TCU falls just short – and now the Horned Frogs must wait

ARLINGTON, Texas – They played the college football version of the World Cup on Saturday. Like France and Brazil, No. 3 TCU lost in the group stage and looks as if it will advance to the knockout stage anyway, and the Horned Frogs didn’t even have to go to Qatar to do it. They did so 18 miles east of campus in AT&T Stadium.

It stands to reason that if the College Football Playoff Selection Committee invites TCU on Sunday, then the sting of this 31-28 overtime loss to No. 10 Kansas State will recede. That’s the way we playoff obsessives think, anyway.

Try telling that to TCU quarterback Max Duggan, who, nearly an hour after the game, cried, sobbed, sniffled and sleeve-wiped his way through a news conference trying to describe what it felt like to fall an inch short of delivering a Big 12 championship.

An inch. That’s all it was. In the top half of the first overtime, Duggan got the Horned Frogs to third down inside the 1. They lined up in goal-line offense on two plays, Duggan uncharacteristically under center with two backs lined behind him. Twice Kendre Miller (17 carries, 82 yards) failed to make it to the line of scrimmage without being hit, and twice he failed to score.

“You get fourth and less than a yard, you got to figure out a way to get the ball in the end zone,” an equally disconsolate, if dry-eyed, TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “ … It’s something that obviously we spend a lot of time on and something we obviously need to get better on. If you ask me what this team needs to improve, we need to improve our short-yardage (offense).”

Six plays later, the Wildcats’ Ty Zentner kicked a 31-yard field goal to break the heart of Duggan and a lot of his teammates.

“There’s nothing more I wanted than to bring this school a championship,” Duggan said, gulping in air as the tears flowed. “Today we fell short. I didn’t make enough plays to help us offensively to kind of put us in that spot.”

It’s easy to forget that these nationally known, and in some cases, now well-compensated, athletes aren’t grown-ups yet.

Duggan missed a wide-open Taye Barber in the second quarter on a deep throw he has made in his sleep all season. He short-armed an 8-yard interception intended for Quentin Johnston in the Kansas State end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Horned Frogs gave away the ball twice and forced only one turnover in return, the first game this season they finished in the red in turnover margin.

TCU came into the game having scored on 84 percent of its red zone trips, and went 3-of-5 Saturday, and that’s before the Horned Frogs whiffed in overtime.

But if you want to justify a vote for Duggan as the Heisman Trophy winner, consider that he accounted for 361 yards of total offense as he didn’t play his best.

Consider that, with TCU trailing 28-20 in the last five minutes of the game, Duggan ran the ball six times for 95 yards on a game-tying, 80-yard touchdown drive – the discrepancy caused by an iffy offensive pass interference call on Jordan Hudson that negated a 38-yard touchdown pass – that he finished off by barreling into the end zone from 8 yards out with 1:51 to play. Duggan then flipped a pass to Jared Wiley for the tying two-point conversion.

Of the six runs, Dykes said, “Probably three were called and probably three were improvised.”

Dykes spoke of his quarterback with a bit of wonder in his voice, as he has all season, a season that began with Duggan as the second-teamer in the opening game. You can count the number of Heisman finalists, much less winners, who began the season holding a clipboard on one hand and still have enough fingers to smack your head.

“His performance has been gritty week after week after week,” Dykes said of Duggan. “He does what he has to do to give us a chance to win.”

After that touchdown drive, momentum – the Horned Frogs’ best tool in a season chock-full of comeback victories – appeared to be suited up in a purple jersey again. Momentum proved to be no match for Kansas State’s defensive front. The Wildcats won their first Big 12 championship in 10 years. They will go to the Sugar Bowl, probably to play an Alabama team that will be disappointed to be there.

TCU awaits its fate. Dykes made his pitch to the committee, meeting a few miles away from Jerry World. “I don’t think we should be penalized for coming to the Big 12 Championship Game,” Dykes said. “I don’t think conference championships are designed to punish teams. We were (number) three last week. I hope we stay three, tee it up and see what we can do.”

The penalty that the Horned Frogs receive may be dropping to No. 4 and having to play No. 1 Georgia in Atlanta instead of No. 2 Michigan in Arizona. TCU didn’t do anything Saturday to fall in the rankings, but the Horned Frogs no longer control their destiny. They gave that up when they didn’t punch the ball into the end zone.

Maybe in a day or two, Duggan will realize that five years ago, Alabama failed to win a conference championship and won the national championship anyway, or that Georgia did the same thing last season. That might salve his wounded spirit.

Judging by the red that rimmed Duggan’s eyes Saturday afternoon, that realization can’t come soon enough.