Fun with Frogs

Texas 32, TCU 27

October 2, 2021 • Fort Worth

Finally, finally, finally my Horns were able to beat the Frogs in Fort Worth. Apparently, Brett was my lucky charm! Even though he supports my football fandom, to that point he had attended very few games with me. Since my usual companions were otherwise occupied that Saturday, he agreed to come with. And whadyaknow, we WON for the first time in a while!

P.S. – I did attempt to cook those frog legs, btw, but they were NASTY with a capital N! Several years prior when I had breaded and baked the frog legs, they were pretty darn tasty, but not this time around. Yuck! Good thing that W tasted great!

 

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Pumpkin Power Down

TCU 37, Texas 27 

October 26, 2019 • Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, Texas

Years ago my mom surprised Dede and me at a football game with some mallowcreme pumpkins. She called them “pumpkin power” and credited them with our Horns’ success that day. Since then, Dede and I pack some pumpkin power for random October games.

Alas, even the pumpkins couldn’t save our team from losing to the Horned Frogs. Our offense racked up a ton of yards, but four turnovers? Yikes.

Breakfast at Snooze in Fort Worth

Yummy!

Back at Frog Alley! I remember our first Frog Alley visit when I wished we could have something similar at DKR. We get TCU’s AD, and now we DO have our own Bevo Blvd. Thanks, CDC!

Great to see two of my besties together again, first time since a kid’s birthday party years ago.

Postgame solace.

Texas Sports recap

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Rockin’ the Rickel

Texas Volleyball 3 sets, TCU 2 

Oct. 3, 2018 • The Rickel, TCU, Fort Worth

Getting to attend a volleyball match on a school night is exactly why I was thrilled when TCU joined the Big 12. 

The Horns won the first two sets 25-23 and 25-22. After those close sets, it wasn’t that surprising when TCU won sets 3 and 4 25-20 and 25-18. The Horns took the fifth set 15-12, and the burnt orange faithful went home happy. 

All that—and Brett and I were on TV!

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A Leg to Stand On

Texas 31, TCU 16 

Sept. 22, 2018 • DKR

The grilled frog legs at the tailgate were pretty darn tasty, but beating the Frogs was even more delicious!

Texas Sports recap

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Bugged Out

TCU 24, Texas 7 

Nov. 4, 2017 • Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, Texas

Back in DKR’s day, the Frogs were “cockroaches”—just messing it up for everyone else. Not so much anymore! They’ve been messin’ with Texas lately, and that just ain’t right.

At least this “road game” is a local one for us Fort Worth residents!

Happy to have a road game in our hometown!

It was great to see my college friend Scott and his son pregame!

Lovely downtown FW

What great seats our band has!

I think those little white lines are Texas players.

❤ ACL

❤ Austin

Texas Sports recap

 

 

 

Frog-tied

TCU 31, Texas 9

Nov. 25, 2016 • DKR

I had the cutest little gummy frogs for this TEXAS, and I was optimistic that our team would really show up for Coach Strong.

But instead, our team was shown up. The gummies were extra-chewy, too.

 

Gummy frogs for the Horned Frogs

Waiting for the team in the rain

Love Hook ’Em’s coach attire

Still waiting for the team

Nice hats

Bevo’s 100th anniversary card

The front of Bevo’s card

The back of Bevo’s card

LOTS of well wishes…

…including one from me!

Longhorn legends

And the legend whose name is on the stadium

LHB

Bertha

TCU band

We’ll miss you!

SWOOOOOOOPES!

Hi, Matthew

LHB’s Bevo

I spy my signature!

Mighty Fine comfort food (while mourning Florence Henderson)

So that’s all she wrote on the Strong era, D’Onta’s Heisman that could’ve been, the loss of all that promise we felt on opening night after beating Notre Dame.

Here’s to fresh starts, stud recruits, and WINS.

Hook ’em.

