TCU Horned Frogs @ New Mexico Lobos Football Preview

If you think the Northwestern-Wisconsin game could get ugly, just wait until you plop yourself down in front of a couch, find the Versus cable network, and catch a piece of this Mountain West matchup on Saturday at University Stadium. When the TCU Horned Frogs invade Albuquerque to take on the New Mexico Lobos in the final conference game of the year, a plague could be set in motion. Yes, the frog image could be taken literally… with violent consequences for the poor, homestanding Lobos.

New Mexico enters this game with just one win, and TCU enters with zero losses. This is enough of a recipe for a bloodletting, but then consider that TCU has to try to impress pollsters so it can at least maintain its current position of third place in the BCS standings. TCU is expected to drop behind Boise State – out of automatic Rose Bowl positioning – if the Broncos beat Nevada on Friday and gain strength-of-schedule points with BCS computers. TCU, therefore, is tasked with impressing human voters, much as Wisconsin – forced to beat out Ohio State in the BCS standings despite a head-to-head win – must also do in its game against Northwestern on Nov. 27.

You can see what’s coming.

TCU and coach Gary Patterson never would have wanted to embarrass coach Mike Locksley’s UNM squad, but because of the BCS – a system that forces schools and conferences to cannibalize each other – the Frogs might have to jump all over New Mexico until the very last second ticks off the clock.

> Find a great selection of TCU Horned Frogs apparel & merchandise online as well as the MWC Football Scoreboard!

It’s no joke: TCU can win this game by a score of 98-0 if it really puts mind to matter in Albuquerque. The Frogs are loaded with speed and talent at all the skill positions and have justified their place as a top-four team in the United States. New Mexico, on the other hand, is one of the 10 worst programs in America that doesn’t belong to a bottom-tier FBS conference such as the MAC or the Sun Belt. Among the top eight conferences – the six BCS leagues plus the Mountain West and the WAC – the Lobos are certainly a bottom-10 program. TCU should drill this team, but now, with BCS-fueled artificial pressures being added to the mix, the proceedings could get especially ugly in the Desert Southwest. This is not the way nature intended football to be played, but hey, when you’re dealing with a Biblical kind of plague – a swarm of frogs bathing an enemy city in darkness (and a tsunami of points) – what the heck do you expect?

Brace for the plague, New Mexico. Texas Christian is being forced to do some very bad things on Thanksgiving weekend. Oh, the incongruent and evil irony of it all.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer