Cardinal going to Alamo Bowl, will face TCU
Although it would rather be going to the Fiesta Bowl and avoid having to spend Christmas in Texas, Stanford received a fine consolation prize Sunday: a berth in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Dec. 28.
For Stanford’s opponent, TCU, the in-state game is less of a treat. The Horned Frogs and their fans thought they deserved a more prestigious New Year’s Six bowl berth.
Instead, the No. 13 Frogs (10-3) will play the No. 15 Cardinal (9-4), who lost to USC in the Pac-12 title game Friday night, at the Alamodome.
It’s a school-record ninth straight bowl for Stanford. But the Cardinal will be at a decided disadvantage in fan support against a Texas school.
Stanford rallied this season after losing two of its first three games by winning eight of nine and capturing the Pac-12 North title.
“One thing I’ll say about this team is they’re resilient,” head coach David Shaw said on an Alamo Bowl conference call Sunday. “To end up three points down and really a yard short (in the Pac-12 title game) says a lot about our toughness.”
It will be the Cardinal’s second bowl trip to Texas in two years. They beat North Carolina 25-23 last year in the Sun Bowl in El Paso. Stanford has won its past three bowl games. The school will pick up more than $3 million as the Alamo Bowl payout.
The Horned Frogs, under head coach Gary Patterson, slipped four spots — from 11th to 15th — in the College Football Playoff committee’s ranking after being routed by Oklahoma 41-17 in the Big 12 championship game Saturday. It was their second one-sided loss to the Sooners in three weeks.
Their fans were outraged by the ranking, which cost the team a spot in a New Year’s bowl. TCU went 3-3 in its last six games after a 7-0 start that prompted playoff hopes.
Senior quarterback Kenny Hill has thrown 21 touchdown passes against six interceptions. The team’s leading rusher, sophomore Darius Anderson (76.8 yards per game), was lost to a foot injury in the Frogs’ 38-20 loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 11. Kyle Hicks (54.3) has handled most of the rushing load since then.
It will be the Cardinal’s first trip to the Alamo Bowl, the first edition of which took place in 1993 with Cal beating Iowa 37-3. In TCU’s only previous appearance in the game, it beat Oregon 47-41 in three overtimes in 2015 after overcoming a 31-0 halftime deficit.
Stanford and TCU have met only twice, in 2007 and ’08, and the Horned Frogs won both, 38-36 and 31-14.
Stanford running back Bryce Love will have 3½ weeks to rest his sprained ankle before the bowl game.
He is just 47 yards from breaking Christian McCaffrey’s 2015 school rushing record of 2,019 yards. Love’s 125 yards in the USC game gave him 1,973 on the season, leaving him second in the nation to San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny (2,027). Penny also leads Love in yards per game, 168.9 to 164.4.
San Diego State (10-2), which beat Stanford 20-17 in September, went 10-2 but didn’t make the Mountain West title game, finishing second to Fresno State in its division with a 6-2 record.