FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -The scenes are still vivid in the minds of TCU players and coaches – Utah fans storming the field to celebrate a thrilling comeback, the tears in the locker room and the deadly silent flight home.
“I had never been in a locker room with 100 people that have tears in their eyes,” coach Gary Patterson said, recalling the aftermath of TCU’s last loss. “That’s where you want to get your program to, is when you are playing this kind of game, if you don’t get it done, it hurts.”
Because of where the fourth-ranked Horned Frogs (9-0, 5-0 Mountain West) have gone since that loss, the hurt would be exponentially worse if it happens again Saturday night against No. 16 Utah (8-1, 5-0). It’s the biggest game on the TCU campus in 25 years.
come a national championship contender. They have their highest AP ranking since 1956 and are fourth in the BCS standings, the highest a team from a conference without an automatic bid has reached.
“Our destiny is in our hands,” defensive end Jerry Hughes said.
TCU has won 11 consecutive games since the 13-10 loss in Utah last November, when the Utes were outgained 416 yards to 275 and trailed 10-0 before driving 80 yards for the winning touchdown in the final minute after the Frogs missed two field goals in the fourth quarter.
Utah, the original BCS buster five years ago, then clinched the Mountain West title and completed an undefeated season with a Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama while being the first outsider to twice play in one of the big-money games.
The Utes’ BCS chances this season took an early hit with a loss at Oregon, but they have since won six in a row.
“The championship trophy is in this building and somebody’s got to take that away from us,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said this week. “The first thing we tell our guys, ‘TCU is a very good football team. We respect them. They’re hitting in all phases.’ The bottom line is we’ve played some good football this year as well.”
While listed as a nearly three-touchdown underdog, the Utes aren’t intimidated by TCU. And for good reason.
somebody proves it otherwise,” receiver Jereme Brooks said. “It’s great. I like being the underdog.”
Utah was the last visiting team to win at Amon Carter Stadium, 27-20 two years ago before TCU’s current 12-game home winning streak. But it was also there in 2005 that the Utes had an 18-game winning streak snapped in an overtime loss.
This is the biggest home game for the Frogs since they were No. 12 for a 1984 game against 10th-ranked Texas, and the first sellout since hosting Big 12 foe Texas Tech three years ago. It is the highest TCU has been ranked for a home game since being No. 1 during its undefeated 1938 national championship season with quarterback Davey O’Brien.
“All that stuff is great for the fans, great for alumni, our students, faculty and everybody us. For us, we have to focus in on the people that wear the red and black (Utah),” Patterson said. “If we don’t get it done, everybody will forget about it. … The only way we have a good time is W-I-N, that’s how you spell it.”
Since a 20-17 victory at Air Force on a bitterly cold night in its Mountain West opener, TCU has been on a roll. The Frogs have outscored their last four opponents 178-25, including 38-7 at BYU, while allowing only two touchdowns .
That helped bolster TCU from an initial BCS ranking of eighth in mid-October, bypassing Boise State and moving in behind Florida, Alabama and Texas.
ain West with 37 points a game and matches BYU with a league-high 459 yards a game. Combine that with a defense that leads the league and is top-five nationally allowing 241 yards and 11 points per game, and it’s clear to see why the Frogs are one of the nation’s best teams.
Utah found a new spark in freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn, who in his first start last week hit 18 of 28 passes for 297 yards and two touchdowns at New Mexico. He was even able to rest in the fourth quarter of Utah’s best offensive showing this season, 557 total yards and 45 points.
“I think we helped ourselves with what we did,” Whittingham said. “Hopefully all those changes are going to help us continue to head in the right direction.”
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