Bobcat Football Team Falls to High-Powered TCU

The Texas State Bobcats traveled to Fort Worth on Saturday with hopes of pulling off one of the all-time greatest upsets in college football history, but it was not meant to be. TCU’s relentless offensive attack led the Horned Frogs to a 56-21 win at Amon G. Carter Stadium. The Bobcats did keep the game close through the third quarter, but missed on several opportunities to make the upset dream a reality.

The first quarter was a good one for the Bobcats. While trailing only 7-0 with the ball deep in TCU territory after a T.P. Miller interception, a fake punt and costly TCU penalties set the Bobcats up on the 1-yard-line. Frank Reddic was then able to plunge in and tie the game up early in the second quarter.

TCU tailback Joseph Turner answered right back as he gained 36 of his 129 yards on the night on the very next possession; as they worked with a short field due to the kickoff going out of bounds. TCU quarterback Andy Dalton hit Antoine Hicks with a 19-yard pass to set up a 6 yard Turner touchdown run making the score 14-7. Later in the quarter the Horned Frogs opened up a 21-7 lead thanks to a 36-yard Dalton touchdown pass to Jimmy Young.

The big play of the night for the Bobcats offensively would come on their next possession. George found senior tailback Alvin Canady on a pass to the flats that he was able to take and turn into a 62-yard touchdown reception. The touchdown pass was the second-longest play of the season for the Bobcats this season and marked Canady’s first touchdown reception since he caught a 30-yard pass against Northern Colorado. TCU was able to score once more before the half taking a 28-14 lead into the locker room.

TCU’s offense picked right up where they left off in the second half, taking the second-half kickoff and driving 67 yards down the field in six plays to open up a 35-14 lead. Antoine Hicks capped off the drive when he ran it into the end zone for a four-yard TD run.

Texas State showed a lot of fight in them as they answered back with a seven-play, 50-yard drive to make the score 35-21. George put the Bobcats in scoring position when he connected on a pair of passes to Da’Marcus Griggs for 34 yards. Backup quarter back Tim Hawkins hit Daren Dillard from 16 yards out on an unexpected throw from the run-first freshman. At this point the Bobcats scored the most points given up by the Horned Frogs this year and was looking to add another touchdown late in the third quarter when Ron Jackson recovered a fumble by TCU quarterback Andy Dalton at the Horned Frogs’ 10-yard line. However, things went south for the Bobcats quickly after the recovery.

With third and goal from the eight yard-line senior quarterback Bradley George threw into traffic in the end zone and was picked off by a TCU cornerback. From that point on the Bobcats seemed to be a little deflated and didn’t show many signs of life. “I should have thrown it more to his outside shoulder,” George said. “I lofted it and he was able to make the interception.”

The Horned Frogs closed out the scoring with two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter as they punched in another one-yard run up the middle and Jercell Fort added a nine-yard TD run to make the final score 56-21. Texas State head coach Brad Wright told KTSW’s James McNeal after the game that “We had a lot of missed chances. That is the sad part about it because we had some offensive opportunities to get some more points on the board.”

With the loss the Bobcats drop to 1-1 on the season and the Horned Frogs improve to 2-0. The Bobcats face Texas Southern at home next week at 6 pm. Tune in on 89.9 KTSW to catch all of the action.

-Luke McBroom, KTSW Sports Staff Writer