Who's our rival? For this week, BYU

The seventh-ranked TCU Horned Frogs travel to Provo, Utah, this Saturday to face the 16th-ranked BYU Cougars in a budding rivalry and with a lot on the line.

By David May / KillerFrogs.com Staff Writer

On on the main forum Sunday, I posed the question, “Which team is really our rival?” The question leads up to Saturday's big showdown in Provo, Utah, against the nationally seventh-ranked TCU Horned Frogs and 16th-ranked BYU Cougars.

There were a number of good responses. I asked because I wanted to know if most thought of SMU as still our main rival, perhaps another Texas team, or whether new Mountain West Conference mates Utah and BYU have become our primary rivals.

It's a big game for both teams as far as their goals of winning a conference championship. TCU, at 6-0 on the season and 2-0 in conference, is ranked eighth in the first Bowl Championship Series rankings and once again has hopes of reaching a BCS bowl. BYU is 6-1, with a win over Oklahoma but a loss to Florida State, and is 3-0 in conference. The Cougars' BCS hopes were presumably lost with its loss to FSU.

Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. (CDT) and the game will be televised on Versus, as well as available on TCU's radio outlets and through GoFrogs.com

Since asking the question, a writer for the Deseret News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Gil LeBreton have also written about the budding rivalry between TCU and BYU.

The two head coaches have different takes on this so-called rivalry.

"I think we acknowledge (the rivalry) because they've clearly made it so," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall was quoted as saying in the Deseret News article this week. "From what I understand of (TCU) having a blocking dummy or something in their locker room with our helmet on it. I don't think that happens unless there is some respect, I guess is what I'll call it."

But Mendenhall went on to say that because BYU has been so good for so long, a lot of teams – from San Diego State to Utah – consider the Cougars their rival.

BYU defensive lineman Brett Denney told the Deseret News the rivalries with TCU and Utah are obvious.

"With TCU and Utah, they're great teams and they're great teams consistently in this conference," he said. "There's naturally a rivalry that's born when two great teams play each other. I'm not saying you have to put each others' jerseys up in the locker room and talk trash or anything. … When you're competing against someone who's great like that, you want to beat them. Naturally, games against TCU and Utah are big games in this conference because they're great teams. Those teams are tough year after year. They stand out that way."

Patterson tried to not play up any rivalry aspect as he tries to keep his team on an even keel in the whirl of the national hype taking place for this game, which includes ESPN Gameday taking place outside LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday morning.

"If you get ready for the games you are supposed to win, the big games will take care of themselves. I know that is coach speak, but it holds pretty true. You have to worry about getting your guys too sky high. What then happens, you make mistakes because you think you have to do more than you need to. The good teams take care of business."

Some of the TCU fans who responded to the forum thread had differing views on what comprises a rivalry in the sports world. Some said your rival is someone you play every year. Some say our primary rival remains SMU because of the regional proximity and history. Still others say SMU is no longer a rival because the series has not been competitive of late. Some say we no longer have a true rival. At least one respondent said our rival is now Boise State.

Before getting further into the discussion, let's see how rival is defined. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, a rival, in part, is: “One who attempts to equal or surpass another, or who pursues the same object as another; a competitor. One that equals or almost equals another in a particular respect.”

That's how I see a rival. It is someone or something that has what you want or wants what you have, are competitors with the same goals, and will go to the means necessary to be sure they are on top and you are below them. It isn't just about history, the number of times played, or what it was like 50 or 70 years ago. Today's college football is about the here and now.

Can't you have more than one rival? You can certainly have more than one competitor near your equal who wants the things you have, or keep the things they have from you.

SMU is and has been our rival. We compete in the Dallas-Fort Worth market for recruits, media attention and fans. We used to compete for much more, for things like national rankings and conference championships. But that was long ago. The two teams have played 89 times, with the Frogs holding a 43-39-7 series edge. But it has been one-sided of late in TCU's favor, and the rivalry has lost its luster for many.

Until the breakup of the Southwest Conference in the mid-1990s, Baylor was a good rival for TCU. At the time the teams went their separate ways after their 1995 meeting – Baylor to the Big 12 and TCU to the ill-fated 16-team Western Athletic Conference – the series was the third longest in college football. The two teams have now met 105 times on the gridiron, and the series is deadlocked at 49-49-7. Not bad.

Texas and Texas A&M were rivals, but over the last couple of decades of the SWC, TCU was not competitive with those teams, and the Frogs rarely have the chance to face them these days. The teams compete for recruits, and TCU has since passed A&M in the state in quality of program based on wins, rankings, bowl trips, bowl wins, just about any measure you want to use other than number of students or alums or dollars they are able to pour into their program.

BYU and Utah certainly fit most of descriptions of a rival of TCU's. All three teams play each other every year now. They each compete annually for not only the conference title but also for a BCS berth, bringing the school and MWC millions of dollars as well as prestige and a bounty of respect, attention and recruits.

In the first four years of TCU's participation in the MWC, the series between the three teams have been exciting and compelling with all the marbles on the line. Last year, TCU ruined BYU's “Quest for Perfection” and its BCS hopes with a crushing 32-7 win in Fort Worth. Utah then did the same to TCU on a chilly night in Salt Lake City, taking a hard-fought and heartbreaking 13-10 win over the Frogs, preserving their undefeated season and propelling them into the Sugar Bowl, where they dismantled Alabama.

The TCU-BYU series is not a long one, but it has been intense. The two teams have met just eight times, the first a rather surprising TCU win at home in 1987 in the famed cricket game. BYU knocked off the Frogs the following year, and then handily beat TCU twice in the 1990s when the teams were WAC foes.

After the WAC split, the Frogs spent several seasons competing in CUSA before the MWC brought the Frogs back into their fold. The first MWC meeting between TCU and BYU in 2005 saw the Frogs take a thrilling 51-50 overtime win in Provo as TCU went on to win the MWC in its inaugural season. BYU hasn't lost a home conference game since.

BYU came to Fort Worth in 2006, facing a TCU team ranked 15^th and feeling pretty good about life when the Cougars upset the Frogs, 31-17, spoiling the season in a big way. Things did not go well for the Frogs in 1997 in Provo, falling 27-22.

The Cougars rolled in last year playing the part of king of the conference, but were methodically dismantled by the Frogs, leaving the two teams with two wins and two losses against each other in the last four years, all in big games in what is certainly a budding rivalry.

It's time for TCU to shoulder the hype and expectations. It's not the first big game this program has played in this decade. But each time the Frogs have knocked at the door of something special, from San Jose State in 2000, to Southern Mississippi in 2003 and Utah last year, they have come up just short.

Patterson still seeks to downplay the BCS implications, wanting his team to focus on its goals – taking things one game at a time.

"You want to be at this point. That's what we work for,” said Patterson. “If you look at our pyramid of goals, the BCS championship is not the next level. It's still about going after a Mountain West Conference championship. This game is more about the conference than it is BCS. Last year, we ended up seventh in the nation and lost to Oklahoma and Utah. It's about being the best team you can be. That is all you can control."

TCU is 1-5 against BYU and Utah since 2006. Both teams have taken from TCU what TCU wants over the past several seasons. They are, in this writer's opinion, our biggest rival in that they stand between us and our goals of conference championships and the so far elusive BCS bid.

Welcome to BYU, our rival – at least for this week.