AUSTIN, Texas — TCU took the field on Thanksgiving night determined to send a message to the rest of college football.
The sixth-ranked Horned Frogs delivered one with a 48-10 romp over Texas, and the tens of thousands of their fans who stuck around to the end will be happy to keep chanting “T-C-U!” to anyone who may have missed it.
Are you listening, College Football Playoff committee?
Trevone Boykin passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, and TCU’s defense dominated the Longhorns and quarterback Tyrone Swoopes, sending Texas to one of the worst home losses in program history.
The win kept the Horned Frogs (10-1, 7-1) in the hunt for their first Big 12 title. The question is whether it was impressive enough to impact the playoff standings, where they sit at No. 5, one spot out of contention for a national championship.
“You want style points? The style points tonight were defense, turnovers, doing the things you needed to do,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said.
The Horned Frogs forced six turnovers, five by Swoopes, and scored on an early fumble return and a late interception. TCU held Texas (6-6, 5-4) to 290 total yards and made the Longhorns pay for every mistake. Five of Texas’ turnovers set up 24 points for the Horned Frogs.
TCU plays Iowa State, the last-place team in the Big 12, to end the regular season on Dec. 6. The playoff pairings will be announced the next day.
“You know, this team deserves to go home and win a championship,” Patterson said. “We’ve got one more to do it, and I’m very proud of them. I’m finally going to go maybe smile once, but we’ve got to get ready to play Iowa State.”
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less