TCU takes turn in spotlight as SEC’s Arkansas rolls into town

Last week, while Oklahoma tangled with Houston and Texas A&M fought UCLA in overtime and Wisconsin took down LSU and Texas and Notre Dame staged an epic and Florida State and Alabama made ringing national-championship statements, TCU stayed off the radar.

Except for Kenny Hill’s debut and the points-allowed total, the Horned Frogs’ 59-41 victory against South Dakota State was hardly noticed.

It barely registered nationwide.

But Saturday night, it’s TCU’s turn. The No. 15 Frogs have one of the marquee games of the weekend when they take on old Southwest Conference rival and SEC West Division hopeful Arkansas for the first time in 25 years.

It’s Frogs versus Hogs again.

TCU and Arkansas.

It just has that big-game sound.

“I think it’s great, because I know they come here a lot recruiting,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “I see a lot of the fans. The state of Arkansas loves their team, loves the game of football. I’m one of those old-school guys — I love the passion of playing the game for the right reasons.”

Patterson is talking about the ground-and-pound aspect Arkansas brings that he hopes toughens his team. But there are other “right reasons.”

The game is a résumé boost. It’s the headline game of TCU’s nonconference schedule.

Arkansas may not have been impressive in needing a comeback for a one-point victory against Louisiana Tech last week, but it’s still Arkansas, a name brand and representative of the toughest conference in college football.

“You’ve got to play one ballgame to find out, where you’ve got to play at a high level, that should be a ‘stretch’ game,” Patterson said. “One that you should win, one 50-50 and one stretch. So obviously, people would think this would be a stretch game for us, playing an SEC opponent.”

So a win should get some attention.

“We’re not really worried about attention right now,” defensive end James McFarland said. “We just want to win a game. We just want to win games. They’re a great program, we’re a great program, and it’s going to be a great game. But for the most part, we’re just worried about winning game No. 2.”

The Frogs will likely reap benefits on the field, either way.

“They come at you on both offense and defense,” Patterson said. “It’s why you like to play a team like that. It’s one of those things, you find out what you’re made of.”

Said McFarland: “You have to give them credit. They’re really good at what they do. And we’re going to start working on what we need to do to stop them, stop their momentum, stop what they do, throw them off. But you have to give them credit. They’re really good. They’re a really good football team.”

Amon G. Carter Stadium is sold out for the 6 p.m. kickoff. TCU hasn’t beaten Arkansas in Fort Worth since 1981, when a fourth-quarter rally produced a 28-24 victory that still echoes on campus. The last time the teams met in Fort Worth, Arkansas pulled out a 22-21 win and wasn’t seen again.

Until now.

“Obviously, our alumni are excited, just because of the old rivalries, and it’s somebody they used to see at our stadium that hasn’t been here for a while,” Patterson said. “We’ve been in these kind of ballgames before, and I expect our team to get ready to play and get ready to go. It’ll be a fun night. There’ll be a lot of people in the stands, and any time you play at night at Amon Carter, it’s rocking.”

Pay attention.

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 12:16 PM with the headline "TCU takes turn in spotlight as SEC’s Arkansas rolls into town."