Bloody Mess

TCU 50, Texas 7 

Oct. 3, 2015 • Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth

 

After two close contests that could’ve gone our way, I called it. Mark it down: We’ll win one of our next two “impossible” games.

Then this game happened.

That’s what I get for giving a first-of-its-kind guarantee. What a mess! A strong defensive possession to start the game seemed to give us hope, but an early injury to our speed demon, Daje Johnson, foreshadowed our demise.

This week’s “TEXAS” is spelled with blood because of the horned frog’s odd defense mechanism. Horned frogs can “spit” blood out of their eyes! The TCU version of frogs uses a red line on the helmet to represent this weird biological trick. As I squirted that fake blood all over my plate, I had no idea how appropriate that stuff would be for this bloodbath.

How bad was it?

It was so bad, we started celebrating first downs—and even then, we rarely had cause to high-five. It was so bad, the refs didn’t even have to call bogus calls for us to move backwards. It was so bad, “fans” practically ran from their seats once we were down by 21. It was so bad, my naysayer friends ran out of negative things to add to our group text.

The Frogs hadn’t quite hit half-a-hundred when I posted this on Facebook:

Even though the game was lame, when my Horns are on the field, there’s no place I’d rather be than in the stands.

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Last Leg

TCU 48, Texas 10

Nov. 27, 2014 • DKR

 

One would think that THIS:

would be the grossest thing I’d see this week. While shopping for frog legs, I came across these poor popsicles (or would that be HOPsicles?) in our local Asian market. I’ve spelled Texas with lots of things, but I draw the line at frozen whole frog. Ew.

I did summon the courage to take home these babies, though.

I even cooked these frog legs myself (as opposed to watching friends grill them or buying them pre-cooked). The slimy guys were pretty nasty (and vein-y), but nothing prepared me for the really icky things we were to see Thursday night in DKR.

What an awful game.

It was just one gut-punch after another: dropped passes, bad play-calling, wrong routes, turnovers (holy COW, the turnovers!), rotten officiating, even a few defensive miscues. Yes, our D was again stellar for most of the game, and Swoopes (bless his heart), when he held onto the ball, managed a few really good plays. But even our good plays were followed by momentum-busting officials’ reviews or injuries. Ugh. The lowest moment came with 10 minutes to go when we faced 4th down at midfield. Losing by 17, it seemed like a given we’d go for it. But no. We punted—punted away any chance for getting back in this thing. Certainly, it would’ve been a long shot, but it was better than—oh, I don’t know—quitting with so much time left on the clock! Our coaches gave up, but TCU didn’t. The Frogs went on to score THREE MORE TOUCHDOWNS. Whadyaknow, it IS possible to score three times in 10 minutes. Hmmm…

Last year, I referenced Coach Royal’s famous “cockroach” quote when I spelled Texas. After this year’s game, I posted this to Facebook:

My friend and I also took a postgame selfie to show how we felt about the outcome:

Full disclosure: We had way too much fun trying to look mad for this photo! We laughed until we cried and our sides hurt. Delirium had definitely set in.

What a lame way to end this crazy, mixed bag of a season. We started with high hopes, settled in for a rebuilding year, then found ourselves on a three-game winning streak and bowl eligible. We went from “We’re going to be bad so let’s just ride it out” to “These guys are really starting to get it together.” I knew TCU was good this year, but I let myself believe that our guys could pull the upset.

Sure enough, here we are. Upset.

I’d hate for this roller coaster of a season to end this way. Here’s hoping that we can send off these seniors with a bowl win and spend the long, hot off-season relishing a victory instead of trying to forget another bitter defeat.

Scenes from the big tailgate, pregame, game and halftime:

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Turkeys, Turnovers and Time for Change

TCU 20, Texas 13

Nov. 22, 2012 • DKR

Two times. Dos. Just twice in my lifetime TCU has beaten my Horns in football. I was there for both losses, and as bad as that 1992 game was, this one was worse. Recent ou games may have been more painful because of that rivalry’s intensity, but this one was off-the-charts frustrating.

