Preview: Louisiana (Isleta New Mexico Bowl)
12/18/2024 4:41:00 PM | Football
Horned Frogs and Ragin' Cajuns to meet Dec. 28 on ESPN
ABOUT THE GAME
•TCU has won eight games for just the third time since 2015. Two of those occasions have come in the last three seasons under Head Coach Sonny Dykes.
•A victory would give TCU its first season with exactly nine wins since going 9-2 under Head Coach Abe Martin in 1955.
•The Horned Frogs and Ragin' Cajuns will be meeting on the gridiron for the first time.
HORNED FROG TO WATCH
•Quarterback Josh Hoover ranks seventh nationally in passing yards (3,697). He needs 205 to break Trevone Boykin's TCU season record of 3,901 from 2014. Hoover is currently 1 yard behind Max Duggan (3,698, 2022) for second.
•Hoover tops the Big 12 and is tied for fourth in the FBS with 56 completions of 20-plus yards.
BOWL GAME NOTABLES
•Over the last 20 seasons, TCU is 11-4 (.733) in bowls, the best record by any team with at least 10 bowl appearances in that time.
•This will be the 36th bowl game in TCU's history. The Horned Frogs are 18-16-1 in those contests. Eleven of their last 12 bowl games and 13 of the past 15 have been decided by eight points or less.
•TCU's last bowl game was a 51-45 victory over Michigan in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl which was also a College Football Playoff Semifinal.
•TCU's Sonny Dykes is one of just six active FBS head coaches to take four different schools (Louisiana Tech, Cal, SMU, TCU) to a bowl game. The others are Hugh Freeze, Butch Jones, Brian Kelly, Lane Kiffin and Rich Rodriguez.
FAMILIAR NAMES AND FACES
•TCU leading receiver Jack Bech is a native of Lafayette, La., where the Ragin' Cajuns are located.
•Former TCU running back Emani Bailey, currently with the Carolina Panthers, began his career at Louisiana.
•Bailey played two seasons at UL before transferring to TCU where he ran for 1,209 yards and eight touchdowns last year.
•Bailey's younger brother, Jordyn, is a redshirt freshman wide receiver and primary kickoff returner for the Horned Frogs.
WHEN LAST IN ALBUQUERQUE
•TCU's last game at University Stadium in Albuquerque set the stage for one of the more memorable moments in its history.
•A 66-17 win over New Mexico in the 2010 regular-season finale clinched a Rose Bowl appearance for the Horned Frogs. TCU would go on to defeat Wisconsin 21-19 in Pasadena to complete a 13-0 season.
•TCU's path to the Rose Bowl was set up the night before the New Mexico game when Colin Kaepernick rallied Nevada from a 17-point second-half deficit for a 34-31 overtime win over a Boise State team that was gaining on TCU in the BCS Standings.
•When the Wolfpack's game-winning field goal split the uprights at 11:52 p.m. MST, TCU's Albuquerque hotel exploded in a loud roar that necessitated hotel management to contact team personnel to quiet the players down. TCU had a 2 p.m. kickoff the next day.
•When the Horned Frogs won, players that included Andy Dalton ran off the field with roses in their mouths.
THE FUTURE
•Earlier this month, TCU signed the Big 12 Conference's top-ranked recruiting class for the first time. Its No. 20 overall ranking by ESPN is also the highest in program history during the online recruiting services era.
ALL IN
•With the preliminary settlement of the House v. NCAA class-action lawsuit, TCU has announced that it will fully participate at the maximum level in the permissible revenue sharing plan with its student-athletes.
