WHO: No. 11 TCU (10-2) vs. No. 15 Oregon (9-3)
WHAT: The 23rd Valero Alamo Bowl
WHEN: 6:45 p.m. ET on ESPN
WHERE: Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas
THE SKINNY: Well, this isn’t the game we thought it’d be. Trevone Boykin‘s arrest and subsequent suspension Thursday morning let the air out of the purple balloon on what shaped up to be the best non-New Year’s Six bowl game.
Walk-on Bram Kohlhausen figures to start in Boykin’s place. He entered the Oklahoma game that Foster Sawyer started for an injured Boykin and nearly rescued the Frogs after Sawyer fired three interceptions, hitting 5-of-11 passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns with no picks as TCU battled from a 30-13 fourth quarter deficit to throw a potential game-winning two-point conversion in a 30-29 defeat.
With All-American wide receiver Josh Doctson out with a wrist injury, TCU will do duck hunting with one arm tied behind their back.
Oregon, meanwhile, has no such trouble. The Ducks sat at 3-3 in mid-October after a home loss to Washington State, but closed with six straight wins after the return of quarterback Vernon Adams, including wins over Pac-12 champion Stanford and Pac-12 South champion USC. The Eastern Washington transfer fired 21 touchdowns against only two picks while averaging while averaging an astronomical 11.04 yards per attempt. (Adams finished the year as the nation’s leader with 10.2 yards per attempt; fellow Duck Marcus Mariota led the country in 2014 at 10.0).
With Ducks clicking on all cylinders and the Frogs reeling, this one feels like an unfortunate blowout.
THE PREDICTION: Oregon 41, TCU 21