Frogs ensure OU rematch for Big 12 crown
FORT WORTH — Twelfth-ranked TCU will get another shot at No. 4 Oklahoma.
This one will be closer to home with a chance to win a Big 12 trophy — and maybe make a case for more.
“I relish the chance to win a championship,” Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson said.
Kenny Hill threw three touchdowns and ran 3 yards for another score as TCU clinched a spot in the Big 12 championship game in nearby Arlington with a 45-22 victory over Baylor on Friday.
The Horned Frogs (102, 7-2 Big 12) will play the Sooners for the Big 12 title Dec. 2. That will come three weeks after TCU’s 38-20 loss to the OU.
“That’s really what it is, win a Big 12 championship,” linebacker Ty Summers said.
With No. 2 Miami suffering its first loss Friday and games Saturday before the conference championship games next weekend, there is even the chance TCU could get back in the conversation for a playoff spot.
“There’s a lot of football to be played this next week,” Patterson said. “There’s a lot of good-ongood going on. It’ll be interesting to see how that works. Remember, I went from third to sixth after 55-3. So I can promise you there can be a lot of movement. … hint, hint.”
In 2014, the first year of the four-team College Football Playoff when the Big 12 didn’t have a title game, TCU was third before finishing the regular season with a 55-3 rout of Iowa State. The Horned Frogs dropped to sixth in the final CFP rankings the next day.
“Maybe we’ll go from eight to three if we can win,” Patterson said.
Baylor (1-11, 1-8) led 9-0 less than two minutes into the game, including a safety when Hill was sacked and fumbled in the end zone. But TCU was ahead for good after Hill’s 7-yard TD pass to Jarrison Stewart made it 14-9 at the end of the first quarter.
“A disappointing end to a disappointing year,” coach Matt Rhule said. “As it has been in many games, we proved for long stretches of the game that we can hang in there with a team of that caliber.
“And then, a mistake here, a mistake there, a play here, a play there, and the game gets away from us.”
Hill completed 26 of 36 passes for 325 yards a week after he didn’t travel to Texas Tech because of an apparent concussion.
“I felt great. Started the game a little slow, not the way we wanted to start it,” Hill said. “We did good rallying back.”
After the game, Patterson said he had signed a new contract with TCU. The deal is, in general, a two-year extension through the 2023 season.
“That way, for recruiting-wise and everything else, everybody understands where Gary Patterson is, and what we stand for and what we try to get done at TCU,” Patterson said, effectively taking his name off the list of potential candidates for any major job opening in college football.
Patterson said he and his wife, Kelsey, are “very fortunate” and grateful to TCU “for having the confidence in us to be here for a little while longer.”
The Horned Frogs have reached 10 victories for the 11th time in Patterson’s 17 seasons as coach.
Patterson has a 159-56 record at TCU, where he was defensive coordinator for three years before replacing Dennis Franchione as the coach after the 2000 regular season.
Patterson is the secondlongest tenured FBS coach, behind Kirk Ferentz, who is in his 19th season at Iowa.