OK, so on the day of the Alamo Bowl, I actually had tickets to go see Hamilton on Broadway. It's not that easy to get tickets -- and when I bought the tickets I had no idea that the show would conflict with a UCFC game. So I did not see this game, which turned out to be one of the greatest UCFC games of all time.
You will recall that Texas Christian, having pulled an upset over Baylor in the rain in double overtime, was a 7-point underdog against Oregon. You will also recall that Texas Christian was without its two best players -- Trevone Boykin and Josh Doctson. Finally, you will recall that Texas Christian had very little defense the whole season, and had struggled in any game not played in Fort Worth. Taking all of those factors into account, I was pretty sure that these pages would be in green and gold.
And, in fact, Texas Christian looked completely over-matched at the beginning of the game. At the half, Oregon led 31-0. Now as you know, we stop live-blogging whenever anyone leads by more than 21 points, so I would have stopped blogging soon after the first quarter. And to be honest, I still don't understand why Oregon didn't win this game by at least 14 points.
But for reasons that I never understood, last year Texas Christian's defense often improved dramatically in the second half, and that occurred again here. Let me be clear -- I am not surprised that Texas Christian scored 31 points in the second half, even with a back-up quarterback. Big XII's gonna Big XII, and it's not easy to keep those teams off the scoreboard, no matter who is playing quarterback. But I am stunned that Texas Christian's defense pitched a shut-out in the second half. Except for that rain-soaked game against Baylor, I'm not sure that very many scoreless quarters in I-A competition.
So anyway, the game ended up tied at 31, and Texas Christian -- for the second game in a row -- was battling for the UCFC in overtime. This time it took them three overtimes, but they eventually won the game 47-41. Texas Christian tied the record for the biggest comeback in bowl game history. Oregon's UCFC record is now 2-15-1.
So the Big Gold Trophy will wind its way through the Big XII for the fifth year in a row. The last UCFC game that did not feature a team from the Big XII took place on January 4, 2012, when West Virginia -- the champion of the Big East -- crushed Clemson 70-33 in the Orange Bowl. During the off-season, West Virginia took its program -- and the Big Gold Trophy -- to the Big XII, where they have both been ever since. Remarkably, in all these years the UCFC has never gotten into the National Championship game or the BCS playoffs. Instead, the trophy has ended up with a Big XII team that was not the Big XII champion, and then that team has won its bowl game to keep the trophy:
At the end of the 2012 season, Baylor (8-5) beat UCLA 49-26 in the Holiday Bowl.
At the end of the 2013 season, Oklahoma (11-2) beat Alabama 45-31 in the Sugar Bowl.
At the end of the 2014 season, Texas Christian (12-1) beat Ole Miss 45-3 in the Peach Bowl.
At the end of the 2015 season, Texas Christian (11-2) beat Oregon 47-41 in the Alamo Bowl.
Texas Christian is the first team to take the UCFC into the off-season for two years in a row since the University of Southern California did it in 2003 and 2004. Here are the year-end trophy holders since then (National Champions in bold):
2005: Texas
2006: Florida
2007: Missouri
2008: Florida
2009: Alabama
2010: Auburn
2011: W. Virginia
2012: Baylor
2013: Oklahoma
2014: Texas Christian
2015: Texas Christian
Since we started this blog, this is our 398th entry about Texas Christian. Baylor is the only team with more than 300 entries on the blog. The Horned Frogs have appeared in 21 UCFC games since we started the blog, and they have gone 17-4. They also been in some real thrillers:
10/20/2012: Texas Christian 53 - 56 Texas Tech (3 OT)
10/4/2014: Texas Christian 37 - 33 Oklahoma
10/11/2014: Baylor 61 - 58 Texas Christian
11/1/2014: W. Virginia 30 - 31 Texas Christian
9/26/2015: Texas Tech 52 - 55 Texas Christian
11/27/2015: Texas Christian 28 - 21 Baylor (2 OT)
1/2/2016: Texas Christian 47 - 41 Oregon (3 OT)
So we will begin another season with the purple and black. They are worthy holders, and I look forward to seeing them again.
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