Houstonvs
TCU
Dec. 28 / 8 p.m.
NFL Network
In the second year of the Texas Bowl we get an all Texas match-up in Reliant Stadium. This game features two former SWC members with lots of old hatred between the two. In a continuing theme of this bowl season (and most) a team will be playing without the coach that got it here. In this case it is Houston's Art Briles who is off to coach Baylor, another Texas team.
Houston will try to take advantage of their speedsters, RB Anthony Alridge and WR Donnie Avery. They also will use their two-headed QB monster of prototypical passer Blake Joseph and dual threat man Case Keenum. Even with all these weapons, the Houston offense could be somewhat hit or miss at times during the season, taking Alabama to the wire in a close loss one week and then getting bombed on by Tulsa a month later.
TCU came into the season thinking they were going to break into the BCS. Now that Utah and Boise State have provided the blueprint, the Horned Frogs seemed poised to take the next step of an already successful program under head coach Gary Patterson. Instead TCU limped through the season to a 7-5 record and had to hope for a bowl bid, and not a BCS one. Many pundits looked past the fact that the horned frogs were breaking in a freshman QB to replace Jeff Ballard, and he had to survive most of the season without his top offensive weapon, RB Aaron Brown. Then there was the tiny issue of the stellar defense losing their best player in DE Tommy Blake. Blake will be back for the bowl game, but unfortunately Brown will not.
This all should lead to an interesting match-up as a stellar attack in Houston runs into a buzzsaw of a defense in TCU that is finally healthy again. The edge has to go to TCU who is confident in their sideline and the man calling the plays. Houston is without most of their big coordinators who all bolted for the Big12 with their former coach.
Line: TCU -6.5, Total: 57.5
Houston will try to take advantage of their speedsters, RB Anthony Alridge and WR Donnie Avery. They also will use their two-headed QB monster of prototypical passer Blake Joseph and dual threat man Case Keenum. Even with all these weapons, the Houston offense could be somewhat hit or miss at times during the season, taking Alabama to the wire in a close loss one week and then getting bombed on by Tulsa a month later.
TCU came into the season thinking they were going to break into the BCS. Now that Utah and Boise State have provided the blueprint, the Horned Frogs seemed poised to take the next step of an already successful program under head coach Gary Patterson. Instead TCU limped through the season to a 7-5 record and had to hope for a bowl bid, and not a BCS one. Many pundits looked past the fact that the horned frogs were breaking in a freshman QB to replace Jeff Ballard, and he had to survive most of the season without his top offensive weapon, RB Aaron Brown. Then there was the tiny issue of the stellar defense losing their best player in DE Tommy Blake. Blake will be back for the bowl game, but unfortunately Brown will not.
This all should lead to an interesting match-up as a stellar attack in Houston runs into a buzzsaw of a defense in TCU that is finally healthy again. The edge has to go to TCU who is confident in their sideline and the man calling the plays. Houston is without most of their big coordinators who all bolted for the Big12 with their former coach.
Line: TCU -6.5, Total: 57.5
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