By Tom C. "Midnite" Burke
TCU football in 2024 accomplished something that the Horned Frogs had not done since the COVID pandemic season of 2020 – win the team's last game of the season.
The Frogs accomplished the task this season by beating Louisiana 34-3 in the 19th annual Isleta New Mexico Bowl, before an announced crowd of 22,827 at University Stadium, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Saturday, December 28.
In 2023, TCU lost its last game of the season, to Oklahoma, 69-45, to miss a bowl game with a 5-7 overall record.
For the 2022 season, TCU lost its last game of the season, to Georgia, 65-7, in the national championship game.
In 2020, the Horned Frogs won their last game of the season, 52-10, over Louisiana Tech. The Frogs qualified for a bowl game, but because of COVID illnesses, the Texas Bowl game against Arkansas was canceled.
With the win over Louisiana in Albuquerque, TCU improved its overall 2024 record
to 9-4. The Frogs were 6-3 in the Big 12.
The
Frogs won four in a row and six of their last seven games to close this season and build momentum and excitement for the 2025 season, for which
the Horned Frogs should be a favorite to win the Big 12 Conference and
qualify for the second time for the College Football National Championship
Playoff.
TCU will open its 2025 season on August 30, on the road, against the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
It will be the Tar Heels' first game under their new head coach, former NFL head coach Bill Belichick, who with eight Super Bowl rings is widely regarded as one of the greatest head football coaches of all time.
The game obviously will be a highly anticipated matchup and an attractive contest for television.
In
2023, in Fort Worth, TCU opened its season against the University of
Colorado and its immensely popular and controversial new head coach,
former NFL player Deion Sanders. The Horned Frogs lost the highly
anticipated matchup, 45-42.
TCU in 2024 won exactly nine games in a season for the first time since going 9-2
under head coach Abe Martin in 1955
The Horned Frogs won at least nine games for the third time since 2015. TCU
head coach Sonny Dykes has been 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, as well as this year’s team.
In three seasons as TCU’s head football coach (2022, 2023, 2024), Dykes and the
Frogs have tallied 27 wins, which trail only two-time national championship
coach Dutch Meyer (29, 1934-36) for most by a TCU head coach in his first three
seasons.
Dykes is one of six active Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) head coaches to take
four different schools (Louisiana Tech, Cal, SMU, TCU) to a bowl game. The
others are Hugh Freeze, Butch Jones, Brian Kelly, Lane Kiffin and Rich
Rodriguez.
Over the last 20 seasons, TCU is 12-3 (.800) in bowl games. That’s the best record by any team nationally with at least 10 bowl appearances in that stretch.
This was the 36th bowl game in TCU’s history. The Horned Frogs are 19-16-1 in those contests.
TCU’s last bowl game was a 51-45 victory over Michigan in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, which also was a College Football Playoff Semifinal game.
Louisiana, which made its 14th bowl appearance in school history, finished the season with a 10-4 overall record. The Ragin’ Cajuns, of Lafayette, Louisiana, were 7-1 in the Sun Belt Conference.
This was the first New Mexico Bowl to be played after Christmas.
The attendance of 22,827 was the second-best attendance in the last six
years.
The 31-point margin was the third-largest margin of victory in an Isleta New
Mexico Bowl.
The 31-point loss was the Ragin Cajuns’ largest margin of defeat since
losing by 32 to Florida State on November 19, 2022.
Louisiana's three points were the second-fewest in an Isleta New Mexico Bowl.
Louisiana scored three points in back-to-back games to end the year.
The outcome of this first-ever game between TCU and Louisiana was determined
early.
The Horned Frogs scored on their opening four possessions, as TCU scored for the 407th consecutive game, the second-longest streak in NCAA history. No. 1 is Florida at 461 games (1988-present). The Horned Frogs haven't been blanked since Novemer 16, 1991, at Texas (32-0).
Louisiana allowed an opening drive touchdown for the first time in four games, dating back to November 16 against South Alabama. That was also the last time Louisiana allowed back-to-back touchdowns to open a game.
TCU's opening-drive touchdown, on a three-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Josh Hoover to junior tight end DJ Rogers, marked the sixth straight game in which the Horned Frogs scored on their opening possession, dating back to October 26 (five touchdowns and one field goal).
TCU’s lead against Louisiana was 27-0 at halftime, as the Horned Frogs dominated offensively and defensively in their first game in Albuquerque since the 2010 regular-season finale. In that game, TCU, which then was in the Mountain West Conference, defeated New Mexico 66-17 to clinch an appearance in the Rose Bowl. The Horned Frogs defeated Wisconsin, 21-19, in Pasadena, California, to complete a 13-0 season, with a No. 2 final Associated Press ranking.
The 27-0 halftime score was only the second opening-half shutout in Isleta New Mexico Bowl history.
The last time the Ragin' Cajuns were shutout in the first half was on September 10, 2022, against Eastern Michigan, in a game that Louisiana eventually won 49-21.
In the second half, the Ragin’ Cajuns avoided being shut out by the Frogs when Lou Groza Award-winner Kenneth Almendares converted a 24-yard field goal attempt.
TCU scored 34 or more points for the 10th time this season. It entered the game tied for second-most times with 34 points in the nation.
The 34 points were the most allowed by Louisiana since the Cajuns beat Wake Forest 41-38 on September 28, 2024.
Against an undersized Louisiana defense, TCU racked up 367 yards of offense; 257 passing yards and 110 rushing yards.
