TCU takes its CFP hopes into title game

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — It has been quite a comeback for third-ranked TCU, one much bigger than that 18-point deficit the Horned Frogs erased to beat Kansas State six weeks ago.

A year after Sonny Dykes became their coach, the Frogs (120, 9-0 Big 12, No. 3 CFP) still haven't lost a game. They have already made a strong case to be in the four-team College Football Playoff, even before their rematch against No. 13 Kansas State (9-3, 72, No. 10 CFP) in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday.

"A majority of our team, we took a lot of Ls last year," running back Kendre Miller said. "We're just proving to ourselves really that this is who we could be. … I feel like it shocked lot of people, like even people on our team, that we were going to do this good, me included."

Dykes took over a few days before last year's Big 12 championship game, with the Frogs already done playing after going 23-24 in a four-year span since being in the 2017 title game. Their last four games were after coach Gary Patterson's sudden departure during his 21st season.

Now after plenty of close games – seven wins in a row by 10 points or less – TCU is playing for a Big 12 title that would make it the first league team other than Oklahoma to make the four-team playoff. The Frogs' undefeated regular season is the first by a Big 12 team since Texas in 2009.

"A chance to win that is obviously a big deal, and obviously our players know the implications of all that on the bigger picture as well," said Dykes, an off-field analyst for Patterson in 2017 before a successful stint as SMU's coach. "I don't get a sense that the guys are tight or any of that . ... They're just excited about the opportunity."

Still, they know the challenge of trying to beat a team twice in the same season. K-State jumped ahead 28-10 on Oct. 22 before the Frogs scored the game's last 28 points.

"I was sick after that game," Kansas State center Hayden Gillum said. "It was probably one of the harder losses in the year. … We know we owe these guys one."

The Wildcats won their last three games, two on the road — and had to win all of those to make their first Big 12 title game since 2003, when they beat then-No. 1 and undefeated Oklahoma 35-7. They are 4-1 since the TCU loss, averaging 40 points a game and giving up a total of only 15 after halftime during that span.

"We have an opportunity to play one of the best teams in the country. We earned the opportunity to get to this point," fourth-year Wildcats coach Chris Klieman said.