GAME SNAPSHOT
KICKOFF: Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET
SITE: Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas
TV: FOX
SERIES: Texas leads 62-25-1, but TCU has won four in a row.
RANKINGS: TCU No. 17
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Horned Frogs
–RB Darius Anderson, with 154 yards on 12 carries vs. Ohio State, had his fourth career 100-plus-yard rushing game. It was the second-best rushing game of his career, surpassed only by his 160 yards in last season’s 44-31 win at No. 6 Oklahoma State. His game against Ohio State featured a 93-yard TD run that was the longest rushing play in TCU history. He now has 263 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries for the season.
–QB Shawn Robinson posted career highs in completions (24), attempts (40), passing yards (308) and total offense (315) in last week’s loss to Ohio State. Robinson did not have an interception in his first 70 pass attempts at TCU, the longest streak by a quarterback to begin his career under coach Gary Patterson.
–DE Ben Banogu, a senior, made a huge splash in his first season with TCU. After transferring from Louisiana-Monroe and sitting out the 2016 season, he became one of the nation’s top defensive ends. Banogu was first in the Big 12 with 16.5 tackles for loss and was second with 8.5 sacks. The 6-foot-4, 250-pounder has five stops this season, a forced fumble that led to a TD return and two quarterback hurries.
Longhorns
–QB Sam Ehlinger, a sophomore, has taken every snap at the position this year after he and junior Shane Buechele split the starting position last season. He finished 15 of 33 for 223 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 35 yards and another score in the win over USC. Ehlinger played well overall, taking a handful of chances downfield against the Trojan defense that produced big plays while running 17 times when the defense bailed out in coverage.
–WR Collin Johnson, a junior, led the team with six catches for 79 yards against USC but has not yet had the big game Texas fans have been looking for. Johnson is the huge, fast, downfield target that the Longhorns need to help open up the offense and is due for a breakout season. The 6-foot-6 receiver has 13 catches for 175 yards in the first three games.
–LB Gary Johnson, a senior, registered six tackles, four for loss, a sack, a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry in the win over USC, after which he was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. At 6-foot and 230 pounds, Johnson might be a little undersized to be a constant run stuffer, but he plays bigger than his size and hits as hard as anyone in college football.
KEYS
TO THE GAME
Yes, Texas’ victory over Southern California last week was scintillating and a long time coming as an assumed first step toward the Longhorns regaining some of their clout in college football.
But everyone associated with the program wants more, and standing in the way of that happening is this week’s battle with No. 17 TCU.
Texas coach Tom Herman and his staff and team have already put the win over USC in the rearview mirror and turned their attention to the large truck driving directly toward them.
The Horned Frogs (2-1) head to Austin, Texas, for Saturday afternoon’s Big 12 season-opening dust-up at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium after a 40-28 loss to No. 4 Ohio State last week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
TCU will be looking to continue its recent success against Texas.
Herman said the focus now is to make sure the Longhorns aren’t strutting too much or reveling in the back-slaps and acclaim of the Texas fan base in lieu of properly preparing for TCU.
“We told our guys that the only peoples’ opinions who should matter when it comes to the game of football are the people in our room — your teammates and your coaches,” Herman said. “(We were) basically pleading with them, pleading with the leaders to school the young guys up.
“In this family you can be bombarded with outside messages that have no impact on our preparation for TCU. So, it was a big point of the emphasis throughout the day yesterday, making sure that the opinions of the people in that locker room and in those coaches’ offices are the only ones that we worry about.”
Texas has lost to TCU the past four seasons by an average of 30 points and had not scored more than 10 points in any of those games. Since Mack Brown left as Texas coach after the 2013 season, the Longhorns have beaten every Big 12 team at least once … except the Horned Frogs.
Three big plays separated TCU from beating Ohio State last week, but the Horned Frogs don’t have time to lament about what could have been. Like Texas, they have turned the page and are deep in preparations for the resurgent Longhorns (2-1).
TCU went toe-to-toe with Ohio State, but two turnovers, both of which resulted in touchdowns for the Buckeyes, and having a TD called back because of a forward lateral doomed the Horned Frogs’ chances.
Quarterback Shawn Robinson posted career highs in completions (24), attempts (40), passing yards (308) and total offense (315) in the loss to Ohio State.
TCU coach Gary Patterson helped salve the wound from the loss by saying if he had to choose one game to win — Ohio State or Texas — he’d take beating the Longhorns.
“If you gave me a choice of who you need to beat, it’s conference play,” Patterson said Monday. “You’d want to win the Texas game. Whether that permeated with them, we’ll find out. But that’s the thing you have to understand — to get to the playoffs you’ve got to win your conference, or get to be one of those final two teams (in the Big 12 title game). It starts this week.”
TCU, which dropped from 15th to 17th in this week’s AP polls after the loss to Ohio State, has taken five of the past six games from Texas.
Patterson said there’s a natural rivalry between TCU and Texas because of recruiting battles and the fact that the Horned Frogs’ players grow up watching Longhorns’ games.
“Outside of that, it’s the next ballgame,” Patterson said. “I don’t know if I can explain it except that I worry more about what I can do to make sure TCU is good, not worry about Texas or Iowa State or Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or whoever else we’re playing. The biggest thing is just making sure I can control TCU.”
