Fort Worth, Texas
If beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl served as validation of everything the Utah Utes have become in college football in this decade, their trip to Texas Christian tore some big chunks out of that reputation.
The Horned Frogs were highly motivated, simply relentless and awfully good in every aspect Saturday night in a 55-28 victory. They have done this kind of thing to a bunch of Mountain West Conference teams, and will deservedly find themselves in the Bowl Championship Series.
So there's no shame in losing to these guys, except for this critical qualifier: Utah's program under coach Kyle Whittingham seemingly was beyond the stage of having this happen to it -- anywhere, against anybody.
Even with an inexperienced quarterback, facing an elite team in front of a record crowd (50,307) at Amon G. Carter Stadium, did anybody really believe the Utes could be this overwhelmed, this undisciplined, this badly beaten?
Stevenson Sylvester, the Utes' senior linebacker, labeled it "one of our worst performances as a university," which might be a stretch. But there was not much redeeming about Utah's visit, except to the TCU students who considered the opponent worthy of their storming the field.
The Utes did keep trying after falling behind 35-7 early in the second quarter. Yet they really succeeded only in terms of giving TCU more credibility and computer points, having stopped by with an 8-1 record and a top-20 ranking. Y'all come back now, hear?
If Whittingham's program is indeed built for big games, the Utes thrive on being underdogs and they were as well prepared as their coach said they were, they should have provided much more resistance to TCU, right?
Whittingham struggled as much with his answer as his defense did against TCU's diverse offense.
"That's a tough question ... we've got some progress to make ... we're still working on a pretty good football season, but it's certainly a disappointment tonight," he said.
The Utes still have the Sugar Bowl trophy and all the pleasant fallout from their upset of Alabama in January. Yet this was evidence of what still could happen to them when the opponent is equally interested, the quarterback wearing No. 3 is Jordan Wynn and not Brian Johnson and TCU remembers dominating Utah statistically last November in Salt Lake City while losing.
Credit the Utes with a total team effort.
Offense? Utah frequently went three plays and out, unable to sustain a running game or adequately protect Wynn.
Defense? The Utes were blistered by quarterback Andy Dalton, his fast receivers and stable of running backs for 549 total yards, while often being penalized for overly aggressive play and substitution issues during a disastrous first half.
Special teams? Utah lost a kickoff-return fumble, had a punt blocked and allowed Jeremy Kerley to break a 39-yard punt return.
So there's enough blame to go around, beyond Wynn or anybody else. In a year when there's clearly a dominant team in this conference, Utah is not it. These teams' showing Saturday was either reassuring to the rest of the league, or all the more frightening.
Whittingham began the week by talking about how the most recently issued Mountain West trophy still resides in the Utah football complex. And after Monday's practice, as the Utes ran wind sprints, staff members piped in music with the title words of the rap song "The Champ Is Here" playing over and over.
Then the Utes journeyed to Fort Worth, and the Frogs relentlessly drove home their own viewpoint. It's quite apparent: The champ is here.
