Damn right, I said it. And I can say it because I saw it.
The San Diego State Aztecs lost Saturday afternoon to the No. 1 team in the country. You think I care what the polls say? You think it bothers me that every so-called expert in the nation would disagree with me?
To them, and to the rest of the college football world, I would say this: prove it. And you know what? They wouldn’t be able to do so.
The TCU Horned Frogs (now 9-0) are No. 1 because of everything they displayed at Qualcomm Stadium in dismantling Brady Hoke’s improved Aztecs, 55-12.
There isn’t one thing in the game of football that this team doesn’t do well — very well. There isn’t a single weakness. Except, of course, for the fact that in the B.S. world of the BCS it would be impossible for anyone to come out and admit that a little-old team from Mountain West could beat the “big boys” from the SEC or Big 12.
Hogwash.
Just last season, Alabama from the SEC spent nearly the entire season at No. 1, lost a hard-fought conference title game to Florida, and then was sent to the Sugar Bowl to play a Utah team that wasn’t supposed to be able share the same field with the Crimson Tide.
Utah won easily, 31-17, and finished up No. 2 in the country. This year’s TCU team is better than last year’s Utah. So don’t tell me they wouldn’t have a shot at taking down the best.
Against the Aztecs, TCU proved that it could run with power up the middle and speed to the outside, amassing 326 yards on the ground. The Horned Frogs didn’t feature one ball-carrier, but four — each of whom averaged at least five yards per carry and scored touchdowns.
When they chose to throw, they threw. Quarterback Andy Dalton hit 14-of-20 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns. They’re so deep at wide receiver that both scoring passes went to their No. 5 wideout Ryan Christian. Dalton is so efficient that he has now thrown 16 TD passes this year against only 3 interceptions.
On defense, all TCU does is shut down both the run and the pass, harrass the living daylights out of the quarterback, make textbook tackles all over the field, and force turnovers — four against SDSU on Saturday.
This is a team that hasn’t allowed more than two touchdowns in a game for 17 games in a row. The 12 points they grudgingly gave San Diego State nearly matched the total number of points they had allowed in their previous three games combined.
On special teams, there is no letup. TCU’s kicker is 11-for-12 this season (and made two long ones against the Aztecs), their punter is all-conference, their coverage teams consistently stop the ballcarrier on the first hit, and their return game — led by jitterbug Jeremy Kerley — is a threat to go the distance every time it touches the ball.
Unfortunately TCU will be stopped short of its ultimate goal, not by any team, but by the fat-cat, greedy, deep-pockets of college football’s power brokers, who will never allow the Mountain West champion to compete for a National Title.
No. 1 is reserved for the likes of Florida or Alabama or Texas, they say. I say TCU wouldn’t back down from any of them.
Perhaps it’s difficult to get a true gage of TCU’s greatness when it’s facing an Aztecs’ program that has been down in the dumps for more than a decade. But not only has SDSU begun to climb out of the abyss in 2009, the Aztecs (now 4-5) still have a shot at a postseason Bowl berth.
Always coached well by Hoke and top-of-the-line coordinatoors like Al Borges and Rockey Long, San Diego State nonetheless had no shot on Saturday. This was the kind of game that was competitive right up until the opening kickoff.
Disappointing certainly to Aztecs’ fans, but SDSU can find some solace in knowing that the Horned Frogs have buried just about everybody this season. Two weeks ago they pummelled BYU, 38-7, in Provo, no less.
Florida, in the meantime, continues to roll along atop the rankings because, more than anything else, the Gators began the season atop the rankings. I don’t know about you, but non-conference wins over Charleston Southern, Troy and (in two weeks) Florida International doesn’t exactly look like a championship resume’ to me.
No. 2 Texas — in the minds of most people, unbeatable — has carved out its perfect season in part thanks to victories of Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, Texas-El Paso, Baylor and Central Florida. Alabama has wins over Florida International and North Texas, and a couple of weeks from now will challenge itself against Chattanooga.
TCU, on the other hand, twice traveled to the East Coast to beat solid ACC teams like Virginia and Clemson, along with piling it on against BYU. Perhaps the Horned Frogs wouldn’t make it through the SEC conference mine-field unscathed — as many would point out — but at the same time, don’t think it would be a given for any of the BCS poll’s top three to make it through the Mountain West’s rugged, altitude-challenging gauntlet scott-free, either.
Those in the know say they know that TCU couldn’t keep up with the likes of Florida, Texas and Alabama. But how can they say that when last year’s Mountain West champ not only kept up with — but easily beat — a supposed powerhouse no more than nine months ago?
TCU could do the same thing this year. Problem is, they’ll never get the chance.
– Ello –
