TCU Excited to Be in BCS Buster Bowl

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The band started to jam and the crowd was in a frenzy at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum long before the TCU Horned Frogs entered the building and their postseason bowl destination was revealed Sunday night.

Maybe it was a good thing the 3,500 fans who packed half the basketball arena were in pep rally-style full party mode as the school's invitation to the Jan. 4 BCS Fiesta Bowl -- a program first -- was announced. They never heard that the Frogs' opponent is none other than Boise State, marking the first time in BCS history that two non-BCS at-large teams are meeting in what is already being billed as the BCS Buster Bowl in the Phoenix desert.

Some might consider it a slight the two undefeated non-BCS members aren't getting a chance to test their ability against one of the automatic qualifiers. But don't count TCU among that crowd, though the school must now figure how sell 17,500 tickets for a game against another program that lacks a large national following.

The Horned Frogs (12-0) marched through the Mountain West undefeated with a signature win at Clemson, while the Broncos stormed through the WAC undefeated after opening the season with an impressive win over Rose Bowl-bound Oregon.

"We're playing a great team, they're 13-0, they're undefeated," TCU All-American defensive end Jerry Hughes as he took in the atmosphere Sunday night. "So it's going to be a great start for us. It's going to be a four-quarter, hard-fought game. That's something we are excited about and looking forward to."

TCU head coach Gary Patterson certainly wasn't making any waves about the pairing, which is a replay of last year's Poinsettia Bowl.

"My mom and dad always taught me never look a gifted horse in the face," said Patterson, who team defeated Boise State 17-16 last season in the Poinsettia Bowl. "So we are going to get ready to play and get ready to go and play well enough to win a game where we can get ourselves at No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation, which is our goal."

For either TCU or Boise State, to finish No.1 this season would require a split national championship with the Associated Press giving its top spot to a team other than the BCS national champion, which hasn't happened since 2003 when USC split the title. That would also require both No.1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas to play poorly in their BCS national championship matchup at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena Jan. 7.

There is a large contingent, however, that is disappointed the Horned Frogs aren't having a chance to play SEC champion Alabama for the outright national title. For a moment Saturday night, the impossible seemed possible as Nebraska appeared to upset Texas as time expired in the Big 12 Championship Game.
But the official overturned the clock and gave the Longhorns one more second in which they were able to kick the game-winning field goal. That ended any chance the Frogs had of getting to the national title game, though the final regular-season BCS poll results show they would have been disappointed anyways.

With TCU sitting in the final week of the regular season, the undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats pulled off a dramatic come-from-behind win over Pitt that catapulted them from No. 5 to No. 3 in the BCS poll while the Frogs remained at No. 4.

Still, for a brief moment Saturday night the Horned Frogs were able to dream big as they watched the Cornhuskers prematurely celebrate on the field at Cowboys Stadium.

"We had a couple guys at the house, we were freaking out, going crazy," said TCU quarterback Andy Dalton, who quickly snapped back to reality once he saw the officials meeting to discuss the clock. "We knew something was going to be up with that."

Patterson, meanwhile, said the ending was so frustrating he got up to take walk outside barefooted.

"Between Nebraska going ahead by one point and the kick, I didn't say anything," said Patterson, who voted his program No.2 and Alabama No.1 for Sunday's final regular-season USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll. "I got up and walked down the street in my bare feet and it was cold and I didn't even feel it. What else was I going to do? I had that funny feeling when Utah scored in the game a year ago.

"You get so close, yet you are so far away."