Texas Tech at TCU tops best games of 2012 in FW/d

The one thing we can never get enough of is lists. A list of our favorite songs. The best Nicholas Sparks novels. The top 10 Rocky movies.

The end of the year brings the trite, mail-it-end look back at the year that was. Because The Big Mac Blog loves cliches as much as the next, here is a look at the best games of the year. I tried to spread the wealth ...

1. Texas Tech 56, TCU 53 (3 ot); Oct. 20, 2012.
Hands down the most entertaining game of the Big 12 season. 
In TCU's first year of the Big 12, the Frogs led Tech by five in the fourth quarter before the Red Raiders rallied to take a 10-point lead with 4:06 remaining.
TCU managed to tie the game with 18 seconds lef that set up one of the more entertaining series of overtimes you could watch.

2. Cowboys 27, Steelers 24 (ot); Dec. 16, 2012.
Tony Romo played one of the best games of his career as the Cowboys rallied to win a game they trailed by seven points in the fourth quarter.
Romo passed for 341 yards and two touchdowns, one to the busted-fingered Dez Bryant.
The Steelers weren't as good as advertised but this was a highly entertaining game and offered the Cowboys at their best. 

3. Texas Rangers 11, LA Angels 10, (10 innings); Aug. 1, 2012
The Angels led 7-1 after four innings. The Rangers scored four in the fifth, and runs in the eighth and the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Angels scored three times in the top of the 10th, but the Rangers scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, the final two on an Elvis Andrus single.

4. Texas Rangers 10, Baltimore Orioles 3; May 9, 2012
Josh Hamilton hit four home runs. 

5. DeSoto 49, Southlake Carroll 45; Dec. 8, 2012.
In the 5A quarterfinals, DeSoto trailed by 18 points in the first half before taking the lead. Carroll QB Kenny Hill was stopped on consecutive running plays from the 1-yard line, the final as time expired.  

6. TCU 20, Texas 13; Nov. 22, 2012.
Easily the biggest win of the year for TCU as the Frogs won on Thanksgiving night in Austin. The Frogs forced four turnovers, including the game-clinching pick by Sam Carter with less than two minutes remaining.

7. Oklahoma 63, Texas 21; Oct. 13, 2012.
The game was boring as hell but there was so much comedy and amazement to watch Bob Stoops' Sooners put yet another nasty beatdown on Mack Brown's Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl. It truly was watching a train wreck.

8. Dallas Mavericks 101, San Antonio Spurs 100 (ot); Jan. 29, 2012
This was before the Mavericks completely crashed in the playoffs and was Jason Terry at his best. He hit a 15-foot game-tying shot to tie the game with 1 second remaining and send the game into OT. Terry finished with 34 points.

9. Dallas Stars 3, Vancouver Canucks 2 (ot); Feb. 26, 2012
Before the Stars fell apart to miss the playoffs yet again, they rallied for this impressive win against a good Canucks team. The Stars were down 2-1 with less than one minute remaining before Mike Ribeiro scored to tie the game. In overtime, Loui Eriksson scored the game winner.

10. Cowboys 24, NY Giants 17; Sept. 5, 2012
In the NFL season opener, the Cowboys defeated the defending Super Bowl champions in what would be arguably their most complete win of the season.
Romo threw for 307 yards with three touchdowns; Kevin Ogletree caught eight passes for 114 yards with two TDs; DeMarco Murray rushed for 131 yards.

 

 

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Another crack: Highly ranked recruit switches from Texas to TCU

This has probably happened before but the timing can't be a coincidence: A few weeks after TCU went into to Austin and defeated the Texas Longhorns a high school recruit changed his mind.

Arlington Martin senior running back Kyle Hicks has switched his commitment from the University of Texas to TCU. Hicks announced this decision on Twitter. He wrote from his Twitter account, @K_Hicks22: "That's is the hardest thing I ever had to do"

I am sure Johnathan Gray's heart broken.

According to Rivals, Hicks is a four-star recruit and ranked as the 21st best running back in the country.

Hicks sounds like a redshirt candidate; he suffered a torn ACL during the season.

