat was 17-37.

TCU’s eight wins:

• Stanford: 3-9
• Long Island University (FCS team): 4-8
• Kansas: 5-7; 4-5 Big 12
  
• Utah: 5-7; 2-7 Big 12
  
• Texas Tech: 8-4; 6-3 Big 12
  
• Oklahoma State: 3-9; 0-9 Big 12
  
• Arizona: 2-7; 2-7 Big 12
  
• Cincinnati: 5-7; 3-6 Big 12
  

Also included in TCU's 2024 regular-season journey were:

• A blowout loss (66-42) on the road to arch-rival SMU
• Four blown leads and a last-second loss (37-34) on the road to arch-rival Baylor
• A blown 21-point second-half lead and a last-second loss (35-34) at home to UCF
• An embarrassing loss (30-19) at home to Houston, in a game the Frogs never led
  

The type of leadership and performance that produced these results in 2024 is not sustainable in today’s college football environment, especially when a Power-4 Conference university and its football program is striving to remain relevant at the highest level of competition, at astronomical monetary costs that only will be increasing steadily in the coming years. (It is expected that beginning in 2025, schools can share between $20 million and $30 million in revenue with their athletes. The cap is expected to increase annually. TCU has announced that it will be participating in the pay-for-athletes scheme at the highest level allowed.)

We must never again accept mediocrity at TCU. Mediocrity is best left to Waco, Tucson, Lubbock, Orlando, Houston and elsewhere. 

It's bad enough that the Horned Frogs are being mentioned as a possible participant in Fort Worth's Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, as a "reward" for their 2024 season. 

But it's even worse that the TCU football program is being overshadowed by the neighboring SMU football program, which 37 years ago was proclaimed dead. 

In their first season ever in a Power 4 conference (the Atlantic Coast Conference - ACC), the Mustangs have taken the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and nation by storm. 

SMU, 11-1 overall, won the regular-season ACC championship with an 8-0 record, earned a spot in the ACC Championship Game against Clemson on Saturday, December 7, and likely will be included in the 12-team College Football Playoffs. 

Pony Up?

How about Throw Up!

So, the feasibility and sensibility of the Horned Frogs continuing their Power-4 Conference football program under the direction of Dykes and his staff needs to be thoroughly and candidly evaluated by the TCU administration, not withstanding that apparently TCU football will have the top upcoming recruiting class in the Big 12 and one of the top classes in the country.

Such an analysis of its Big 12 football program recently was done by West Virginia. 

The day after the regular season ended, West Virginia fired its head football coach, Neal Brown, one year after a breakthrough 2023 season when the Mountaineers went 9-4. 

Brown led West Virginia to bowl eligibility this season with a 6-6 season. He was 37-35 in six seasons with the Mountaineers. 

But, just winning and bowling is not good enough in this day and time. So Brown wasn't good enough for West Virginia.

An analysis of its football program most likely will be conducted soon by the University of Cincinnati, whose football team was in college football’s playoff as a fourth seed following the 2021 season, when Luke Fickell was the team’s head coach, but since has regressed.

The Bearcats’ loss to TCU was Cincinnati's fifth straight loss to end the regular season.

Cincinnati was 5-2 through seven games this season. A loss at Colorado on October 26 began a five-game losing streak that resulted in the second straight season under head coach Scott Satterfield without a bowl game being earned by the Bearcats.

Here are the results of the other Big 12 games played on Friday, November 29, and Saturday, November 30:

• (Friday) Oklahoma State 0 (3-9, 0-9) at Colorado 52 (9-3, 7-2)
• (Friday) Utah 28 (5-7, 2-7) at UCF 14 (4-8, 2-7)
• West Virginia 15 (6-6, 5-4) at Texas Tech 52 (8-4, 6-3)
• Kansas 17 (5-7, 4-5) at Baylor 45 (8-4, 6-3)
• Arizona State 49 (10-2, 7-2) at 7 Arizona (2-7, 4-8)
• Kansas State 21 (8-4, 5-4) at Iowa State 21 (10-2, 7-2)
• Houston 18 (4-8, 3-6) at BYU 30 (10-2, 7-2)

Final 2024 Big 12 regular-season standings:

1. BYU (7-2)
   Colorado (7-2)
   Arizona State (7-2)
   Iowa State (7-2)
2. Baylor (6-3)
   TCU (6-3)
   Texas Tech (6-3)
3. West Virginia (5-4)
   Kansas State (5-4)
4. Kansas (4-5)
5. Cincinnati (3-6)
   Houston (3-6)
6. Arizona (2-7)
   UCF (2-7)
   Utah (2-7)
7. OK St (0-9)

The Big 12 Conference Championship game will feature Arizona State playing Iowa State on Saturday, December 7, at 11 am (Central), in AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. ABC will televise the game.

