TCU Horned Frogs vs UNLV Rebels Football Preview

The way the 2010 college football season ended for the Texas Christian Horned Frogs could be eerily similar to the way the 2011 season concludes. This notion seems impossible on the surface, but reality can throw sharp, breaking curveballs to pigskin pundits and everyone else under the sun. When the 2011 Mountain West Conference champions take the field for their regular-season finale this weekend, they will be brought in touch with a very familiar scenario.

TCU closes out its season by hosting UNLV this Saturday. The Rebels are a team the Horned Frogs have had much success over recently. TCU has won the last four meetings by an average score of 42-7. Since TCU is 9-2 and UNLV is 2-9, all this adds up for a rather uninspiring matchup. Despite that, TCU is playing for quite a bit. A win clinches outright ownership of the Horned Frogs’ third-straight Mountain West Conference championship (the team has already clinched the title, but a loss would enable Boise State to share it with the Frogs). It also keeps 18th-ranked TCU in the hunt for a BCS bowl bid. If TCU can sneak into the top 16 of the BCS standings and Houston loses in the Conference USA Championship Game, TCU would be the highest-ranked conference champion from a non-automatic-qualifying conference, and would therefore get a berth into a BCS bowl, almost assuredly the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

The very fact that TCU needs to move up a few places in the rankings means that TCU needs to win this game big and force voters to take notice. If TCU slogs through a 34-17 win, nobody will be impressed, and the Frogs could get locked out of the BCS pageant in the event of a Houston loss. Therefore, the Frogs are competing against the demon known as “the style-point monster.”

This is a familiar spot, then, for the Frogs and their fans. Last year, TCU closed its season against another bad team, the New Mexico Lobos. While Oregon and Auburn owned leverage in the fight for the BCS National Championship Game, TCU’s only outside chance to crash the party lay in the ability to rack up style points. The Horned Frogs struggled in the first half, however, and didn’t make nearly the impression they needed to make. TCU eventually won the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin, but it never got the chance to play either Oregon or Auburn due to college football’s lack of a plus-one system. At any rate, the need to accumulate style points exists this weekend.

Standing in the way of that style-point possibility is lowly UNLV. The Rebels’ two wins were a surprise; the rest of their slate is a litany of blowout losses. UNLV’s average loss comes by 28 points. It has been a season of growing pains for Bobby Hauck’s Rebels, who rank in the bottom six on offense and defense. Caleb Herring has been benched at times, but remains Hauck’s quarterback, his most recent game a 14-26 effort for 119 yards. Tim Cornett and Dionza Bradford split carries in the backfield, and have combined to rush for 1,250 yards this season.

UNLV’s offensive efforts may be futile, as its struggling defense will have to account for the accuracy of Casey Pachall and the power of the TCU run game. Waymon James, Matthew Tucker, and Ed Wesley have combined to rush for 2,030 yards, giving the Frogs a top-20 rushing offense. Pachall has complemented that well, completing 68 percent of his passes and throwing 24 touchdowns to only six interceptions.

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

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer