© Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports TCU continues to roll as they extinguished the fires of hope the Mountaineers had in upsetting the #7 Frogs on Saturday as the men in Purple walked out of Morgantown victorious, 41-31.
But was it enough to bump TCU into the top four of the initial CFP rankings?
No.
No, it was not.
But, while the idiots that comprise the CFP committee continue make excuses, the Frogs are in control of their destiny as the tumbleweeds of West Texas roll into Fort Worth (along with a sudden urge to get a penicillin shot) for another 11AM showdown.
Shannon ( Brazzell ), Sean ( Foushee ), Nathan ( Hernandez ), and Nick ( Howard ) break down the games, thumb their noses at the committee, and get into a bit of too early Heisman talk. 34:13 The podcast is named from Brazzell’s comment on the Red Raiders : “Texas Tech Rebels . . . whatever the hell their name is.” It begins with Foushee’s comment “I really have enjoyed this season.
I just wish I didn’t have to rush out every Sunday morning and buy a new bottle of Tum’s.
But 8 and 0, it’s worth it.” They discuss TCU’s victory over West Virginia at Morgantown.
Foushee points out “this is a team of two halves, and the defense has been the focus of this.
On Saturday, there was no deviation from that plot.
The defense comes out, and, once again, it’s slow-going.
Then they make that adjustment in the second half and they only give up one touchdown, and it’s the only touchdown they’ve given up in the second half in the last three games.” Brazzell agrees: “Like I said, it was going to be tough to play West Virginia at home.
And again, they only gave up seven points in the second half.
It takes a while for some reason for this defense to gel to this new system.
Now, I’m kind of looking at it and it looks like the team we’re playing in the first half . . . we must have some weak spots that they do a great job picking out during the week.
Then what we seem to do is go in at halftime and adjust to what they have adjusted to, leaving them no room to adjust to us.
I think that’s what is going on.
It’s a chess kind of deal.” Foushee finds Brazzell’s emphasis on the opposing offense an interesting one. “The point you’re making is it’s not so much the TCU defense is coming out and . . . some people have called it a rather inept first half . . . you’re putting the onus more on the offensive planning of the opponent rather than what we’re going on defense and I think that’s an excellent point.” Brazzell clarifies: “You look at it and say we play so solid in the second half, but you have to realize those guys are Division 1 players as well, those coaches get paid a lot as well.
Their job is to figure out how to beat us . . .
I’m willing to bet it’s the video film.
Once you find one or two holes and players that don’t do certain things well, those guys exploit that.
And what happens is we figure that out.
Because a lot of times people say ‘why don’t we cover that tight end?
Why won’t they cover this?’ because we see certain guys keep popping open.
Well, they’re making adjustment right there, they’re getting ready for halftime while they see this stuff.
That makes logical sense to me.” Interested in making the point applicable to people who have not played college football, Foushee pushes Brazzell a bit: “Explain this to someone who hasn’t played college football.
The adjustments we’re seeing at halftime obviously are working.
Why couldn’t similar adjustments happen during the first half?
Is this a situation where the coaching staff just don’t have access to the players like they do during halftime?
Or is it something else?” Brazzell replies: “The game is so fast and even though you make certain adjustments, you don’t have enough time . . . the guys in the sky, they’re jotting down everything, every play, every down, every penalty.
So what happens is once they get together in the locker room, they’re able to go over what they’re seeing with the coordinator, who’s on the field with us.
The guys in the pressbox see everything from top down, so when you bring all that together you’re able to make better adjustments at half time because they go over things on the board, you have to visually see it, that’s football strategy.” Foushee agrees: “We are playing really good offenses.
Anyone who saw what Kansas State did to Oklahoma State there’s no doubt about it.
The fact that the TCU defense is shutting down these prolific offenses in the second half of every game is a testament to how good this defensive staff is ready to work.
But also, you’ve got to have the leaders on the field.” Bringing Nathan Hernandez in, Foushee says the receiving core has done “an amazing job stepping up this season.” Hernandez replies: “Adding ( Jared ) Wiley was a huge gain, finally getting some size on the inside.
We’ve had speed for a long time, but sometimes you need that bigger body that’s going to go up and make a catch, make a good catch . . . we’re not relying on our inside speed too much to the point where we always used to run the screen game and hit it over and over and over again.
We’re not doing that too much . . . for me, I think our biggest success on offense has been our run game.
Yeah we’re getting players open down the field, Quentin Johnston being Quentin Johnston, Wiley, Darius Davis , but it’s our run game that’s opening all that up.
Because one, we can control the clock, and it wears down on defenses.
That’s what SMU did to us last year.
Just wear them down with the run and it’s demoralizing.
You can toss it up to a receiver, but if they’re just getting five, eight, fifteen, another six, as a defense you get frustrated.
Everybody’s panicking to figure it out . . . you can only adjust so much on the fly.
It’s a fast game, especially at the speed we play at.” Here, it’s Howard’s turn to make a contribution: “I feel like Sonny Dykes’ offensive line is off the charts.
It’s surprising everybody in the Big 12.
It’s the way they’re conserving, the way they’re disguising everything that’s setting them apart in the Big 12.” Howard continues in praise for Max Duggan, suggesting him for the Heisman: “The kid is a stud . . . he came with a suit, he’s ready to show the people what he’s all about and he’s been doing it all year long.
So I think he deserves a shot to go out with a bang his senior year and get an award at least.” The discussion turns to the College Football Playoff Rankings, in which TCU came out at Number 7.
Foushee is not happy with this. “On paper, TCU has the hardest strength of schedule among any of the undefeated teams.
Between the on-paper resume, TCU should be in the top 4, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.
But they have this eyeball test they keep throwing out here, and TCU has never done well on the eyeball test.
Outside of simply winning, or do you think that’s all it’s going to take, what do you think TCU needs to do to get in the top 4 at the end of the season?” Brazzell says: “All we got to do, we just got to control our own destiny.
Take it one game at a time, try to play as well as we can.” Howard’s response: “Let Alabama play Georgia, we know Georgia’s going to beat them.
There’s two losses for Bama.
Then go ahead and have Ohio State and Michigan game, one of those teams are going to lose.
And then you’ve got TCU in there, you’re good to go.” “TCU at Number 5,” Foushee says. “Well someone else is going to lose,” Howard laughs. “We can’t lose a game,” Hernandez says. “We have to win everything.
Then I don’t think they can leave us out.” The podcast ends with predictions on TCU vs Texas Tech.
Howard expects “big adjustments to happen in the first half.
I’ve been going with the reverse psychology all year long because I don’t want to jinx them so I’m going to go ahead and say 45-42, Texas Tech Running Rebels.” Hernandez predicts TCU 45-30.
Brazzell goes with TCU 56-20.
Foushee’s prediction is TCU, 42-17, with a shutout in the second half.
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Tyler Brown graduated from TCU in 2007.
After brief stints in Glasgow, Scotland and Durango, CO, he returned to Fort Worth where he currently resides.
He is happy to be writing for KillerFrogs while working on a new novel. source