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| Jim Marston (left), Ed Coble (center) and Barry Johnson at the TCU-Iowa State game (photo by Bob Dixon). |
An unprecedented year of uncertainty, fear, change, restricted activities and misery went from bad to worse for fans of TCU Horned Frogs football on Saturday, September 26.
Winless Big 12 foe Iowa State blew into a sparsely populated Amon G. Carter Stadium and ran over and around the Horned Frogs in a surprisingly easy 37-34 victory in which the Cyclones never trailed (Midnite had predicted a 20-17 TCU victory).
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| Tom C. "Midnite" Burke |
It was a trifecta of woes on Saturday for the Frogs, who now are 0-1 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12. It was a season-opening loss. It was a home-opener loss. It was a conference-opener loss.
It also was a dud of a first game in an even more luxurious Amon G. Carter Stadium.
This season marks the introduction of the $100-million stadium premium seating expansion. The project added two new levels of luxury seating above the existing upper deck on the east side of the stadium. The new Legends Club and Suites include 48 loge boxes, two private clubs, over 1,000 club seats and 22 luxury suites.
Perhaps sitting, feasting, drinking and partying in luxury makes watching the Frogs lose easier on the stomach.
For the announced socially-distanced, temperature-checked and sometimes masked Amon G. Carter Stadium crowd of 11,852 (maximum attendance was to be 12,000), it was a humiliating loss that was witnessed first-hand amidst an invisible, deadly coronavirus that continues to wreak havoc across the country and the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex.
To borrow an infamous word from the vocabulary of the late former TCU football coach Jim Wacker, it was “unbeleeevable” that the Frogs were playing a football game on Saturday, in front of an Amon G. Carter crowd, even if the crowd size resembled the meager crowds the hapless Frogs drew in the 70s and 80s.
The backdrop for the game included nearly 33 million people worldwide infected by the coronavirus, with at least one million lives lost to the disease, the origin of which still is debated as robustly as the demise of the Southwest Conference (SWC).
It was a football Saturday in Cowtown and most everywhere else in the county, even though over seven million people in the United States had been attacked by the virus, with nearly 204,000 deaths.
By the time the Frogs and the Cyclones kicked off at 12:30 pm (Central) on a glorious day weather-wise for college football, more than 751,000 coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Texas (second most in the country), with nearly 16,000 dead (third most in the US).
In Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, the coronavirus had infected about 50,000 people and killed several hundred over the past six months.
Nearly 100,000 more Texans elsewhere across North Texas had been sickened by the virus, with about 2,000 virus-related deaths in the area.
According to folks who keep track of such things, there are roughly 192 million people in the U.S. who identify as college football fans.
And, as we know, college football fans often “live and die” with their teams.
Evidently, nearly 12,000 fans at Amon Carter on Saturday espoused that philosophy, as they determined that something as mysterious, contagious and deadly as COVID-19 wasn’t going to put a damper on this resemblance of September normalcy.
After all, normalcy is important, and thus far in 2020 not much has been normal.
Prior to the game against Iowa State, which as its season opener was the latest TCU has begun a season since a 13-0 win at Arkansas on October 2, 1943, TCU’s football schedule had been reconfigured numerous times because of the coronavirus.
The Frogs’ originally scheduled season-opener, at the University of California, on September 5, was canceled when the Pac 12 canceled its fall football season, which since has been reinstated as a conference-games-only season.
TCU then thought it could open the season at the University of Nevada-Los Vegas (UNLV), on August 29, in the new $2-billion Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. That plan was scrapped when the Big 12 went to a conference-only schedule, plus one home nonconference game.
Tennessee Tech, of Cookeville, Tennessee, agreed to be TCU’s home nonconference opponent, on September 12. But then Tech’s Ohio Valley Conference postponed football and other fall sports.
Playing the 100th edition of the “Battle for the Iron Skillet” against SMU on September 12, then on September 11, at the request of TV, fell apart when TCU had a COVID-19 outbreak among its players and staff and had to postpone the game.
So, the fifth time, against Iowa State, in the comforts of home, was to be the charm for TCU. But it was anything but a joyful beginning of Gary Patterson’s 20th season as head coach at TCU.
TCU's six-game winning streak in season openers was snapped, and the loss snapped an 18-game winning streak in home openers for Patterson. That streak was tied as the nation's eighth-longest.
Going back to last season, TCU has lost eight of its last 13 games. Going back to the 2018 season, TCU has lost 14 of its last 26 games.
Patterson, who did not wear a mask on the sideline during the Iowa State game, spent significant time during this past off-season recording songs (listen to “Take a Step Back” here and “Game On” here), so instead of penning another song after the Iowa State loss, he wrote an article for Horned Frogs fans who are uncertain about the future. Read it: here
Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell celebrated his team’s victory by writing a song. Listen: here
Yes, indeed, like Campbell's song proclaims, the times may be changing.