I have never seen Texas so unprepared for a game. The defense struggled to slow down TCU’s rushing attack (no surprise there), but the Frogs had no trouble stopping our run. Our backfield is filthy with talent (see: J. Gray, Daje Johnson), but none of our guys managed to get into a rhythm. Our receivers dropped passes and ran wrong routes, and our QBs made some poor decisions under pressure. And the turnovers! Oh, the turnovers! TCU turned two of those turnovers into touchdowns. Thanks to those turnovers, our guys were behind all night, and in spite of a late TD drive led by Case McCoy, there was no Kansas-esque comeback this time.

Fortunately, that turkey of a game was not the day’s only turkey. In fact, at our tailgate, we feasted on FOUR fried turkeys and some ham! Everyone brought their family’s favorite dishes, and we chowed down in fine fashion. In honor of our fantastic Thanksgiving dinner, we spelled Texas with five of our foods: turkey, mashed potatoes, frog legs, stuffing and croissants.

It was perfect tailgating weather.

Of course, we had frog legs as an appetizer.

Steve takes a bite out of frog.

We even had a few guests from TCU try the frog legs!

Now that’s Texas hospitality. (I’m pretty sure the guy in the suit is the TCU version of PSY. Oppan Fort Worth style?)

We had our just desserts.

Carving time

We had more food than table space.

Our own Thanksgiving feast

Corn salad, broccoli-rice, pineapple casserole, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, four different stuffings: DELISH.

Wow.

So many desserts, so little time.

During the off-season a few years ago, a tree appeared in the middle of our spot. By the first game, though, that tree was gone. So imagine our surprise when all this time later we discovered a tree smack dab in the middle of our spot! No worries: Now our tent home features a central “courtyard.” (No trees were harmed in the making of this tailgate.)

I don’t have many game pix this time; it’s hard to focus when you’re losing your ever-lovin’ mind after your QB throws for a 3-yard gain on 3rd and 7. In spite of the on-field ugliness, there were a few highlights:

LHB in the big T and the world’s largest Texas flag: Never gets old!

TCU band (under the direction of an old friend)

Senior Night

Here come the Horns!

Rare moment in the red zone

NOT a highlight: one of many incomplete passes.

Missed TCU field goal: Doesn’t look like we got a hand on it, but it was a miss all the same.

In honor of the 96th anniversary of UT having a longhorn mascot, Bevo XIV celebrated with a birthday haybale cake. He immediately pulled down a bale and started chowing down.

TCU Band halftime show

We are TEXAS.

The band plays on, and the steer keeps eating…

…and eating! Hook ’em, Bevo!

And so another home football season comes to a close. I’ll miss the time spent with our friends at the tailgate. I’ll miss the hoopla and fanfare, the songs and the cheers. I’ll miss the chance to really let loose with a good scream when we’re on defense. But I WON’T miss the frustration, the disappointment, the forehead-slapping WHY-WHY-WHY?! that comes with losing.

This is not the first time we’ve lost our last home game, but it is really tough to get used to this. Same goes for losing to TCU! So here’s the deal: How ’bout we don’t? Let’s NOT grow accustomed to losing to unranked teams, to seeing our team utterly unprepared to play, to watching our seniors lose their last game in DKR. Sure, we could be OK with mediocrity, find a way to accept that you win some, you lose some. But I don’t wanna.

Coach Brown has done wonders for our program. When I think of my days in the student section back in the late 1980s, I realize just how far we’ve come. We owe Mack tons, but you know what? We’ve PAID him tons. He’s earned plenty of respect. But that doesn’t mean he gets a free pass forever.

Like Coach Royal told him, “You’ve got to win all them damn games.”

Call us spoiled; call us “whiny.” Whatever. It’s a long time until our next game in DKR and even longer until we can avenge this loss. We want more. We want to win every damn game ’til Gabriel blows his horn.