TCU 55, Utah 28

All week the Wimple has been at a loss to find a way sum up the game's significance. ESPN deigned to visit the campus; a conference game sold out; the Frogs' BCS ranking was the highest among the non-cartel teams ever; these (and a dozen more) facts pointed at the issue, but somehow fall short of describing it fully.

Perhaps a number will do the trick: 50,307. That's how many tickets TCU sold for this game.

That's over fifty thousand, should your common sense be arguing with you right now. And it's probably somewhere shy of actual attendance, considering how jammed the students (and alums still flashing student IDs at the gate) were on the east side.

No Southwest Conference game ever drew so many; no horde of tea-sippers from Austin, no mob of Arkansas hillbillies or uppity Mustangs, not even any grand gathering of Frog faithful in the good old days ever numbered so many as Saturday's throng, purple-clad almost to a one. The jubilation was well under way when the Wimples (including one fly-in from Alberta, Canada) squeezed in with the students about 90 minutes before kickoff. By the time the clock began counting down 60 minutes to gametime, there were easily more than 25,000 already in place. Many actual games have been seen by fewer fans than this week's warmups, even since the revival.

Coach P said his feet were off the ground by kickoff, it was so loud. The crowd was relatively football savvy, too. Clearly the team was enthused by all of it-- TCU blocked its first punt of the season, and generally was a step ahead of the Utes all night long. Utah tested the Frog secondary early and often, and could connect only a few times, though two consecutive completions midway through the second quarter totaled 90 yards and 6 points. Jordan Wynn was excellent, but totally overmatched. He'll lead a different animal in 2010.

Dalton was good, passing over (and quickly!) an endless litany of blitzes; he put the ball in the wrong place several times, but avoided costly errors, and punished the Utes early and often with good passes, decisions, and running. The Frogs won the battle in the trenches soundly. Turner, Wesley, Tucker, and Dalton combined for 40 carries, 315 yards, 3 running TDs, 0 sacks or QB hurries. Wesley and Tucker will cause many a nightmare for opposing defense coordinators; they were sensational Saturday. (now add to the mix Andre Dean, Waymon James, and maybe Dwight Smith... and weep for the good days ahead!)

In the air, the Frogs had slightly less yards than the Utes; but aside from the two-play 90-yard drive in the second, the Utes were generally one dimensional at best, and often no-dimensional. TCU's defense was simply hellacious, and the coaches didn't let up. Hughes was unrelenting, tallying eight tackles (2.5 of them for losses, and three on one drive), 1.5 sacks and three QB hurries. Tank Carder (who was all grins afterwards) got nine tackles, one for a loss, one INT, one PBU, and one QB hurry. Washington and Griffin was monstrous as well. When the Frogs finally put in their second team D, the Utes were done trying. They ran up the middle, for zero or less yards, giving back the ball, and letting the Frogs take a knee to end the pain.

And then the floodgates opened, for the first time since 1997, but for the totally opposite reason. The fans poured onto the field, and celebrated the victory (ostensibly with the team, but mostly with each other) and chanted "B-C-S" and sang the alma mater as rowdily as humanly possible.








here's ESPN's Saturday preview, filmed from the commons at TCU:



and highlights, via the mtn.:


and the YouTube highlights, from SuperFrog: