TCU, LSU headline Week 14 roster
Friday night’s loss to No. 4 seed Southern California to No. 12 Utah put No. 5 Ohio State back into the College Football Playoff mix. As of Saturday afternoon, No. 6 Alabama is back in the playoff debate as No. 10 Kansas State threatens to expand to an already double-digit lead in the Big 12 championship game against No. 3 TCU.
But this is TCU, and one thing we learned during this wildly unpredictable march toward an unbeaten season is not to count Max Duggan and the Horned Frogs.
By reversing a 21-10 Kansas State lead in the third quarter and forcing TCU to do just enough to put away the Crimson Tide and stay part of the playoff game. The 31-28 loss still makes for an exhausting wait through Sunday morning as the Horned Frogs prepare for a head-to-head comparison with the Crimson Tide.
The Horned Frogs storming again is par for the course during the most memorable regular season in program history. Only once since the second week of October have the Frogs cruised to victory, last week’s 62-14 game against Iowa State.
The story of the year was close calls: TCU won five games by possession, recently beat Baylor 29-28 with a last-second field goal, and defeated seven Big 12 opponents by an average margin of 6.9 points.
Follow every match: Live NCAA College Football Scores
Uncomfortable feeling:The fate of the TCU match is in the commission’s hands after the loss
The door is now open:USC’s shocking loss to Utah creates chaos
slight tides:Sorry, Alabama, there is only fake drama about this year’s stadium
An overtime loss could give Duggan the edge over Caleb Williams in the Heisman Trophy race. He finished with 251 passing yards, 110 rushing yards and two scores, and led one of the most memorable drives in program history, an 80-yard career that lasted three minutes to hold the game at 28-28 with under two minutes remaining.
While Alabama and the SEC will defend the Crimson Tide, the Frogs’ overtime loss to one of the best teams in the country–a team they beat earlier in the regular season–should restore some calm and clarity to a race that threatened to turn into Complete chaos on the cusp of the final standings.
If it’s not officially left out of contention — as it has been predicted dozens of times since a November loss to No. 13 LSU — Alabama still doesn’t have the resume to match TCU, which wins the argument across four important categories:
More victories. Alabama has seven Power Five wins in rivalry to The Horned Frogs ’10.
Better wins. The Tide’s five wins against opponents qualified for the tournament. TCU has eight.
Stronger wins. Perhaps Alabama’s best win is against Texas, besting Mississippi and No. 25 Mississippi State. They topped that off with the Frogs’ victory over Kansas State.
Texas win. Comparison of joint opponent No. 21, Texas, reflects well for TCU. Neither team dominated, but Alabama got away with a 20-19 victory over the Longhorns, who needed to rely on Hudson’s backup card. TCU beat Texas 17-10 thanks to a meaningless Longhorns touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The discussion about the fourth playoff team should instead focus on USC and OSU, with the Buckeyes poised to enter the semifinals for a potential rematch with third seed Michigan as the third seed. But the committee was given the option of reevaluating Alabama as an option. Anything and everything is possible once the Crimson Tide enters this conversation.
The Horned Frogs and Wildcats are front and center as the eventual winners and losers of the regular season:
winners
Michigan
No. 2 Michigan will cruise to the playoff as the second seed after dismantling Purdue in the Big Ten Championship game. Without holding back Blake Corum, who was out for the rest of the year with an injury, the Wolverines leaned on Donovan Edwards, who ran for 185 yards and a score after setting a new career high with 216 yards in the win against No. 5 Ohio State. The 43-22 win also included a solid but not amazing game from JJ McCarthy: 11 completions on 17 throws for 161 yards and three touchdowns. For the first time since 2003-2004, back-to-back Big Ten champions Michigan entered the new stratosphere under head coach Jim Harbaugh and should be seen as Georgia’s greatest threat to the national championship.
Kansas State
The Wildcats’ first conference championship since 2013 sets the table for greater success in the future under head coach Chris Kleiman. Buoyed by sectional linebacker Will Howard, who went undefeated as a starter after replacing Adrian Martinez in November, Kansas State will finish in the top seven or eight in playoffs after avenging a loss earlier this year to TCU. Ultimately, the Wildcats were held out of playoff contention due to a 17-10 loss to No. 18 Tulane while playing non-conference.