Campbell is in his fifth year of coaching in the Big 12. With Saturday's victory in his back pocket, he now has beaten Patterson, the elder statesman of the Big 12, two consecutive years and three times in the five years he has gone up against Coach P.
In addition to losing to Campbell in 2019, Patterson lost for the first time to SMU head coach Sonny Dykes, 41-38, in Fort Worth.
There also was the first-time loss, 24-17, to Kansas State first-year coach Chris Klieman in 2019. Last season, Klieman was cutting his teeth in the Big 12 after moving up to the big time from the lower Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
Third-year Baylor head football coach Matt Rhule beat Patterson for the first time last season, 29-23, in three overtimes, in Fort Worth. Rhule parlayed that victory, and others at Baylor, into a head coaching position in the National Football League (NFL). He now leads the Carolina Panthers, who are 1-2.
West Virginia first-year head coach Neal Brown brought his Mountaineers into Fort Worth last year for the season’s final game. Patterson and the 5-6 Frogs needed a victory to qualify for a bowl game with a 6-6 record.
Instead, Brown, who previously was coaching at Troy in the Sun Belt Conference, departed Cowtown with his first victory (20-14) over Patterson.
The surprising loss dropped the frustrated Frogs into the lower echelon of the Big 12 with an overall record of 5-7 and a Big 12 record of 3-6. It was the third time in Patterson’s 19-year TCU head-coaching career that the Horned Frogs did not close out a season by playing in a bowl game. The other two times were after the 2004 and 2013 seasons.
Patterson has never beaten Oklahoma Sooners’ head coach Lincoln Riley. This includes last year’s TCU loss, 28-24, in Norman, and two losses to Riley and Oklahoma in 2017: 38-20 in Norman during the regular conference season, and 41-17 in the Big 12 Championship game in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
This past Saturday, when Patterson and the Frogs again were losing to Iowa State, K-State’s Klieman was padding his short Big 12 resume. His Wildcats beat Riley’s Sooners for the second consecutive year, this time in Norman, 38-35.
Going
into the 2020 season, Rhule was replaced at Baylor by Dave Aranda, who
had been LSU's defensive coordinator. On September 26, in his first game as a
collegiate head coach, Aranda led Baylor to a 47-14 victory over Kansas in
Waco.
In the Southeastern Conference (SEC) on Saturday, Mike Leach, who was head coach at Texas Tech from 2000 to 2009, disrupted the SEC’s old guard in his first game as an SEC coach (prior to this season, he left Washington State for Mississippi State). His Bulldogs upset the reigning national champions and sixth-ranked LSU Tigers, 44-34, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mississippi State quarterback K.J. Costello passed for an SEC record 623 yards and five touchdowns.
There was no such magic for the Horned Frogs on Saturday against Iowa State.
For the second year in a row, the Cyclones’ offense battered TCU’s defense, commanded by Patterson and defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow.
A balanced Iowa State offense, which boasted an array of physical players that were larger, and at times swifter and craftier, than TCU’s defensive players, gained 423 yards; 212 on the ground and 211 through the air.
After a scoreless first quarter, about midway through the second quarter Iowa State running back Breece Hall scored a touchdown on a 75-yard run and the Cyclones never trailed, consistently taking advantage of big plays against a TCU defense that too often was characterized by arm-tackling, being out of position and lacking a killer instinct.
Of the Cyclones’ 423 yards of total offense, 249 yards were gained on five plays. And those big plays came at times when TCU was pulling itself back into the ballgame, only to see the game again slip away.
Iowa State had touchdown runs of 75, 49 and 32 yards, and two pass plays for 49 and 44 yards that set up scoring drives.
Hall rushed for 154 yards on 18 carries. He scored three touchdowns, on runs of 75, one and 32 yards.
Kene Nwangwu had a 49-yard run for a touchdown for Iowa State.
Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy, who burned TCU last year in Ames during the Cyclones’ 49-24 lashing of the Frogs, completed 18-of-23 pass attempts.
Purdy connected on a 49-yard pass play to wide receiver Landen Akers during an Iowa State field-goal drive in the first half. With only 53 seconds remaining in the first half, he threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Darren Wilson, Jr. Purdy teamed with wide receiver Joe Scates on a 44-yard pass play on the drive that ended with Hall’s one-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
With about four minutes left in the game, it appeared that the Horned Frogs might pull off a comeback victory.
TCU trailed 30-28, but had gained momentum and had an opportunity to score go-ahead points. However, a pass from quarterback Max Duggan bounced off wide receiver Taye Barber’s hands and a knee and into the hands of Iowa State linebacker Mike Rose at the TCU 39-yard line.