 

 

 

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2 coaches ranked Texas 16th in their final top 25 rankings

The people in and around Austin who fancy themselves as Texas Longhorn powerbrokers who are tired of Mack Brown can't be happy with the final USA Today college coaches' poll. Despite a third-straight blah year from Los Horns, the Fightin' Macks finished No. 25 in the final USA Today Coaches' Poll.

Don't ask how. I gave up long ago how this Texas team managed to remain ranked despite four unimpressive losses.

Click here for the link on USA Today see how the voting coaches ranked the top 25.

Of the Big 12 coaches with a vote, only one gave a final ranking to the Texas Longhorns. Art Briles (Baylor), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) and Tommy Tuberville (Texas Tech) did not vote UT in their respective Top 25. The only Big 12 coach who did was Paul Rhodes of Iowa State, who ranked the Horns 22nd.

Also of the notables who did not vote for The Macks: Nick Saban (Alabama), Bo Pelini (Nebraska), Dan McCarney (North Texas)

Be leery of these college coach rankings - a lot of voting coaches will admit they don't have the time to do this poll right, and this is often a last-minute procedure.

Here is where Texas received its votes:

25th
Dana Holgersen (West Virginia), Rick Stockstill (Middle Tenn.), Dabo Sweeney (Clemson), Jeff Tedford (California)

24th
Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech), Troy Calhoun (Air Force), Terry Bowden (Akron), Dave Christensen (Wyoming), Mark Dantonio (Mich Stat), Kevin Wilson (Indiana) 

23rd
Skip Holtz (South Florida), Mike Leach (Wash St.), Pete Lembo (Ball St.), Mike London (Virginia), Les Miles (LSU), Paul Pasqualoni (UConn), Joker Phillips (Kentucky), Rich Rodriguez (Arizona) 

22nd
Gene Chizik (Auburn), Paul Rhodes (Iowa State), Steve Sarkisian (Washington) 

21st
Dave Doeren (Northern Ill.), Ruffin McNeill (East Carolina) 

19th
Mike Riley (Ore. State)

18th
Jim Grobe (Wake Forest)

16th
Darrell Hazell (Kent State), Brady Hoke (Michigan)

 

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Time for TCU to no longer just be happy about being here

FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU finished its 2012 conference home schedule without a win for the first time since 1986. The prevailing feeling generated by fans and players etc. is that this first season in the Big 12 was a massive success.

If you look at the numbers - 7-5 record, 4-5 conference - this is TCU's worst season since 2007. The string of double-digit win seasons has been snapped at four. TCU will likely finish unranked for the first time since 2004.

Look past the numbers and this may have been one of the best seasons ever coached by Gary Patterson, and easily the most entertaining TCU regular season in decades. The scene and the crowds at Amon G. Carter Stadium this season were fun, and a place to be.

Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Kansas State and the rest coming to Fort Worth was laughably better than Colorado State, UNLV or New Mexico.

That said, enough with the "Thank yous, we're so happy to be invited to the cool kids' party" from GP and all of TCU nation. This school has tripped over itself in thanking de facto Big 12 commissioner DeLoss Dodds and everyone else associated with the conference. TCU proved it can hang and it belongs in the Big 12, and no one was embarrassed by adding the Horned Frogs to this league. 

Gratitude and humility are always appreciated, but TCU earned this. They were invited for a reason.

In this first season of the Big 12, TCU should have been happy to be invited to the cool kids' party. Now go find the homecoming queen and take her out.

 

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How Johnny Football could help Texas establish a Heisman first

After much internal debate, Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M should win the Heisman Trophy over Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.

Te'o is the best defensive player on a defensive-oriented team that won games specifically because of stopping the other guy, but Manziel has been the best college player this season. Texas A&M is not having this season without Johnny Football. Notre Dame may not be undefeated, but the Irish would still have had a very good season without Te'o.

When the Heisman Trophy is awarded on Dec. 8 in New York City, Manziel should be there. He should win.

If he does win he will make history not only for his university, but the great state a Texas.

The Heisman trophy has been awarded since 1935 and seven times it has gone to players from Texas schools. While the trophy has been awarded to native Texans in consecutive years (Earl Campbell in '77, Billy Simms in '78, etc.) never has the Heisman trophy gone to a Texas school in consecutive seasons.

