TCU Football: ESPN College GameDay Once Again Features The Frogs

The Horned Frogs are 8-1 when the hit show is present for its games

This weekend, No. 3 TCU (12-0, 9-0) plays for the Big 12 Championship. They will face No. 10 Kansas State (9-3, 7-2) Saturday, December 3, at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and can be seen on ABC. 

Before the game, ESPN College GameDay, the network's three-hour pre-game show every Saturday morning, will broadcast from AT&T Stadium. It's the third time this season for TCU to be a featured team on the show. The show was broadcast from Lawrence, Kansas, on October 8 for the TCU-Kansas game. It was the first time for the show to ever broadcast from Lawrence. The show also broadcast from Austin, Texas, on November 12 for the TCU-Texas game. 

This will be the tenth time TCU will be one of the featured teams. The Frogs are 8-1 when GameDay is present for their games. That record gives TCU an 0.889 winning percentage, the highest of any FBS school with more than one GameDay appearance.

This will be the seventh time Kansas State will be featured on the show. K-State is 1-5 in previous appearances on the show (.167). The last appearance for the Wildcats was in Manhattan, Kansas, on October 14, 2000, when No. 8 Oklahoma beat K-State 41-31. 

This will be the seventh time the show will broadcast from AT&T Stadium. The other appearances were No. 3 Oregon vs. #4 LSU (2011), No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 8 Michigan (2012), No. 1 Florida State vs. Oklahoma State (2014), No. 3 Alabama vs. No. 20 Wisconsin (2015), and No. 11 Oregon vs. No. 18 Auburn (2019) plus a broadcast before the 2018 NFL Draft. 

There have been two other games in the show's history in which the game was played at AT&T Stadium, but the broadcast was done from another location. The 2015 National Championship featuring No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 4 Ohio State was at the stadium, but the show broadcast from Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. Then in 2018, No. 4 Ohio State played No. 15 TCU at the stadium, but the show was broadcast from the TCU campus. That appearance is the only loss for the Horned Frogs when featured on College GameDay. 

The Frogs have had success when GameDay comes to one of their games. And fans have loved seeing Coach Lee Corso put on Super Frog’s head as his pick. Corso was not on the Kansas or Texas shows this season and missed the opportunity to once again don the Super Frog head. Will he do it in advance of the Big 12 Championship Game?

Before this weekend’s showdown, we thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and remember those first nine GameDay appearances:

October 24, 2009 – Provo, Utah

No. 7 TCU at No. 16 BYU

TCU wins 38-7

Andy Dalton in the 2009 TCU/BYU game / BYU Athletics

The 2009 season in the Mountain West was TCU, Utah, BYU, and everyone else. The Frogs would finish the season playing in their first-ever BSC game (a loss to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl) and ranked No. 6 in the nation. But before that could happen, the Horned Frogs would have to get past both schools from Utah. First up was a road game to BYU.

TCU scored the first three touchdowns in the game, then held BYU back as they attempted a comeback. The Frogs held BYU under 300 yards of total offense and did not turn the ball over in the blowout.

November 14, 2009 – Fort Worth, Texas

No. 4 TCU vs. No. 16 Utah

TCU wins 55-28

50,307 fans - the largest crowd ever at Amon G. Carter Stadium - watched the 2009 TCU/Utah game.  / TCU Athletics

Were you there? Every Frogs fan always claims they were. It was one of the most glorious days in TCU football history. GameDay in the morning on campus for the first appearance there. And then the largest crowd ever showed up at Amon G. Carter Stadium for the game. To this day, that’s still the biggest crowd. Last week’s win over Oklahoma came in as the second-highest attended game but did not exceed the 50,307 that night in 2009.

Having already beat BYU, the Frogs needed this win to keep their BSC dreams alive. TCU put the game out of reach with three touchdowns in two and a half minutes in the second quarter. The win would extend the Frogs’ winning streak to 12 games.

November 6, 2010 – Salt Lake City, Utah

No. 4 TCU vs. No. 6 Utah

TCU wins 47-7

Jeremy Kerley in the 2020 TCU/Utah game / © Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

Again, in 2010, to stay undefeated and to make a second-straight BCS appearance, TCU would have to face Utah again, and this time in Salt Lake City. The Frogs came out strong and were determined to make a statement. They not only wanted another BCS bowl but also had their eyes on the BCS National Championship game.

TCU outgained the Utes 328 yards to 72 yards in the first half and took a 23-0 lead to the locker room at the half. The statement-making play continued in the second half. Quarterback Andy Dalton would have a career night throwing for 355 yards and three touchdowns.

