TCU, Confronting Georgia, Soars on National Title Podium (released 2023)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Since the College Football Playoff began, the Big 12 Conference has generally been in the conversation, but never good enough to make the final cut.

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 whom fell short in the semifinals. There were other teams that came close to making the playoffs but didn’t make the four teams selected.

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

But Monday night, on the biggest stage and in one of the biggest games for the Big 12 in recent memory, TCU suffered perhaps the most embarrassing defeat in College Football Playoff history, losing 65-7 in a game that was generally unexciting.

For much of the game, it looked like Georgia’s offense was playing a video game on the easiest difficulty level. Georgia bulldozed through TCU’s linemen with ease. It forced TCU quarterback Max Duggan into uncharacteristically bad throws, resulting in two bad interceptions. And TCU’s defense forced just one point and looked confused on every Georgia drive.

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

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

“And as a result, you know, we did things that we don’t normally do,” Dykes said. “I just don’t think we were in the frame of mind that we needed to be in, and we need to do a better job of getting our players there. And obviously we failed.”

Georgia had shown some weakness over the past two weeks, giving up significant passing yardage to Ohio State and Louisiana State, and narrowly beating the Buckeyes in the semifinals on Ohio State’s missed field goal. And with its success in the air against Michigan, TCU hoped to do the same against Georgia, but failed miserably.

TCU, unusually, was not the resilient team it had been all year. The Horned Frogs had won five games in comeback style, often from double-digit deficits, but appeared to be on the back foot Monday night as Georgia ran up the score.

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

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

A good example of this came in the second quarter when Quentin Johnston ran up the middle of the court, but Duggan threw over him, sending the ball into the hands of Georgia defender Javon Bullard.

“I made bad decisions and didn’t execute my duties well,” Duggan said, adding later, “They had some blitzes, they were able to overcome some pressure; I held the ball too long, didn’t get through reads and caused problems for the O-line myself.”

While the playoffs will expand to 12 teams in the 2024 season, the manner in which TCU lost this game will raise more questions and criticism about the seemingly vast gulf between the top teams, particularly those in the Southeastern Conference, and those in other leagues.

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

“Look, we’ve got a good football team and it was a tough night,” Dykes said. He added: “We’re all disappointed that we didn’t play better, coach better, represent our team better than we did tonight. But we’ll learn from it and the next time we’re on a stage like this we’ll handle it better.”

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