When agitated, the horned frog can shoot venom from its eyes a shocking distance. Well, in the world of college football, some Horned Frogs are making a shocking statement of their own, with an undefeated record as their antidote-less poison. That’s right, I’m talking about the real story of college football: Conference USA’s Texas Christian University.
This ragtag crew from Fort Worth enter this Thursday’s contest against Southern Mississippi with a 10-0 record, two wins away from an undefeated regular season and a likely Bowl Championship Series berth. Should the team succeed where 2002’s Tulane and this year’s Northern Illinois and Bowling Green failed, it may break the immense barriers to entry established by the five major conferences who have monopolized BCS bowls since the system’s inception.
TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson is painting a Picasso with a pencil, molding a team with modest talent into an unbeatable juggernaut. The team has overcome myriad adversity to win close games throughout the season. When their original starting quarterback, Tye Gunn, went down, Brandon Hassell stepped in, and has led the team to six wins as a starter himself. Hassell has passed accurately and run for a number of touchdowns, bringing a new facet to Patterson’s already varied playbook. Robert Merrill has had a great season at running back, helping TCU fans forget about former Frog-turned-San Diego Charger LaDanian Tomlinson. If the Frogs can manage to top the Golden Eagles, they will lock up the CUSA title and all but ensure a perfect season by closing against hapless crosstown rival Southern Methodist University.
TCU is clearly the most compelling Cinderella story in recent college football history. A berth in the BCS by the undefeated Frogs would help salve the wounds of some who have accused the system for discriminating against smaller schools who play outside the major conferences. Or will it? TCU currently sits eighth in the standings, and will need to elevate their status to sixth in order to ensure a berth to one of the nation’s top four bowls.
Should they close the job, they could be even more problematic to the established rank-and-file. Oklahoma is the only other undefeated team in the country, and barring a miracle will finish the regular season undefeated as well. If they lose in the Sugar Bowl, this year’s national championship game, a Horned Frog victory over another top opponent in the Orange or Fiesta Bowl would make a strong case for the team’s superiority. It’s not that far a stretch. Sure, Oklahoma has seemed absolutely unbeatable, but it’s a long season. Everyone thought the Fiesta between Miami and OSU in last year’s title game would be a joke, and look how it turned out.
So, like all good fairy tales, there is a moral to this story…wait, that is the moral, this isn’t a fairy tale! The Frogs are for real, and the BCS better get used to it, or it will be ignoring the best story of its tenure, and prove all of its critics were right the whole time: the system sucks and it needs to be dismantled. If a room full of monkeys can eventually type a Shakespeare, a mid-major team may eventually hoist the Sears Championship Trophy, and the big-money conferences will just have to suck it up. That’s my line, and I’m stickin’ to it. If the Horney Toads can’t go bowling, then nobody should!