Hoover set TCU’s single-season passing record with a 20-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver JP Richardson with 57 seconds left in the first half.
Hoover ended the 2024 season with 3,949 passing yards, breaking TCU’s season record of 3,901 yards that was set by Trevone Boykin in 2014.
Against the Cajuns, Hover completed 20-of-32 passes for 252 yards and had his ninth multi-touchdown passing game of the sason. He tied a career-high with four touchdown passes, set previously on three occasions. He threw one interception and was sacked twice.
In one stretch of the game, Hoover completed 12 straight passes, tying for TCU’s fifth-longest streak in a game.
For the season, Hoover threw 27 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. The 27 touchdown passes tie Andy Dalton (2010) for fourth on TCU’s season list.
Hoover was named the game’s Most Valuable Offensive Player.
Offensively, TCU was missing its leading receiver, Jack Bech, and its fourth-leading receiver, Savion Williams, because of injuries. The Frogs also were missing running backs Cam Cook and Dominique Johnson, backup quarterback Hauss Hejny and offensive lineman James Brockermeyer, who entered the transfer portal.
This season, Bech, an Honorable-Mention All-American by Phil Steele, became the fifth player in TCU history to record a 1,000-yard receiving season. His 1,034 yards place fourth at TCU, trailing only first-round NFL Draft picks Josh Doctson (1,327, 2015), Quentin Johnston (1,069, 2022) and Jalen Reagor (1,061, 2018). Bech's nine touchdown catches and 62 receptions rank fifth and seventh, respectively, and were the most by a Horned Frog since Reagor's 72 grabs and nine scores in 2018.
Bech was one of five Power Four Conference players to reach 200 receiving yards in a game this season when he had a career-best 200 yards on nine catches against UCF.
Unfortunately, Bech's older brother, Tiger Bech was one the nearly dozen people who died as a result of a suspect purposely driving a truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, early in the morning of New Year's Day.
Against Louisiana, TCU junior wide receiver Eric McAlister made up for Williams' and Bech's abscences. He had a team-best eight
receptions for 87 yards, including a one-yard touchdown, in the first half. His eight catches were one shy of TCU’s bowl record of nine by Shaun Nixon in the 2016 Alamo
Bowl against Oregon.
Six of McAlister’s eight receptions went for first downs. For players with
at least 20 receptions, he leads the nation with 90.2 percent (37-of-41) of his
catches going for first downs.
TCU senior wide receiver JP Richardson had five receptions
for 53 yards and a touchdown to extend his streak with a
catch to 40 consecutive games, including all 25 of his contests as a Horned
Frog. Entering the game, the streak tied for sixth-longest in the nation.
Rogers’ three-yard touchdown reception was his second receiving score of the
season and third of his career.
Senior tight end Drake Dabney had a season-best 73 yards receiving on three catches. Included in his total was a season-long 44-yard reception.
TCU’s ground game was led by junior running back Trent Battle, who rushed nine times for 42 yards.
Freshmen running backs Jeremy Payne and Nate Palmer had 33 and 30 rushing
yards, respectively.
Senior wide receiver Blake Nowell made his first career start and had a
20-yard touchdown catch.
Freshman kicker Kyle Lemmermann had field goals of 45 and 22 yards to make
him 15-of-22 on the season.
Defensively, the Horned Frogs held the Ragin’ Cajuns to 209 yards of offense;
114 rushing yards and 95 passing yards. The 209 yards were the least yards of
offense n a game this season for Louisiana.
Louisiana managed only 13 first downs and converted only five-of-14 third-down opportunities.
The Horned Frogs improved to 9-0 under Dykes when allowing fewer than 300 yards of offense.
Louisiana senior quarterback Ben Wooldridge played for the first time since mid-November because of a collarbone injury. He completed seven-of-20 passes for 61 yards. He was intercepted once and sacked three times.
Two other Ragin’ Cajun quarterbacks combined to complete four-of-six passes for 34 yards and one interception.
Louisiana’s leading rusher was Zylan Perry, who ran 11 times for 49 yards.
Tylon Citizen ran four times for 43 yards, including a long run of 36 yards late in the game.
TCU junior linebacker Devean Deal was named the game’s Most Valuable Defensive Player.
Deal had a sack to give him a team-best 5.5 sacks on the season. Against
Louisiana, he had 1.5 tackles for loss among his five tackles.
Junior linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr totaled a team-best eight tackles, including
2.5 for loss and his second sack of the season.
Senior defensive lineman NaNa Osafo-Mensah had a tackle for loss and a stop for
no gain. He finished with 1.5 tackles for loss.
Senior safety Cam Smith made his first TCU start and had his first
interception as a Horned Frog and fourth of his career (he is a transfer from
the University of Memphis). He also took part in a tackle for loss.
Junior safety Austin Jordan, who is a transfer from the University of Texas, recorded his
first collegiate sack.
Redshirt freshman safety Jordan Lester had his first career interception.
Senior cornerback LaMareon James, who is a transfer from Old Dominion, had three pass breakups in the game, which is a record for the Isleta New Mexico Bowl. James had 14 pass breakups for the season, tying for the second-most in the last 11 seasons at TCU.
- TCU-Louisiana box score: here
- TCU-Louisiana game highlights: here
- TCU head football coach Sony Dykes, quarterback Josh Hoover and defensive lineman Devean Deal discuss the TCU win: here
- Louisiana head coach Michael Desormeaux and Louisiana players Jordan Lawson and Dalen Cambre discuss the loss: here
