By Melissa Triebwasser
Frogs Today staff writer
Eight years can feel like a long time. Eight years can feel like a blink of the eye.
For 25 years, I have followed TCU football. I was there when the Frogs were 1-10 and irrelevant on the national stage. I was screaming with a friend on a landline over Christmas break in 1998 when TCU won the Sun Bowl. I was in the stands when LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for 406. I cried tears of joy when the Frogs beat Oklahoma in Norman in 2005. I cried different tears when they lost to SMU a week later.
There was the disappointment of the Fiesta Bowl in 2009 and the elation of the Rose Bowl a season later. The feeling of driving down a purple-clad Rodeo Drive for this Nor Cal native was almost indescribable. When Tank Carder knocked down Wisconsin’s 2-point conversion attempt, the tears flowed freely.
But the most emotion I’ve ever felt for TCU athletics came eight years ago, when the Frogs dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, ensuring that they would miss the opportunity to compete for a national championship after an 11-1 season.
Nothing I had experienced in sports hurt the way that hurt, making few things feel as redemptive as Sunday morning felt. Going into the weekend, TCU fans looked at their team, ranked third, and saw Ohio State lurking just outside the field, and rightly had some nerves. So when the committee got it right, the relief was palpable.
I sat on the floor of my gate at DFW Airport, watching the announcement of the field on my phone, and the tears flowed freely once again.
All TCU has ever wanted was a shot.
