Some young people may not be acquainted with it, nevertheless Davey OBrien isnt just the name of the trophy given every year to the finest college quarterback.
He was in fact a living, breathing football player and was one of the best in his class. Alongside with Slingin Sammy Baugh, OBrien helped bring Texas Christian University one of its two national championships in school history.
That was over 70 years ago. With the present BCS system, that is going to be a hard feat to duplicate. Nevertheless, if there was ever a chance to get close to repeating history, the time is now.
The Horned Frogs, led by trainer Gary Patterson, whom many around football call a defensive genius, are 9-0 this season and face Utah in what is the biggest game since those previous legends roamed the gridiron in the old Southwest Conference.
The Frogs having only lost two games in their preceding 25 are one of the most up-to-date teams in football. One of those two losses came against their Mountain West rival Utah.
If the Frogs, the 4th ranked team in the BCS, want to keep their slim national title hopes alive, they will have to eliminate the demons of a year ago, when their flawless season was derailed by the Utes. Not only this is a ideal season at wager but also is the prospect to play in a BCS Bowl game, the monetary ramifications of which are huge.
Previous season the Frogs played in the Poinsettia Bowl, a game that earned them $750 thousand and if they were to make it to a BCS Bowl game, the payment would be 20 times that much, anywhere in the $17 million range.
Nevertheless there is a lot more at stake than money here. There is gratification, there is excellence, and there is history. As the Frogs try and match the 1938 team, the only one in school history that did not lose or tie a single game. (If the Frogs get past the Utes, they will play a sub-.500 Wyoming team and a winless New Mexico squad.)
“Our critical goal is to end the season ,” TCU quarterback Andy Dalton said. “We have a lot of potential on the contrary we have to keep going out and playing like this.”
The Frogs know they will have their hands jam-packed with a Utah team that went on to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl previous year after devastating TCUs season. The 16th ranked Utes may be out of BCS contention, nevertheless if they beat the Frogs, they will likely accomplish another conference championship and position themselves for a top 10 finish. So Utah will definitely not be expected to roll over.
And unlike many teams in the Big 12 conference that surrounds them, the Frogs fate lies in the hands of their vaunted defense, led by Patterson on the sidelines and All-American defensive end
Jerry Hughes, a previous high school running back whom Patterson converted to resistance.
The Frogs may not get the headlines that Alabama and Texas get when it comes to resistance, nevertheless their squad is equally impressive. The Killer Frogs, who will be playing with special helmets that figure a blood rain stain running down the center stripe Saturday night, rank third nationally, allowing less than 250 yards per game. They have also been extremely stingy of late, only giving up 25 points in their preceding four games.
While their defense gets most of the acknowledgment, however, the Frogs, led by the dual-threat Dalton have averaged 460 yards on offense, a stat not lost on Utah Kyle Whittingham.
“If you look at the stats, they are at or are near the top in all three phases of the game,” Whittingham said. Whittingham also mentioned that “coach Patterson has done a significant job assembling talent and I think they do a significant job coaching them. There is no question that this is the best football team we have faced from them to this point.”
Although not receiving as much notice as they did a year ago, the Utes are well set to pose a threat to the Frogs. Since their only loss of the season at an exciting Oregon the Utes have held every challenger to under 20 points, so you can look forward to a low scoring affair in Ft. Worth.
However the Utes will have the handicap of starting quarterback Jordan Wynn for only the second time. While he looked impressive against New Mexico preceding week, the Frogs have a polar opposite record of the Lobos and the crowd will be a completely different story. The Frogs have sold out Amon G. Carter stadium for only the second moment in the past 25 years, back when Eric Dickerson and the Pony Express used to make expected visits.
The fans and alumni, often distracted by the neighboring Dallas Cowboys, know that this year is different. And with a triumph Saturday night, history could have a possibility of repeating itself.
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Written by Greg Michaels
