TCU Horned Frogs vs San Diego State Aztecs Football Preview

So, as everyone predicted back in August, the last team with a shot at upending the TCU Horned Frogs for the 2010 Mountain West Conference football championship is... the San Diego State Aztecs.

No one thought San Diego State would be the last team left standing other than TCU. The Horned Frogs - purple, passionate and quite potent - were the consensus pick to win the league, but Utah was naturally the team that everyone thought would offer the most resistance to coach Gary Patterson's guys. While it's still likely that Utah will eventually wind up as the second-place team in the Mountain West, the reality at the present moment is simply this: TCU will wrap up the league title with a win on Saturday in the friendly confines of its home ballpark, Amon Carter Stadium. San Diego State, in turn, can prevent that from happening. What's more is that the Aztecs aren't playing to keep Utah alive in the conference race; the boys from Southern California are actually the one team other than TCU which controls its fate in this far-flung league.

Yes, if San Diego State beats TCU and then takes down Utah on Nov. 20, coach Brady Hoke's bunch would be able to win the conference on Nov. 27 against lowly UNLV. The Rebels are the easy part for SDSU, and since Utah is a home game, the Aztecs could very possibly win that confrontation against the same team TCU recently humiliated. It's this fight with the Frogs which is the hardest rock to climb for Hoke's heroes.

TCU is smelling a perfect season and a BCS bowl invite - maybe even a spot in the BCS National Championship Game - so the purple people of Patterson are going to be motivated on Saturday. They have an off week on Nov. 20, so it's not as though they have anything to look ahead to or be distracted by. Perhaps TCU could have a slight-to-moderate hangover effect after the intoxicatingly important and decisive thumping of Utah, but with so much on the line for the Horned Frogs, one shouldn't expect TCU to step off the gas pedal now.

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One thing that's especially worrisome for San Diego State is that TCU quarterback Andy Dalton - markedly inconsistent through the first two months of the season - played his best game of 2010 at Utah, precisely when his teammates needed him to come up big. Dalton shook off his history of main-event nerves and threw darts for big vertical pass plays that rocked Utah's secondary to the core. Dalton comprehensively banished his demons and should be in position to flourish against San Diego State. The Aztecs and defensive coordinator Rocky Long, who knows TCU from his days as the former head coach at New Mexico, will have to produce something special if they want to disrupt Dalton and thwart the Frogs in their Lone Star State lair.

Yes, SDSU running back Ronnie Hillman - the meal ticket for the Aztecs' offense all season long - will need to roll up big numbers and keep TCU's offense off the field, but the Horned Frogs can strike so quickly that San Diego State must devote the bulk of its attention to defense. Without a steady stream of stops, the visitors from the West Coast simply won't be able to keep up. San Diego State needs to shorten this game, of course, but it also must be Long - Rocky Long - on defensive quality if it's going to create a stunner that will reverberate through the rest of the college football cosmos and change the dynamics of the Mountain West Conference race.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer