TCU 55 Utah 28

I realize I haven't been writing as much as I had been in the past. There a myriad of reasons why, but it'd be a mistake not to take a few minutes to discuss the Mighty, Mighty Horned Frogs. After all, take a look at the layout of the blog itself.

And let's not forget that I started this blog after TCU's bowl game last year. If I'm the father of Crocodile Hunting, there's a good chance that TCU is the mother. Nah, that doesn't sound right.

Anyway, the Frogs have been doing great this season. As of right now, they're 10-0 and ranked #4 in the nation. All that stands between the Frogs and the BCS are two games. The hardest game will be a trip to Laramie, Wyoming with a date with the Cowboys. It will be cold, but according to the forecast, it will not snow. And if they can take care of business there, the final test would be against (currently) winless New Mexico.

But let's not talk about the future; I'll let Gary worry about that. Let's talk about an extraordinary day. Or GameDay, should I say?

With Northwestern's win over Iowa, ESPN decided to come to Fort Worth with their epic show, College GameDay. And as soon as we knew they were coming, every Horned Frog started preparing for it. Facebook was full of messages, and it was obvious that everyone was struggling to get through the week and make it to Saturday.

Since we wanted to get there early, we decided to leave Friday and spend the night with Tim. "Happy" Matt Turner also drove up from San Antonio to join us, and we got out to campus around 7am.

7am is right. Keep in mind that, on work days, I wake up at 7:15am. And I was sitting in a crowd in TCU's beautiful new quad at 7:00am on a Saturday morning. It was surreal.

When the show finally started, the hosts kept saying how impressed they were with the Frogs' showing. There were a whole lot of people there, most of them supporting TCU. And for every three people, there seemed to be a sign. When we watched the replay, we couldn't believe how many signs were made.

I must say that we considered making signs but never did. We went as far as to buy foam board, but we couldn't get a workable pole. And it wouldn't have mattered because we were far back enough that our signs wouldn't have been on TV.

And it was so amazing that TCU has that kind of support. It was nothing, however, to the stadium atmosphere when the game finally arrived. I've never seen the stadium that full, and it was utterly incredible to hear that crowd. There was a chant, early in the game, where half the stadium screamed "go" and the other half screamed "Frogs"

And 50,000 people, speaking as one, sounded as clear as day. It was just really cool.

The game started, and the Frogs jumped out to a huge lead. Seconds later, they recovered a fumble. Even after a Utah score, the Frogs eventually took a 35-7 lead.

Let me paint the picture of the stadium. We were towards the top of the student section, and the entire area was crammed with students. We were actually standing diagonally for most of the game, trying to take up as little area as possible.

But when Tank Carder picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown, the stadium just went crazy. They played a video that encouraged fans to get up and jump around, and the students did just that. And most of these guys had been drinking all day, since 7am, and they weren't great at it. There were a couple times when I feared that a TCU student avalanche was going to start, but it never really happened.

And TCU just kept scoring. We were up 38-14 at the half, and I was actually a bit disappointed. We missed a field goal where we could've scored a touchdown, and we threw an interception inside the red zone. And one of Utah's two touchdowns was scored on a drive that basically consisted of two Hail Marys.

It's a good sign for TCU when its fans are a little disappointed to be up 24 points at the half against the #16 ranked team in the nation.

By the end of the game, TCU won 55-28. And even though it was the biggest win that I'd ever experienced at the school, I didn't really think about charging the field. I mean, the game was basically decided in the second quarter, and we were just waiting for the game to end so that we could celebrate.

But then Ashley told me that Gary wanted the fans to charge the field to celebrate with the team. And that's really all he needed to say - I'm willing to do quite a bit for Gary Patterson, and I obliged.

And standing there, on the field after a huge win, it was just incredible. Little TCU has a chance to go to a BCS bowl, and there's even an outside chance at the national championship game. There's still work to be done, but they're so close that I can smell it.

It's just a fantastic time to be a Horned Frog, and I couldn't be more proud of my team.