**Editor’s Note: Each week during football season, we feature an essay from the opponent’s student newspaper on why Oregon will lose. This week’s bowl game edition is from Dean Straka, the sports editor at TCU 360.**
A year ago, the Horned Frogs seemed destined to meet Oregon in the Rose Bowl as part of the inaugural College Football Playoff.
That matchup never materialized, as the playoff committee bounced TCU out of the top four in the final week of the season moving the team from No. 3 to No. 6.
One year after 12 people in Grapevine, Texas, crushed the hopes and dreams of TCU fans everywhere, the No. 11 Horned Frogs will finally get their crack at the No. 15 Oregon Ducks, albeit the two are heading not to the playoff, but to the Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas.
If you want a good defensive showing in this matchup, you have come to the wrong place. With the Frogs and Ducks possessing two of the more explosive and high-tempo offenses in the nation, this game will likely come down to a matter of who can reach 50 points first.
Both teams will be hungry in this game too. The Ducks and Frogs began the season ranked in the top 10 with playoff aspirations. The Ducks were unable to dig themselves out of a hole created by a sleepy 3-3 start, while the Frogs were overwhelmed with more injuries than anyone cared to count.
These two squads are almost as evenly matched as it gets, and the game could easily go either way. But Eugene needs to fear the Frog as they enter the confines of South Texas.
The snake-bitten Frogs aren’t the same team they were last season. They still managed to go 10-2, even down more than 20 starters from last season and having played 30 freshmen this fall. That might not be the mark of a playoff-caliber team, but it sure the heck is a sign of a resilient player core with a genius coaching staff led by head coach Gary Patterson.
With over a month off between the Frogs’ dramatic victory over Baylor on Nov. 27 and the Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2, TCU has more than enough time to get healthy and come as close as they can to resembling the formidable squad that earned them a No. 2 preseason ranking. If wide-receiver Josh Doctson is cleared to play after suffering an injury against Oklahoma State on Nov. 7, and starting quarterback Trevone Boykin is back to 100 percent after injuring his ankle late in the season, the quarterback-receiver duo could be a nightmare for the Ducks’ defense.
It is also one last chance for the seniors, including Doctson and Boykin, to make a final mark on their legacy at TCU before graduating. For senior tailback Aaron Green, a San Antonio native, it is a chance for him to go out with a bang right where he learned to play the game. A motivated team with nothing to lose is a dangerous team.
Will it be easy for the Frogs? Not one bit. The ever-depleted defense will have to contain quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., who has led the Ducks to a six-game winning streak, and the Oregon offense entering the game. But make no mistake, with all the adversity the Frogs have overcome this season, purple will reign over the Alamo.

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TCU School of Journalism

TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin scans the field in the Horned Frogs’ game against Baylor. (Kelsey Ritchie/ TCU 360)