TCU played its best football during the second half of the regular season.
Louisiana played its worst game of the season in its most recent contest.
The Horned Frogs (8-4) will try to keep rolling and the Ragin’ Cajuns (10-3) will try to bounce back when they meet in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday afternoon in Albuquerque.
TCU won five of its past six games, including the last three.
“We were 3-3 and it didn’t look very good,” Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes said. “We didn’t play well and we had three games where we turned the ball over 12 times, which is almost unprecedented in the history of football. But we managed to get through it and survive it.”
TCU had lost three of four when it entered an open date in early October. Dykes and his staff used the time to get the players focused on how they could turn the season around. In the next game, the Horned Frogs won 13-7 at Utah, and their only loss the rest of the way came on a last-second tiebreaking field goal at Baylor.
“The players jumped on board and did everything we asked them to do,” Dykes said. “I think that showed a lot of character.”
The Horned Frogs eliminated the rash of turnovers and were plus-3 in turnover margin over their final six regular-season games.
Sophomore quarterback Josh Hoover ranks seventh nationally in passing yards (3,697). He is 1 yard behind Max Duggan for the second-highest single-season total in school history and needs 205 to break Trevone Boykin’s record of 3,901.
He has a 1,000-yard receiver in Jack Bech, an LSU transfer who is a native of Lafayette, La., where the Ragin’ Cajuns are located.
Louisiana’s only losses were to bowl-eligible teams. The Ragin’ Cajuns lost by eight points to Tulane in September and by two to South Alabama in November before being routed by Marshall 31-3 in the Sun Belt Conference championship game in Lafayette on Dec. 7.
“You always look forward to the next opportunity,” Cajuns coach Michael Desormeaux said.
Desormeaux said the opportunity to face a team from a power conference should enable his team to forget the disappointment of the Marshall loss.
“It’s always a big deal for us,” he said. “If you can finish this season with a win against a team like TCU and finish with 11 wins, that puts you in a better starting spot next year.”
Desormeaux said starting quarterback Ben Wooldridge has a chance to play in the bowl game after missing the last three games because of a shoulder injury. His replacement, Chandler Fields, has completed 72.4 percent of his passes with five touchdowns and one interception.
No matter who is under center, Desormeaux knows he has “a real weapon” in kicker Kenneth Almendares, who won the Lou Groza Award. He made all but two of his 29 field-goal attempts, and the misses came from 53 and 60 yards. Almendares is 46-for-47 on extra points.
“Kenny has been phenomenal,” Desormeaux said. “Any time you get across (midfield), you know you’re not far away from getting some points on the board.”
–Field Level Media
