TCU coach Gary Patterson gave a brief opening statement after his team fell 40-28 to No. 4 Ohio State on Saturday night.
He ended it with three words _ On to Texas.
Yes, the Frogs don't have much time to sulk in their loss to the Buckeyes. All eyes are on Texas.
"It's a big game next week. We've just got to bounce back from this," quarterback Shawn Robinson said. "Go watch the film and get better and learn from our mistakes and just keep churning. Keep on working."
It's a big game for both teams. TCU had its chances to upset Ohio State, and wants to rebound from a loss. Texas is coming off a big win against then-No. 22 USC, and wants to prove its making strides.
Knocking off TCU would go a long ways for Tom Herman and the Longhorns in restoring respect. Beating Texas for a school-record fifth consecutive time would go a long ways for Patterson and the Frogs to make another statement of just how good this program has become.
Oh, and TCU is looking to run the table the rest of the way. With how competitive they were Saturday night, the Frogs don't think they're out of the playoff hunt yet.
"If you could win out, then I think you'd be one of those teams that should give TCU just as much credit for playing a ballgame like this as anybody else you should," Patterson said. "But, first, we've got to do that. And we've got a lot of good people we've got to play before we get to that point. So, right now, I won't worry about that. If we can get to the 1st of December, we can have that conversation. But, right now, it's Texas."
The Texas matchup is always an intriguing one for TCU. Somewhat surprisingly, as stated, TCU has dominated in recent years.
TCU will be looking for its fifth straight win over Texas on Saturday. The past four haven't been too close with the Frogs winning by scores of 48-10, 50-7, 31-9 and 24-7.
But can TCU really win five straight against Texas? That would be a school record _ the Frogs won four straight from 1935-38 but has never put together five straight wins.
In fact, TCU had lost 28 of 29 games to Texas between 1968 and 2007. The Frogs won the first contest when it joined the Big 12 in 2012, a 20-13 victory in Austin, but lost 30-7 in 2013.
Since then, though, it's been all TCU _ by a wide margin. But the Frogs aren't taking anything for granted.
"One of the things that coach preaches to us is that things are going to go good and things are going to go bad, but it's how we react from that," senior defensive end Ben Banogu said. "For us, it's a new week and a new opponent and we are going to make sure that we are ready for this upcoming game. We are looking forward to playing (Texas) and I have never played in Austin myself, something I am excited about."