Tulane
Green Wave heads into the Cotton Bowl after defeating No. 23 Central Florida 45-28 to complete a remarkable turnaround and win the All-American Sports Championship. After winning just two games in 2021, Tulane has only lost twice during the regular season: via a field goal to Southern Mississippi and a touchdown to UCF. In addition to wins over Kansas State and the Knights, the Green Wave added wins over five more teams in Houston, East Carolina, Memphis, SMU, and Cincinnati. This success made head coach Willie Fritz one of the top contenders for the Georgia Tech job, which eventually went to interim head coach Brent Key. Keeping Fritz on the sidelines is a huge win for Tulane.
Troy
Another year, Troy might have been the G-5 representative at New Year’s Six. The Trojans would settle into one of the best years during the program’s Bowl Subdivision existence after vaulting past Coastal Carolina 45-26 for the Sun Belt championship. While Troy shared the conference crown in 2010 and 2017, this is a first for the Trojans since the 2009 team ran the table in league play. At 11-2, Troy should make the back end of the final playoff standings and be the second-best team in the G-5 behind Tulane.
New Mexico State
Bowl qualification before Saturday thanks to an NCAA waiver granted earlier this week, the Aggies completed an impressive six-win finish under new head coach Jerry Keel by defeating Valparaiso 65-3 in the rescheduled season finale. Bowl games are rare: New Mexico State has only played in four games, and most recently won the 2017 Arizona Bowl. So are six-win seasons, something the Aggies have now only done six times since 1968.
losers
LSU
All intrigue surrounding the SEC Championship Game was erased by the Tigers’ loss this past Saturday to Texas A&M, leaving No. 1 Georgia firmly in the playoff, win-or-lose and LSU vying for the New Year’s Six Championship, not the Top Four. Playing for the seed and a chance to avoid another Championship Game loss, the Bulldogs came out to a 35-7 lead in the second quarter and cruised to a 50-30 victory. The program’s second SEC crown under Kirby Smart would leave Georgia as the top seed in the playoffs and knock LSU out of a major bowl game, potentially sending the Tigers to the Citrus Bowl.
North Carolina
Once on the sidelines in the playoff race at 9-1, North Carolina would falter and fall into the postseason on a three-game losing streak, the latest being a 39-10 decision against No. 11 Clemson in the ACC Championship game. Back in the game for the first time since 2015, another loss to the Tigers, the Tar Heels haven’t won an ACC title since 1980. In addition to sending Clemson back to the New Year’s Six championship game, the game was notable for Dabo Swinney changing quarterback from a struggling DJ Uiagalelei to real student Kid Klopnik. Stepping up for Uiagalelei after only five pass attempts, Klubnik completed 20 of 24 attempts for 279 yards and had two touchdowns, one of them on the ground. UNC freshman Drake May threw two interceptions, giving him four against one touchdown during this three-game losing streak.
Clemson
Klopnik has been so dominant, in fact, that he raises the question of whether Sweeney’s quarterback change was too late after a week. If he’s under center against South Carolina, does Klopnik mean the difference in a one-point loss? And if the Tigers beat the Gamecocks, will they be in the playoffs instead of Ohio State? The move to Klopnik brought Clemson’s lead to AC Championship and sets the table for a return to more consistent quarterback play. But the Tigers could have used Klopnik before Saturday.
Boise State
A conference championship drought hit the Broncos three years after they lost 28-16 to Fresno State in the Mountain West championship game. This marked a very disappointing end to a regular season that was saved with seven wins in eight games after a rocky start in September. On the heels of a solid run as a Broncos starter after taking over in October, quarterback Taylen Green completed just 17 of 38 runs for 175 yards and two interceptions as Boise State snubbed a running game averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Fresno State was no better with 245 yards of offense, but the Bulldogs scored on a punt return in the first quarter and got an 87-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Ohio
The best team in the MAC since conference play began in October, the Bobcats could not survive the absence of quarterback Curtis Roarke and lost 17-7 to Toledo in the conference championship game. Since late November with a season-ending injury, Rourke has led the MAC in every important category: completion percentage, yards, yards per attempt, touchdowns and efficiency rating. His replacement, CJ Harris, managed 163 yards and an interception as the Rockets captured their second conference championship under head coach Jason Candle. The long drought continues for Ohio State, which has won five divisional crowns since 2006 but hasn’t won a MAC title since 1968.
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