Molly D’s Top 5 TCU Football Games
Celebrating An Epic Season for the Horned Frogs
No better year than this one to enter the fray of “Best Of” lists by invitation from Dan Hislop if your list is about TCU Football. It was- and still is- an epic season for the Horned Frogs.
For the uninitiated (is there actually anyone out there who isn’t following the Frogs this year?!!), the TCU Football team began the 2022 season unranked with a new coach and it’s previous starting quarterback benched. What has unfolded is The College Football Story of The Year (in my opinion.)
The Frogs head into the penultimate games of the season, the CFP semifinals, ranked #3 in the nation with the previously benched Quarterback, Max Duggan, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy (given to the best player each year in College Football) and new coach, Sonny Dykes, the Coach of The Year.
My Top 5 list is the best 5 games of this storied season from #5 to #1:
28–31 Loss in Overtime to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship
5.Why would a loss even make the list? Because it is the quintessential picture of leaving it all on the field. This loss brought out all the naysayers to argue the Frogs don’t belong in the Top 4, and have no right to be playing at The Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve, to no avail.
55–24 ROUT of (then) #18 Oklahoma in Week 5.
4.This game makes my Top 5 for lots of reasons, most obvious of which is it being the game that made the nation take this team seriously. But for me, it is because I WAS THERE! I watched the Fans storm the field! The Tide had turned! No one had any idea this was the beginning of the Hypnotoad Tsunami.
43–40 (2OT) Win over (then)#8 Oklahoma State in Week 7.
3.Heading into the midpoint of the season undefeated with the boys from Stillwater coming to town, the Frogs had a target on their back. For this team all that means is Follow The Script: hunker down, hang in there, and then CRUSH them in the end. The Frog narrative is set- it’s not over ’til it’s over.
17–10 Win over conference rival Texas in Austin in Week 11
2.They say UT is Texas’ team. This rivalry is historically lopsided in UT’s favor with UT holding it over TCU 64–28–1 over the years. But not this time. Not in 2022. No. This is our time. This is our team. Nothing is stopping the Frogs now. Look who’s going to the Big 12 Title game now??!! The Frogs. They were supposed to finish 7th in the CONFERENCE, not fight for the conference title!
29–28 Win over Baylor in Waco the week after UT win.
1.Taking it to the wire becomes the signature move and is immortalized in this (literal) last second field goal that secures the Frog’s position in the Top 4. Epic.
I’m breathless after recounting all of it. And it’s not over. The naysayers chatter on but the Frog Nation knows the truth: the Carter boys are the champions of this season no matter what happens next.