Arizona State, which joined the Big 12 this season, is making its first appearance in the championship game.

Iowa State is making its second appearance in a Big 12 Conference Championship Game. The Cyclones lost to Oklahoma in the 2020 championship game.

Left out of the Big 12 Championship Game was the Big 12’s best “Prime Time Show” – the Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders.

The final Big 12 standings featured a four-way tie for first place between BYU, Colorado, Arizona State and Iowa State.

Arizona State and Iowa State won the right to play for the championship, according to league tiebreaker rules, which stress the importance of records against common Big 12 opponents and their strength of schedule in league play.

All of the first-place teams did not play each other this season and none of them defeated all of the other tied teams. According to Big 12 rules, the next tiebreaker is their records against common conference opponents.

In this case, the four first-place teams had four common Big 12 opponents: Kansas, Kansas State, Utah and Central Florida. Arizona State was 4-0 against those teams. BYU and Iowa State were 3-1. Colorado was 2-2, with losses to Kansas and Kansas State, so the Buffaloes were eliminated.

That gave Arizona State the advantage in this tiebreaker.

The tie between BYU and Iowa State was settled by the strength of each team’s league schedule, based on combined win percentage in conference games. Iowa State edged BYU with a combined opponent’s league record of 36-45 compared to 31-50 for BYU. It hurt BYU’s case that the Cougars played Oklahoma State (0-9) and Arizona (2-7), while Iowa State did not.

Here is information about other conference championship games:

• SEC Championship: conference-newcomer Texas vs. Georgia, at 3 pm (Central), on Saturday, December 7, in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in Atlanta, Georgia. ABC will televise the game.
  
• ACC Championship Game: conference-newcomer SMU vs. Clemson, at 7 pm (Central), on Saturday, December 7, in Bank of America Stadium, in Charlotte, North Carolina. ABC will televise the game.
  
• Big 10 Championship Game: conference-newcomer Oregon vs. Penn State, at 7 pm (Central), on Saturday, December 7, in Lucas Oil Stadium, in Indianapolis, Indiana. CBS will televise the game.
  
• American Athletic Championship Game: Army vs. Tulane, at 7 pm (Central), on Friday, December 6, in Michie Stadium, in West Point, New York. ABC will televise the game.
  
• Conference USA Championship Game: Jacksonville State vs. Western Kentucky, at 6 pm  (Central), on Friday, December 6, in AmFirst Stadium, in Jacksonville, Alabama. CBS will televise the game.
  
• Mid-American Championship Game: Ohio vs. Miami (Ohio), at 11 am (Central), on Saturday, December 7, at Ford Field, in Detroit, Michigan. ESPN will televise the game.
  
• Mountain West Championship Game: Boise State vs. UNLV, at 7 pm (Central), on Friday, December 6, in Albertsons Stadium, in Boise, Idaho. FOX will televise the game.
  
• Sunbelt Championship Game: Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns vs. Marshall, at 6:30 pm (Central), on Saturday, December 7, at Cajun Field, in Lafayette, Louisiana. ESPN will televise the game.
  

On Sunday, December 8, which is “Selection Sunday,” the final College Football Playoff rankings and bowl pairings will be announced.

The fifth ranking for the 12-team College Football Playoff was revealed on Tuesday (December 3) night. The top 12 teams are:

1. Oregon (12-0)
2. Texas(11-1)
3. Penn State (11-1)
4. Notre Dame (11-1)
5. Georgia (10-2)
6. Ohio State (10-2)
   
7. Tennessee (10-2)
8. SMU (11-1)
9. Indiana (11-1)
10. Boise State (11-1)
11.  Alabama (9-3)

See the Top 25 rankings: here

In this week’s USA TODAY Sports Week 15 Ranking of 134 Division 1 football teams, TCU is 40th, three spots better than its previous week’s ranking of 43rd.