Baylor's Robert Griffin III won the award last season, meaning Johnny Football could give the Heisman a Texas Two Year Step.

Here are the Heisman winners from Texas:

1938 Davey O'Brien, TCU
1948 Doak Walker, SMU
1957 John David Crow, Texas A&M
1977 Earl Campbell, Texas
1989 Andre Ware, Houston 
1998 Ricky Williams, Texas
2011 Robert Griffin III, Baylor 

 

 

 

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Why Gary Patterson may scrap the 'Frog Walk'

FORT WORTH, Texas - Trying to establish a new tradition, Gary Patterson and TCU have done a 'Frog Walk' before every home game. Just as many college teams do elsewhere, the players and staff walk as a team through the tailgate scene/campus to the stadium. It may be fun. It may be a way to connect with fans. It was also new, and thus far at the renovated Amon G. Carter Stadium the Frog Walk has yielded nothing.

"I'm superstitous. We may cut that out," Gary Patterson said on Tuesday. 

Why? Despite playing in a wonderfully renovated stadium, the team has been dramatically better on the road than at home. There is a very good chance all of TCU's wins in the Big 12 will have come on the road, and not a one will be at home.

TCU HOME BIG 12
Oct. 6 v. Iowa State, L 37-23
Oct. 20 v. No. 17 Texas Tech, L 56-53 (3 ot)
Nov. 10 v. No. 1 Kansas State, L 23-10
Dec. 1 v. No. 11 Oklahoma 

TCU AWAY BIG 12
Sept. 15 at Kansas, W 20-6
Oct. 13 at Baylor, W 49-21
Oct. 27 at Okie State, L 36-14
Nov. 3 at No. 21 West Virginia, W 39-38 (2 ot)
Nov. 22 at No. 16 Texas, W 20-13 

The Oklahoma Sooners amateur football team is favored by 6.5 points to win on Saturday against TCU. If that holds, TCU would finish a conference home record without a win for the first time in ... forever.

"It's never happened while I've been here," GP said.

The last time TCU finished without a home win in a conference schedule was 1986 when the Frogs finished 3-8 overall, and 1-7 in the Southwest Conference under coach Jim Wacker. Their lone conference win that season was 30-14 at Houston on Nov. 1, 1986.

"If you don't win at home you'll never win a championship," GP said. 

TCU's first season in the Big 12 has to be classified a success. All things considered - a new conference, the February drug bust, the departure of quarterback Casey Pachall and the need to start Trevone Boykin, relying on so many freshman to play - this was a good year.

It would be just a little bizarre to finish a season with so much process without at least one home Big 12 win.

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TCU's win in Austin is fun but it is not bigger than this ...

Back from a week off ...

Even if TCU defeats No. 11 Oklahoma on Saturday in Fort Worth on Saturday it will not trump the Frogs' most recent win in Austin against Texas on Thanksgiving.
Even if TCU defeats TBD Team in the SomethingWhateverCorporateSellout.Com Bowl in December it will not trump the Frogs' most recent win in Austin against Texas on Thanksgiving.

That 20-13 win against UT will be the biggest highlight of TCU's first season in the Big 12.

But stop any chatter about that win being the biggest in the Gary Patterson era. Texas may have been ranked No. 18, but that is an average team. These are not your Vince Young or Colt McCoy Horns. The Frogs may have been the underdog entering that game, but it should not be a huge surprise they won.

The Frogs are better than the Horns, and they probably will be for the next few seasons.

Nothing should diminish the significance of a TCU team going to Austin and winning for the first time there since 1967. From a regional rival perspective, it is big. It is fun. It gives TCU its 7th win of the season, improves bowl positioning, etc.

But this is not bigger than TCU defeating Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl. Until TCU wins the national title, nothing will be bigger than that win.

Other than the national title game, the Rose Bowl is the biggest college game of the season. Countless moons, planets, stars and other variables had to break just right for TCU to even be in that game. That Wisconsin team had been rolling teams by absurd margins, and was stacked.

If TCU goes to the Rose Bowl and is blown out - like Hawaii against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl a few years previously - perhaps this conference promotion never occurs. TCU earned that win, and in doing so opened countless doors for the football team, and the entire university.

Without that win against Wisconsin, TCU may never have had the chance to again play Texas as a conference rival on Thanksigiving.

