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NCAA Football Recap (USC-TCU)
Posted: Thur December 31, 1998 at 8:17 p.m. EST TCU 28, USC 19EL PASO, Texas (Ticker) -- With only six wins, many thought Texas Christian was not worthy of a bowl appearance. Today, the Horned Frogs proved their critics wrong in a big way. Basil Mitchell rushed for 185 yards and two touchdowns on only 19 carries as TCU earned its first bowl victory in 41 years with a 28-19 win over heavily favored Southern California in the 65th Sun Bowl. "We did believe," said TCU coach Dennis Franchione, who guided the Horned Frogs to a bowl victory in his first season with a team that went 1-10 last year. "We might have been the only ones in the nation, but we believed we could beat them." Quarterback Patrick Batteaux added 94 yards and two scores on 28 carries for TCU, which completed a 7-5 season. The Horned Frogs recorded their first postseason win since defeating Syracuse in the 1957 Cotton Bowl. TCU put the finishing touches on its best one-year turnaround since a seven-game improvement in 1984. It also recorded its third winning season in five years but just its sixth in the last 33. Finishing with the seventh-best record in the Western Athletic Conference, TCU was a controversial choice for the Sun Bowl because Wyoming, Colorado State and Utah all had better records but did not receive bowl bids. But despite being 16-point underdogs, the Horned Frogs proved more than a worthy representative, taking control early and holding off Southern California's second-half rally. TCU dominated the line of scrimmage, rushing for 314 yards while holding USC to a Sun Bowl record minus-23, breaking by two yards the mark set by Florida State in 1951. The Trojans (8-5) also posted the lowest rushing total in school history, eclipsing the previous record of minus-11 yards against Iowa in 1976. Mitchell fell just short of Charles Alexander's Sun Bowl rushing record of 197 yards. He opened the scoring with a three-yard run 7:07 into the first quarter and scampered 60 yards just under three minutes later to give the Horned Frogs a 14-0 lead. Mitchell appeared a lock to break Alexander's record after rushing for 114 yards in the first half, but he was held to 71 yards in the second, when the Trojans tightened their defense. Batteaux's eight-yard TD run made it 21-0 just 5 1/2 minutes into the second quarter before USC finally got on the board on Adam Abrams' 35-yard field goal with 3:15 remaining before halftime. TCU extended its lead to 28-3 on Batteaux's three-yard run 4:28 into the third quarter, but the momentum quickly turned as the Horned Frogs failed to pick up a first down on their next three possessions. TCU was held to 114 yards in the second half, most of that on a 78-yard scoring drive. The Horned Frogs were limited to minus-17 yards on their next three possessions. True freshman Carson Palmer completed 17-of-28 passes for a season-best 280 yards and rallied the Trojans. He tossed a 23-yard TD pass to Billy Hunter that pulled USC within 18. On Southern Cal's next possession, Palmer threw an 18-yard completion to Larry Parker on 4th-and-8, setting up Petros Papadakis' one-yard TD run with 1:34 left in the period. The two-point conversion pass failed, leaving the Trojans behind, 28-16. USC appeared ready to strike again early in the fourth quarter, driving to the TCU 16. But back-to-back sacks forced the Trojans to settle for Abrams' 46-yard field goal with 12:30 remaining. Southern California forced TCU to punt for the third straight time, but an illegal block on the return pushed the Trojans back to their 42. They could not sustain a drive and had to give the ball back to TCU with 8:16 remaining. The Horned Frogs put away the game by chewing more than six minutes off the clock before pinning USC inside its 15 with less than two minutes remaining. Palmer was sacked for a 12-yard loss on first down and USC ended up punting from its end zone on 4th-and-22. Batteaux knelt twice to run out the clock. The loss snapped a three-game bowl winning streak for USC, which was appearing in its first bowl since defeating Northwestern in the 1996 Rose Bowl. The Trojans fell to 25-14 in bowl games, while TCU snapped a four-bowl losing streak and improved to 5-9-1. © 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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