See this week’s USA TODAY Sports Week 15 Ranking of 134 Division 1 football teams: here

TCU and Cincinnati Renewed Rivalry

TCU and Cincinnati played on November 30 for the first time since 2004, the fourth time overall and the first time as Big 12 Conference foes. The series is tied at two wins apiece.

The previous three meetings (2002-04) between the two teams took place when both were members of Conference USA. This is Cincinnati’s second season in the Big 12. The Bearcats joined the conference on July 1, 2023, along with Houston, BYU and UCF. Cincinnati previously was a member of the Big East (2005-2013) and the American Athletic Conference (2013-2022).

This is the third time in the last five seasons that the Frogs have ended the regular season with at least three consecutive wins (2020, 2022 and 2024). It’s the 10th time this century that TCU has done so.

TCU scored for the 406th consecutive game, the second-longest streak in NCAA history. Number 1 is Florida, at 460 games (1988-present). The Horned Frogs haven't been blanked since November 16, 1991, at Texas (32-0).

Against Cincinnati, TCU did all of its scoring in the first half and led 20-7 at the intermission.

The Frogs went conservative offensively in second half, mainly because of the cold, snowy weather.

TCU sophomore quarterback Josh Hoover threw 28 passes in the first half, but only seven in the second half, as Cincinnati held the Frogs scoreless over the final two quarters and became only the third team this season to hold TCU to under 34 points in a game.

Thus, winning the game was left up to the TCU defense in the second half, and it responded, holding the Bearcats to a touchdown late in the fourth quarter and defending a last-gasp effort by Cincinnati to tie or win the game in the final seconds of the game.

In the Bearcats’ first eight drives of the game, they only reached TCU territory once, at the beginning of the second quarter.

Cincinnati didn’t cross the 50-yard line again until the final play of the third quarter. As Cincinnati moved deeper into the red zone on that drive, TCU junior cornerback Channing Canada intercepted a pass in the TCU end zone to thwart the Bearcats’ scoring threat.

However, after the Horned Frogs’ offense went three-and-out, Cincinnati pulled within 20-13 when redshirt sophomore quarterback Brendan Sorsby scored a touchdown on an eight-yard run with 5:15 remaining in the game.

With 1:10 remaining in the game, TCU’s offense lined up to go for a first down on a fourth-down play, but the Frogs committed a false start and were forced to punt.

TCU junior punter Ethan Craw pinned the Bearcats at their three-yard line with 60 seconds remaining in the game.

The Bearcats ultimately drove to the TCU 40-yard line, with three seconds remaining in the game. A desperation heave by Sorsby was batted down in the end zone by TCU senior safety Bud Clark and the Frogs began celebrating by sliding on the snowy turf and making “snow angels.”

With the cold and snowy conditions hampering both teams' offenses, Craw was key in the field-position game. He placed four of his five punts inside the 20-yard line, including at the six-, five- and three-yard lines. He had a 65-yard punt, which was TCU's longest punt since 2014, and a 55-yard punt. He averaged 47.4 yards per punt.

For his performance, Craw, who is a native of Tasmania, Australia, was named the Co-Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week. He shared the award with Texas Tech kicker Gino Garcia.

For the season, Craw has a 42.3 average per punt. He has placed 17 of his punts inside the opponents’ 20-yard line and has just three of his punts result in touchbacks.

The Horned Frogs’ defense against the University of Cincinnati was led by senior linebacker Johnny Hodges, a transfer from Navy, who led TCU with nine tackles.

Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Markis Deal recorded three tackles for loss, including his first sack of the season, as part of four stops.

Junior safety Bud Clark forced a fumble and had eight tackles.

Senior safety Abe Camara had his second forced fumble of the season. Senior defensive lineman Caleb Fox, a transfer from Stephen F. Austin, recovered the football, for his second fumble recovery of the year.

TCU was outgained by Cincinnati, 373 total offensive yards to 336 total offensive yards.

Hoover was 18-for-35, for a season-low 212 yards through the air. He went 1-of-6 in the third quarter and only threw for 10 yards in the second half. Cincinnati intercepted Hoover once. He was not sacked.

Through 12 games this season, Hoover has 3,697 passing yards, including six 300-yard games, and 23 touchdown passes. 

