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Well, that one was a little too close for comfort.
TCU football squeezed past Iowa State Saturday night in a 17-14 victory at Amon G. Carter Stadium, but not without a scare or two before Jonathan Song sent the game-winning field goal through the uprights in the final minute of regulation. From three turnovers to injury-exits for both wide receiver KaVontae Turpin and starting quarterback Shawn Robinson, the Horned Frogs’ win over the now 1-3 Cyclones was far from pretty.
So what does that mean in regards to the weekly AP Top 25 rankings?
No surprise, TCU was left out for the second consecutive week. And while a few voters were still kind enough to include the Frogs on their ballots, that number is slowly dwindling amid an entirely new batch of concerns that unearthed itself under the lights in Fort Worth in Week 5.
Courtesy of our friends at CollegePollTracker.com, here’s a quick breakdown of how the voters treated TCU after its first Big 12 win of 2018.
- No. 21 (1) — Kirk Bohls, Austin American-Statesman
- No. 23 (1) — Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
- No. 24 (2) — Johnny Miller, WBZ 1030 (Boston, Mass.); Robert Cessna, Bryan-College Station Eagle
- No. 25 (1) — Sam McKewon, Omaha World-Herald
- Unranked (56)
There have been better times, though not all faith has been lost. Another silver lining for now, at least, is that both of TCU’s losses have come against Top 25 opponents — including an Ohio State quad that is now ranked No. 3 after defeating Penn State on Saturday.
Only problem, the Frogs won’t be able to aid their perception this coming weekend, and with Texas Tech dropping out of the AP Top 25, it will be another three weeks before TCU gets another opponent (Oklahoma) currently ranked in the Top 25. That’s not to mention the potential absence of Robinson and the impact it could have for the team’s productivity going forward.
Alas, four Big 12 teams — Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma State — are among the 25 best in the nation heading into Week 6. Will the Frogs join that party again at any point in 2018? Hard to say, but there’s a good does of reasonable doubt to be had just two weeks after TCU looked like it could hang with any blue-chip program in the country.