TCU roar back, tie comeback record in beating Oregon

OR took the big lead early behind quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., but he was knocked out of the game late in the second quarter after taking a hard hit to the head.

OR led 28-0 when Adams left and led 31-0 at halftime.

After being shutout in the first half of a game for the first time in over two years, the Frogs, without starting quarterback Trevone Boykin, staged the largest comeback in bowl history, scoring 31 unanswered points to send the game to overtime. After accumulating just 142 yards in the first half, the Frogs offense started clicking, racking up 159 yards in the third quarter alone.

Quarterback Vernon Adams did not come back on the field to start the 2 half for Oregon. The Ducks haven’t just been attacking on offense through the air, running back Royce Freeman is a big reason for their offensive dominance.

The second drive of the game saw a different outcome for the Oregon Ducks.

According to OddsShark, Oregon is now favored by seven points. Given the ability to have such an air and ground game, OR could quickly put TCU in a hole far too deep to climb out of.

“Obviously, Gary Patterson and TCU would love, especially against such a good football team like OR, to have all your players”, Patterson said, as part of a lengthy diatribe on the issue after saying assistants and players had to talk about it too much. The Ducks became bowl-eligible with a 61-55 three-overtime win over Arizona State in which Adams threw for 315 yards and four scores.

Trace McSorley replaced Hackenberg and threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Geno Lewis on the first play of the fourth quarter and then a 20-yard strike to DaeSean Hamilton with 6:14 to play. By changing into TCU’s true preferred color of choice, Patterson appeased the college football gods, and turned a certain loss into the most magical comeback in bowl history.

With the additional injury to Hegarty, another graduate-transfer, TCU caught a break that they seemed to desperately be looking for in the second half and took advantage of it.

The theme continued in the fourth quarter when TCU tied the game with less a minute left in the game.

Kohlhausen, who had played spot duty this season, was thrust into the spotlight on Thursday when Boykin was arrested and suspended after a bar fight in San Antonio’s famed River Walk district. A few moments later he patted his replacement, Jeff Lockie, on the helmet and moved back to his home for the second half of the 2016 Valero Alamo Bowl: The sideline. The game appeared to be going along the lines of the rest of bowl season, the bigger games being blowouts.

Any team could have rolled over after such a awful first half, and many would have.

“Very disappointed for our guys, not disappointed in our guys one bit”, OR coach Mark Helfrich said.

OR is 7-5 against the spread while TCU is 6-6 this season.

“Give credit to them”, Snyder said.

Kansas State’s Kody Cook, starting at quarterback for the first time after playing receiver, went 12 of 24 for 163 yards with a touchdown.