Three plays later, a 32-yard scoring run by Hall through the guts of a stunned TCU defense sealed the victory for Iowa State.
TCU scored its final points as time expired in the game, on a 31-yard pass from Duggan to wide receiver Blair Conwright. The extra point was not attempted, as it was meaningless. It might not have been meaningless, if a 49-yard field goal attempt by TCU kicker Griffin Kell in the first quarter had been made, instead of having been blocked.
Going back to last season, the 37-34 loss to the Cyclones was the Frogs’ seventh one-score loss among its eight losses (TCU was 5-7 last season) over that span of time. The only loss that wasn’t by one score was Iowa State’s 25-point victory in Ames.
Offensively, with new offensive coaching hires Doug Meacham and Jerry Kill on their sideline, the Frogs performed well, particularly through the air, against Iowa State. TCU outgained the Cyclones, with 498 yards of total offense; 399 yards through the air, and 99 yards on 44 runs, with nine different players having at least one carry.
Sophomore backup quarterback Matthew Downing, a transfer last year from Georgia, made his first appearance and start as a Horned Frog. Downing started the game because Duggan’s practice time has been limited during his recovery from a procedure to correct a heart condition he has had since birth.
Downing played the entire first half. He completed 11-of-21 passes for 158 yards. He threw one touchdown pass, a 37-yarder to heralded true freshman wide receiver Quentin Johnson. It was Downing’s first career touchdown throw and Johnson’s first career touchdown catch.
Duggan showed a lot of heart, and improved accuracy, against Iowa State. He started and played the entire second half. He completed 16-of-19 passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns, to Conwright, Barber and Artayvious Lynn. Duggan’s three touchdown passes tied a career high, set last year in the gut-wrenching loss to SMU.
Downing and Duggan faced relentless pressure from the Cyclones' defensive line, which consistently manhandled the Frogs' inexperienced offensive line (five new starters on the offensive line played in the game). Downing was sacked four times, Duggan two times.
Out of Iowa State’s three-man front, redshirt senior defensive lineman JaQuan Bailey had 3.5 sacks. He also forced and recovered a fumble by Downing. Bailey’s dominating performance against the Frogs made him Iowa State's all-time leader in sacks and tackles for loss and earned him Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Ten Horned Frogs had at least one reception against the Cyclones. Barber tied for team-best honors with five receptions for 82 yards. His third-quarter touchdown catch was his first scoring grab since 2018.
Junior running back Emari Demercado had a career-best five receptions for 42 yards. The five catches equaled his career total entering the game.
Demercado also was the Frogs’ leading rusher. He ran for 39 yards on eight carries.
Running back Zach Evans, a five-star recruit in TCU's 2020 recruiting class, did not play in the game, evidently because he missed close to a month of training camp because of close contact to players who tested positive for COVID-19. Players who are deemed in close contact are out a minimum of 14 days.
TCU senior linebacker Garret Wallow, who is the leader of TCU's defense, had a team-best nine tackles, including two for loss, and a sack that forced a fumble.
Safety La’Kendrick Van Zandt picked up the fumble caused by Wallow and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown. It was TCU's first score in that manner since Jawuan Johnson returned a fumble for a touchdown against Oklahoma State in 2018.
Defensive end Parker Workman also had a sack for the Frogs.
TCU now has at least one sack in 80 of its last 83 games.
On Saturday, October 3, in Austin, the unranked Frogs are scheduled to play No. 9 Texas in
the “Battle of the ‘Horns.” Kickoff is at 11 am. FOX will broadcast the game.
During the 2019 season, TCU entered its seventh game of the season with a 3-3 record. In Amon G. Carter Stadium, in a Homecoming game on Saturday, October 26, the Frogs defeated 15th ranked Texas, 37-27.
Duggan, as a true freshman, played against the Longhorns for the first time. He threw for a then career-high 273 yards, tossed a pair of touchdowns and scored one on the ground.
The Frogs' defense intercepted four passes, the team's most in a regular-season game since notching four at Texas in 2014.
The win was TCU's fifth in the last six games with the Longhorns.
For the game, the Frogs wore for the first time a fierce purple helmet, an anthracite jersey and anthracite pants.
The Frogs are 6-2 against the Longhorns since joining the Big 12 Conference in 2012, including a 3-1 record in Austin.
TCU head coach Gary Patterson is 6-3 against Texas. Since 1996, he ranks No. 1 in the nation among all head coaches past and present (minimum 5 games) in career winning percentage (.667, 6-3) against Texas.
This will be the 91st meeting between TCU and Texas. UT leads the series, 63-26-1.
Texas is an 11.5-point favorite for Saturday's game. The point-spread is second-most in the Big 12 for this weekend's games. Oklahoma State is a 21-point favorite over Kansas, the conference's annual cellar-dweller.