January 1, 2011 – Pasadena, California

No. 3 TCU vs. No. 4 Wisconsin – Rose Bowl

TCU wins 21-19

Barry Lewis/KillerFrogs

TCU would continue to keep on winning in that 2010 season. They finished the regular season undefeated for the second straight year. They didn’t make the BCS National Championship game that year, but they did get the Granddaddy of them all – the Rose Bowl. And they would face a formidable opponent in the Big Ten champion Wisconsin. TCU became the first school from a non-automatic qualifying conference to play in the Rose Bowl since the BCS format began in 1998.

Dalton would throw 15-of-23 for 219 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for another and would earn the game’s MVP. However, Frogs fans know that the true MVPs were the Frogs’ defense, which held Wisconsin intact when the Frogs could not score in the last 26 minutes of the game. And the true hero was Tank Carder, whose immaculate deflection on a 2-point attempt by Wisconsin late in the game sealed the win for the Horned Frogs.

November 1, 2014 – Morgantown, West Virginia

No. 10 TCU at No. 20 West Virginia

TCU wins 31-30

Jaden Oberkrom kicks the game-winning field goal in the 2014 TCU/West Virginia game / © Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

TCU made its first appearance on GameDay as a member of the Big 12 in its third season in the league. West Virginia and TCU entered the league at the same time and created an instant rivalry. The first meeting of the two teams in Morgantown was a TCU win in double overtime. The following year in Fort Worth, the game also went to overtime. Could the next game in Morgantown be just as exciting? Well, yes, it could!

The week before traveling to Morgantown, the Frogs put up 82 points against Texas Tech (you remember – the game where they ran out of fireworks). Could the offense be just as explosive the next week? No. It was cold and windy in West Virginia, and the Frogs were down by 13 points. It took a 37-yard field goal by Jaden Oberkrom as time expired to pull off the one-point lead and keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.

October 7, 2017 – Fort Worth, Texas

No. 8 TCU vs. No. 23 West Virginia

TCU wins 31-24

Kenny Hill after scoring the winning touchdown in the 2017 TCU/West Virginia game / © Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

TCU’s next GameDay appearance would also feature the West Virginia Mountaineers, but this time back in Fort Worth. That week, it was the only matchup of two ranked teams, so a good reason for the GameDay crew to return to The Fort.

It took TCU quarterback Kenny Hill scoring three touchdowns in three different ways for the Frogs to win the game by a touchdown. Hill threw a pass for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and caught a pass for another touchdown.

September 15, 2018 – Fort Worth, Texas

No. 15 TCU vs. No. 4 Ohio State

GameDay was broadcast from the TCU campus; the game was played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Ohio State wins 40-28

Jalen Reagor in the 2018 TCU/Ohio State game at AT&T Stadium / © Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

This matchup was supposed to be a head-to-head series, with a game played in Fort Worth and another in the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio. Then Jerry Jones got involved and decided to forget the home-and-home and instead play one game at his palatial stadium in Arlington. But the GameDay crew knew after the 2009 and 2017 appearances that their show would still be broadcast from campus.

The game was close until it wasn’t. The Frogs had a one-point lead at the half and scored first in the third. The Buckeyes took control in the third quarter to take the lead and pull out the victory.

October 8, 2022 – Lawrence, Kansas

No. 17 TCU vs. No. 19 Kansas

TCU wins 38-31

TCU Horned Frogs wide receiver Quentin Johnston (1) catches a touchdown pass against Kansas Jayhawks cornerback Cobee Bryant (2) during the second half at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium / © Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

It was a battle of unbeaten teams, with both TCU and Kansas looking to continue their winning streaks. And for the first time ever, ESPN College GameDay came to Lawrence as the game of the week. The first half was a defensive battle, with the Frogs taking a 10-3 lead to the locker room. The second half was the shootout everyone expected, and it came down to the last possession to determine the winner. 

November 12, 2022 – Austin, Texas

No. 4 TCU at No. 18 Texas

TCU wins 17-10

TCU running back Emari Demercado in the win at Texas on November 12, 2022 :: Tony Beblowski/KillerFrogs

This game was a defensive juggernaut. Neither team could get much started on offense in the first half. TCU had a 3-0 lead at halftime, and both teams combined with having less than 100 total yards in the first half. The offense, like most games, was better in the second half. Kendre Miller rushed 21 times for 138 yards and one touchdown. This put him over 1,000 yards rushing now with 1,009. The win secured a spot in the Big 12 Championship game for the Horned Frogs. TCU held Texas running back Bijan Robinson to a season-low 29 rushing yards. 

For a complete recap of that game, click here.

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