1.) Is anyone going to show up - or is it going to be a sea of Purple. I assume that the students all go home for Thanksgiving.
Well, I'll be there, not sure who else is showing up.
2.) How many points does TCU need to win by in order to legitimize their existence?
This question is pointless, as we are going to win. Mmm, optimism. :showoff:
3.) If the game is close - how long does it take the frog fans to start claiming "this was a meaningless game and the players didn't care".
4.) How much damage to all that TCU has worked for this year would a loss to an 0-11 SMU team do?
These questions are intertwined. This game is decidedly not meaningless for either program. For TCU, a loss to Southern Mississippi was understandable - Hattiesburg is a tough place to play and it's pretty damn difficult to go undefeated. Every team can have one off game. Is the SMU game a must-win? I suppose so. The national perception was that TCU was a good team playing a soft schedule and that perception was strengthened last night. A loss to "the worst team in college football" certainly wouldn't do wonders for their credibility - after all, a BCS team simply does not lose these types of games.
And for all of you who think that SMU will lose this game (this goes for fans of both teams), as you have seen it in your crystal ball and it is plain to the world that a 10-1 TCU teams beats a 0-11 SMU team 100% of the time . . . well, if you are a TCU fan, I hope SMU proves you wrong. If you are a SMU fan, I would hate to have your outlook on life. This is a rivalry game, and far stranger things have happened in the sport of college football.
And now I share with you a post written by a U of H alum on November 21, 1997:
I was wrong.
I was foolish enough to look at TCU's horrible play this season
and embarassing 0-10 record and concluded that, not only did the Horned
Frogs have no chance at defeating the SMU Mustangs, a team so powerful
that they beat perennial SEC powerhouse Arkansas and held Rice's
second-ranked rushing offense nationally to over 100 yards less than its
season average, but I thought that, given the offensive futility of the
Horned Frogs this season (109th out of 112 Division I-A teams), TCU
wouldn't even score a point in the game.
I was wrong. The Frogs showed everyone that they're made of
stronger stuff. They could have tossed in the towel and gone through
the motions, playing a forgotten season for a fired coach. They didn't.
Not only did they score, they scored more points than did the Mustangs.
They won. They won for the school, to avoid the shame of being only
the second TCU team ever to lose all its games in a season. They won
for Pat Sullivan, coaching his last game for the team. They won for the
city of Fort Worth, which, frankly, doesn't have much to cheer about by
its very nature. They won it on guts, when quarterback Jeff Dover,
against the powerful Mustang rush defense on fourth and goal from the
one with four minutes remaining, faked a dive and ran around the corner
and into the endzone to go up 21-10. They won it on perseverence, when
they survived a Mustang touchdown and two-point conversion to lead only
21-18 and then saw the Mustangs botch the onside kick attempt. And, of
course, they won it for Heather.
Over the course of the season, one win in eleven games is small
consolation. Yet, for one night in this long nightmare season, the
Horned Frogs can point to the scoreboard and say, "We're a winner!"
From this small step, we may be witnessing the beginnings of a
juggernaut in the years to come. TCU fans may one day point at this
game as the beginning of something special. Who can know? You can be
sure tonight, however, that for once this season, Sullivan won't have to
knock his Heisman Trophy and all the other stuff off his shelves in
anger. Tonight, he can use the Iron Skillet and do it in joy.
While the actual content of the story makes me sick to my stomach, I think the moral is pretty clear.
Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 11:51 am
I mean, let's face it. Anyone who says they're a TCU fan now could easily be a bandwagoner, but anyone who says they're an SMU fan now really means it.