TCU, Confronting Georgia, Spirals on National Title Stage

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Since the start of the College Football Playoff, the Big 12 conference has generally been in talks, but never well enough to appear in the title game.

There were the many Oklahoma teams: one led by Kyler Murray, who went to the Arizona Cardinals, and another led by eventual Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, and yet another led by Los Angeles Rams quarterback Baker Mayfield all of which fell short in semi-finals. There were other teams that were close to the playoffs but were not one of the four selected candidates.

Texas Christian became the unlikely hero of the conference this season as it soared to 13 wins, including one in the semifinals over Michigan, to become the first Big 12 team to win a game in the playoff format. TCU faced Georgia in the finals—a college football juggernaut—but may have appeared to have a shot with a unique defensive style, a Heisman finalist quarterback, and one of the top receivers in the country.

But on Monday night, on the biggest stage and in one of the biggest games for the Big 12 in recent memory, TCU suffered arguably the most embarrassing defeat in College Football Playoff history, losing 65-7 in a game that usually was not competitive.

For much of the game, Georgia’s offense appeared to be playing a video game on the easiest difficulty setting. Georgia bulldozed through TCU’s linemen with ease. It forced TCU quarterback Max Duggan into unusually bad throws, resulting in two bad interceptions. And TCU’s defense forced only one punt and appeared confused on every Georgia drive.

“We’re not that kind of football team,” said TCU coach Sonny Dykes. “If we make those mistakes, we will not win football matches. We will certainly not play for a national championship.”

Dykes said he felt his team was free in the dressing room on Monday night ahead of the game, and felt there was a lot of “tension” and his team seemed “just a little too excited” and “maybe a little too emotional.”

“And as a result, you know, I did some things that we don’t normally do,” Dykes said. “I just don’t think we were in the frame of mind we needed to be in and we have to do our best to get our players there. And of course we failed at that.”

Georgia had given some flashes of vulnerability over the past two weeks. It provided significant passing distance to Ohio State and Louisiana State and squeaked through the Buckeyes in the semifinals due to Ohio State’s missed field goal. And with its success in the air against Michigan, TCU hoped, but failed miserably to do the same against Georgia.

TCU, unusually enough, was not the resilient team it had been all year. The Horned Frogs had won five games in comeback fashion, often by double digits, but appeared to be going down on Monday night as Georgia ran up the score.

“They didn’t really do anything special,” said TCU linebacker Dee Winters. “We basically just beat ourselves up. They just ran our missed alignments and kept scoring on that. You know, we just kept beating ourselves up, you know, we just thought too much.”

Duggan, who finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy, had his worst performance of the season. The struggles weren’t all his fault. He often faced pressure from Georgia defensive linemen who rushed at him as soon as he received the snap. But when there were opportunities to hit open receivers, Duggan routinely missed them.

A prime example came in the second quarter, when Quentin Johnston ran wide open down the middle of the field, but Duggan knocked him over and the ball landed in the hands of Georgia defensive back Javon Bullard.

“I made bad decisions and didn’t perform well,” said Duggan, adding later: “They had some blitzes, some pressure they got through; I held the ball too long, didn’t get through reads and caused a little bit of trouble myself for the O line.

While the playoffs will be expanded to 12 teams in the 2024 season, the way TCU lost this game will raise more questions and criticism about the seemingly huge gap between the top teams, especially those in the Southeastern Conference, and those in other leagues .

After Kansas State defeated TCU in the Big 12 championship game, many called for Alabama to replace the Horned Frogs in the playoffs. Alabama then defeated Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl by 25 points.

“Look, we have a good football team, and it was a tough one tonight,” said Dykes. He added: “We are all disappointed that we didn’t play better, we didn’t coach better, we didn’t represent our team better than tonight. But we will learn from it, and the next time we are on a podium like this, we will handle it better.”

TCU finished 5-7 last season, and with Duggan leaving for the NFL draft and Johnston likely going out as well, it’s unclear when that will be next for TCU