During his TCU tenure, Patterson has defeated ranked opponents 26 times, including 11 victories over teams in the top 10.
The last time an unranked TCU team beat a top-10 team was in 2011, when the Frogs beat No. 5 Boise State, 36-35, in Boise, Idaho, in the 10th game of the season. TCU finished the season 11-2, 7-0 in the Mountain West Conference (MWC). The Frogs won their third straight MWC championship. They then defeated Louisiana Tech, 31-24, in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.
Texas beat Texas Tech, 63-56, in overtime, last Saturday, September 26, in Lubbock.
Trailing Tech 56-41 with 3:13 left in the game, senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger helped Texas score 22 unanswered points for the victory.
During the final minutes of regulation and in overtime, Ehlinger completed 8-of-9 passes (including a two-point conversion) for 105 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 18 yards on three carries to tally 123 yards of total offense during the 22-point run. The go-ahead touchdown in overtime marked the sixth game-winning drive of Ehlinger's collegiate career, bringing him within one of Major Applewhite's school record.
Against Tech, Ehlinger racked up 331 yards of total offense (262 passing, 69 rushing) and six touchdowns (five passing, one rushing). It was his second-straight outing with five passing touchdowns, making him the first player in UT history to achieve that feat in consecutive games. His six touchdowns are a career high for a single game.
In recognition of his performance against Tech, Ehlinger was named to the Davey O'Brien Award's Great 8 list, a Manning Award Star of the Week and the Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Week. It is the second time in as many outings this season that Ehlinger has been recognized by the O'Brien and Manning awards and the Big 12 Conference.
Through Texas' first two games of the 2020 season, Ehlinger has completed 52-of-73 passes (71.2 percent) for 688 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has thrown one interception. He has rushed for 81 yards and one touchdown to tally 769 yards of total offense and 11 touchdowns.
Ehlinger's 11 touchdowns accounted for are the most by a Longhorn in a two-game stretch since Ricky Williams set an NCAA record with 11 rushing touchdowns over a two-game stretch against Rice (six touchdowns) and Iowa State (five touchdowns) during his Heisman Trophy-winning campaign in 1998.
Nationally, Ehlinger's 10 passing touchdowns and 68 points responsible for are the most among FBS players this season. He ranks second in the country for points responsible for per game (34.0), sixth in total offense (384.5), seventh in passing yards per game (344.0) and completions per game (26.0) and eighth in passing efficiency (192.9). His 10 passing touchdowns through two games are the most in school history, and he is the first Power Five quarterback since USC's Matt Barkley in 2012 to record double-digit touchdown passes in his team's first two games of the season. Purdue's Curtis Painter (2007) is the only other Power Five quarterback to hit that mark since 2000.
Ehlinger set the tone early for a successful 2020 season. On the Longhorns’ first snap of the season against UTEP on September 12, he threw a 78-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Moore. Ehlinger also had a 40-yard touchdown pass in Texas’ 59-3 rout of the Miners.
At 1-0 in the Big 12, Texas suddenly is the Big 12 favorite, with Oklahoma having lost is conference-opener to Kansas State.
Texas hasn't won a Big 12 football championship since 2009, when Mack Brown was the head coach and Colt McCoy was the quarterback.
Oklahoma has won the Big 12's football championship the last five years and has won or tied for the conference championship seven of the past 10 seasons.
At 2-0 overall, Texas is ranked ninth in the country. So, the Longhorns also have aspirations of playing for a national championship this season.
Texas has not won a national championship since 2005, when Brown was the head coach and Vince Young was the Longhorns' quarterback.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic and state restrictions, Texas Vice President and Director of Athletics Chris Del Conte, who formerly was TCU’s director of intercollegiate athletics (2009-2017), and Governor Greg Abbott are limiting attendance in DKR-Memorial Stadium, which normally holds nearly 101,000 spectators for football games.
Austin lies within Travis County, which has experienced about 30,000 coronavirus cases of Texas' nearly 800,000 infections and nearly 500 deaths of Texas' more than 16,100 virus-related deaths.
Nonetheless, within that environment, about 16,000 fans attended the UT-UTEP game. The game was televised on the Longhorn Network and many people, especially students, were seen not wearing masks.
Even President Trump (and First Lady Melania), unfortunately, has proven that not regularly wearing a mask, especially when around large numbers of strangers, can lead to being infected by the coronavirus.
This Saturday, an increased number of spectators are expected to be allowed into DKR-Memorial Stadium in Austin to see the Longhorns play the Frogs.
Texas fans seemingly "would die" for an opportunity to see the Longhorns during a journey to possibly another Big 12 championship, and national championship.
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