Hoover ranks third in TCU history in single season passing yardage, behind Trevon Boykin, 3,901 passing yards (2014), and Max Duggan, 3,697 passing yards (2022)

On the ground against the Bearcats, the Horned Frogs had 124 yards on 32 rushes.

True freshman quarterback Hauss Hejny led TCU in rushing with a career-high 48 yards on eight carries.

Senior wide receiver Savion Williams was held to 10 rushing yards, but he had a pair of two-yard touchdown runs in the first half to give him six rushing touchdowns on the season, all coming in the last six games. The six touchdowns represent all of his career scoring runs. He had none in his first 46 contests. Williams added three receptions for 16 yards.

Senior wide receiver Jack Bech, a transfer from LSU who is the fifth player in TCU history with a 1,000-yard receiving season, had three receptions for 27 yards.

Bech has 62 receptions for 1,034 receiving yards on the year, placing him in fourth place for receiving yards in a season at TCU, trailing only Josh Doctson (1,327 yards in 2015), Quentin Johnston (1,069 yards in 2022) and Jalen Reagor (1,061 yards in 2018). Doctson, Johnston and Reagor were first-round NFL draft picks.

Unfortunately, Bech, who has nine receiving touchdowns on the season, suffered an injury in the Cincinnati game and did not play beyond the first quarter.

Bech has been diagnosed with a knee injury, but with no meniscus damage. Recovery time is expected to be between four and six weeks. Bech is expected to miss TCU’s bowl game, but he should be recovered when the 2025 NFL Draft process starts.

Against the Bearcats, senior wide receiver Blake Nowell led TCU receivers with a career-high 75 receiving yards on three receptions. He is the fifth different Horned Frog to have a game-high in receiving yards this season.

Senior wider receiver JP Richardson, a transfer from Oklahoma State, had two receptions for 50 yards to extend his streak with a catch to 39 consecutive games, tying for seventh-longest in the nation.

Junior wide receiver Eric McAlister, a transfer from Boise State, had three receptions for 36 yards, all for first downs. He leads the nation with 93.5 percent (29-of-31) of his catches going for first downs. 

True freshman kicker Kyle Lemmermann converted two-of-three field goal attempts, a 27-yarder and a 35-yarder in the second quarter. He missed a 38-yard attempt on TCU’s last play of the first half.

Sorsby and senior running back Corey Kiner were Cincinnati's offensive stars.

Sorsby completed 21-of-34 passes for 160 yards, but TCU’s defense held him without a touchdown pass, intercepted him once and sacked him once.

Cincinnati ran 40 times for 213 yards.

Kiner ran 23 times for 110 yards. He had a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. He finished the season with a career-best 1,153 rushing yards.

Sorsby ran 12 times for 93 yards. He had an eight-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

In the game, Bearcats tight end Joe Royer, a transfer from Ohio State, set Cincinnati’s single-season record for receptions by a tight end. His four-yard catch early in the third quarter was his 46th reception of the season, breaking the previous record of 45 catches, set by Travis Kelce in 2012.

Kelce, of course, is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. More importantly – to some folks – Kelce is a rather close acquaintance of pop superstar Taylor Swift, who happens to show up at games involving the Kansas City Chiefs.

• TCU-Cincinnati game highlights: here
  
• TCU-Cincinnati box score: here
  
• TCU head coach Sonny Dykes talks about TCU’s win over Cincinnati: here
  
• Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield, quarterback Brendan Sorsby, linebacker Jared Bartlett and tight end Joe Royer talk about Cincinnati’s loss to TCU: here
  

Horned Frogs Going Bowling

TCU will learn its bowl destination by December 8.

Possibilities:

• Rate Bowl, Chase Field, in Phoenix Arizona, on December 26
• Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium, in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 27
• Autozone Liberty Bowl, Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 27
• Pop-Tarts Bowl, Camping World Stadium, in Orlando, Florida, on December 28
• Valero Alamo Bowl, Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, on December 28
• Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, Independence Stadium, in Shreveport, Louisiana, on December 28
• TaxAct Texas Bowl, NRG Stadium, in Houston, Texas, on December 31
• ServPro First Responder Bowl, SMU's Ford Stadium, in Dallas, on January 3, 2025

2024-25 Bowl Games: here