 

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The stunning turn of how this Texas Longhorn QB is in the NFL & the other isn't

IRVING, Texas - You have to think that Vince Young would do just about anything to be Colt McCoy right about now.

On Sunday afternoon at Cowboys Stadium, Colt McCoy will put on a Cleveland Browns uniform and stand on the sidelines to watch Brandon Weeden lose against the Dallas Cowboys.

Colt McCoy will never be a Pro Bowl NFL quarterback, but decent money says he will be in the league for quite a while, cashing six figure checks as a backup. Beats working. Colt was the starter for the Browns last season but became the No. 2 after the Browns went with Weeden.

Vince, meanwhile, needs any check he can these days. He has been out of the league since the Bills cut him before the start of the season. 

In a bizarre twist of the former Texas Longhorn quarterbacks, it's going to be Colt McCoy who enjoys the longer NFL career than Vince Young. 

Chase Daniel and Colt McCoy have NFL jobs and VY doesn't. Last we heard from Vince he was having some serious financial troubles.

In his third season with the Browns, McCoy is now firmly the backup behind the 29-year-old rookie Weeden, who doesn't look like he can play. McCoy was 6-15 as a starter for the Browns, but he is only 25. 

"He is being a pro about this and he competes each day," Browns coach Pat Shurmur said on a conference call with FW/d area reporters this week. "He prepares himself like he's going to be the starter each week and he does a nice job trying to prepare Brandon. I've been extremely pleased with how Colt has handled this. As you might expect, it can't always be easy for him but he's handled it like a pro."

McCoy has the look of a guy who is going to stick. He has played, won a few games, and he is not a problem. Not being a problem is key.

McCoy looks a little too small with not quite enough of an arm to be a starter, but has just enough to be a backup.

As the backup it's crucial to prepare, be positive, be a pro, stay in shape, and find the coach who will take you from team to team.

"I've got a great deal of respect for Colt. He helped us win some games last year in a situation that wasn't easy," Shurmur said. "He's a tough guy. He's a very competitive guy. I think he can be a player in this league for a long time."

There is a degree of It's-Who-You-Know to be a backup QB in the NFL. Colt may just have the right makeup to stick in a league where so few guys do. Even though Vince Young has far more natural tools than McCoy, there were too many other things that prevented him from being a backup. Even in Buffalo.

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Video: Galloway & Big Mac pledge allegiance to Johnny Football & the Aggies

 

Dispelling the University of Texas QB myth

From the Things My Little Brain Can't Comprehend File - The University of Texas continued inability to land the Grade A quarterbacks. Or at least the following ...

Andrew Luck - Stanford 
Robert Griffin III - Baylor
Chase Daniel - Missouri
Graham Harrell - Texas Tech
Andy Dalton - TCU
Kevin Kolb - Houston
Todd Reesing - Kansas (OK, I'm a KU grad so I had to throw this one in here)
Now add to the list Johnny Manziel - Texas A&M

Since Mack Brown arrived in Austin in 1998 to effectively turn the University of Texas into Wal Mart, he has established himself as one of the best recruiters in the country. Mommies and daddies love them some Mack.

There is growing sentiment that he has not landed consistently landed the best players at the most valuable spot. It's simply not entirely true.

Since Mack arrived he has had ...
Major Applewhite
Chris Simms
Chance Mock
Vince Young
Colt McCoy
Garrett Gilbert
David Ash

These guys aren't stiffs.

Much of the perception that UT has whiffed on QB's would be dramatically different had Simms' UT career arced just a bit higher, and Gilbert developed into the player so many thought he would. One Division I head coach told me of Gilbert that after he arrived to college "this was not the same player (he) saw in high school."

Mack has found good quarterbacks, two of which were outstanding (VY, Colt). The problem for Mack is that while he lands the best recruiting classes in the country, QBs from all around him routinely go elsewhere and to win Heisman trophies.

The Horns are 8-2 and sophomore QB David Ash has passed for 2,354 yards with 17 TDs and 5 INTs. Hardly horrible. Much like Colt McCoy, Ash does appear to be at least developing.

It is, however, really hard to look good when you aren't RGIII, Luck or Johnny Football.

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