SWC Game of the Week: Baylor @ TCU

It’s finally fall, the air is cooler, school has started and it’s time for SWC Game of the Week. This is the second year for the SWC Game of the week. The last SWC football game was played 11 seasons ago, Houston vs. Rice, in 1995. However, the SWC will remain alive through this dedicated newsletter. If you grew up watching the SWC, culminating in the New Year’s Day Cotton Bowl, I hope you enjoy this season, seen from a SWC viewpoint.

THIS WEEK’S GAME:

So, for week one we have Baylor traveling north up I-35 to take on an old foe, TCU, in Fort Worth. The Bears and Horn Frogs will meet for the 105^th time, Baylor’s most played series. The first game was a scoreless tie in 1899. The Bears hold a slim 49-48-7 edge in the series and has won 6 of the last 8 games. TCU won last year 17-7. Baylor head coach Guy Morris is a 1973 graduate of TCU. This game can be seen on CSTV, whatever that is.

The Bears are trying to recover from losing their three time All-American punter, David Sepulveda. When your best player is the punter, you’re probably not that good. The outlook is not great in Waco for this year’s squad as they must replace 7 starters on offense. Michael Machen, a 25 year old senior transfer, will take over the helm at QB and lead the Bears’ passing attack. The defense should be stronger and the Bears will try to redeem themselves after closing last season with 3 straight losses by a combined score of 157-55. Head Coach Guy Morris believes this team can make a run at a bowl, ain’t the preseason grand?

Gary Patterson’s TCU squad is thinking bowl this year as well, a BCS Bowl. TCU will be lead by their defense, a unit that ranked second in the nation last year in run defense and total defense. The defense returns 9 starters including Jason Phillips, all-conference LB and active Frog leader in tackles and Texas Football Magazine’s preseason defensive player of the year, Tommy Blake, DL. Tommy Blake was also named MWC preseason defensive player of the year and Frog running back Aaron Brown was named MWC offensive player of the year. The offense will be lead at the QB position by one of two men, Sophomore Marcus Jackson or Redshirt Freshman Andy Dalton. Even though Dalton has not taken a college snap, he was named the starter for this week. This is the first time TCU has opened the season at home in 3 years.

COTTON BOWL MEMORIES:

This year at SWC Game of the Week, we will feature a Cotton Bowl Memory for one of the teams involved in that week’s game. This week is the Baylor Bears and the 1975 Cotton Bowl (yes they did play in a Cotton Bowl). The Baylor Bears won their first SWC title in 50 yeas in 1974 and played in their first ever Cotton Bowl. The Bears started the season 0-2 (after posting a 2-9 record in 1973) when Grant Teaff’s team picked up the pace and won 8 of their last 9 games. The regular season was highlighted by the “Miracle on the Brazos” comeback win over Texas in Waco. The Bears trailed that game by 17 at the half and had never beaten a Darrell Royal team losing 17 straight. Most fans left at half time. As the Bears mounted their second half comeback, the fans started driving back to the stadium. The Bears won, 34-24 and were launched into the Cotton Bowl. “Last one leaving Waco, turn out the lights,” was a sign posted on the way to Dallas that Jan. 1^st, which explains everything for the Bear fans. Their foe that year, Penn State came into the match 9-2. The Bears led 7-3 at the half on an impressive 85 yard drive finished off by Steve Beaird’s run in from the 3. Baylor hung with the Nittany Lions for 3 quarters before Penn State took over, finishing the game by scooping up an onside kick and running it in for a 50 yard TD run, and posted the W, 41-20. However, the 1974 Baylor SWC Champs remain a “Miracle” team, and one of the highlights of the SWC.

OTHER GAMES THIS WEEK:

Troy at Arkansas (Are we all still mad at the hogs?)

Houston at Oregon (Big road test for the Coogs to start the season)

Nicholls State at Rice (Rice can play teams we haven’t heard of, it’s o.k. for them)

Texas Tech at SMU (Runner up Game SWC Game of the Week)

Arkansas State at Texas (This would be better if we could get rid of the State from Arkansas State)

Montana State at Texas A&M (A&M can’t play teams you’ve never heard of, not o.k.)

That’s a wrap for this week. Please feel free to forward to your friends, send me emails of those that should be included that aren’t, and submit your additions to the weekly newsletters (favorite SWC memories, player bio’s, funny old SWC stories, mascot hijinks, etc.) If you are receiving this note and you don’t want to, shame on you, but let me know, I’ll take you off the list. If you have any media guides sitting around, send to me, it helps with the weekly research.

IT”S FOOTBALL TIME IN TEXAS, let’s start the obsession; we’ve got stereotypes to fulfill!