2011 Bowl Season: 5 Things TCU Must Do To Win the Poinsettia Bowl

The BCS has spoken.

The Horned Frogs were unable to secure a third-straight BCS bowl bid when they could not move up two spots to the No. 16 spot in the final BCS rankings.

While not making the BCS is disappointing, the Mountain West champion Horned Frogs must now look to their next challenge: a Poinsettia bowl date with the Western Athletic Conference champion Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.

TCU (10-2) will be looking to win back-to-back bowl games after last year's historic 21-19 victory over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Louisiana Tech (8-4) will be looking for its first bowl victory since the 2008 Independence bowl.

While TCU will have the definite advantage on paper, everyone knows that games—especially bowl games—are not played on paper. They are played on the field.

If TCU wants to make sure they show they are worthy of their Goliath status they must be sure to do a few things.

Come Prepared

Every year there are a few bowl games that seem to be mismatches and no-brainers to the public. Every year a few of these games have head-scratching results, oftentimes with the underdog blowing out the favorite.

What goes wrong?

The favorite doesn't come to play.

This game is set up perfectly to be one of those games. TCU must prepare and be ready to play in this game.

After two straight BCS appearances and a near appearance this year, there's a chance the Frogs could be viewing the Poinsettia Bowl as a letdown. Instead, they need to realize that the Poinsettia bowl could be considered an overachievement given all of the talent they lost from last year and the tall task of asking their young players to step up, something they needed for the Frogs to be successful this year.

The Frogs have no time to feel sorry for themselves and need to focus on representing the Mountain West Conference well one last time if they want to end the season with a nice victory.

Respect Louisiana Tech

Beyond just being let down by their bowl slotting, TCU absolutely can not look past their opponent, Louisiana Tech.

While an 8-4 team from the WAC may not seem like all that tough of an opponent, Louisiana Tech's season has paralleled TCU in many ways. Most importantly, the Louisiana Tech team that finished the season is a whole lot better than the team that started it.

While the Frogs finished the season on a very impressive streak of victories, including their season-defining victory over Boise State, Louisiana Tech has finished the season on the strength of a seven-game win streak after a shaky 1-4 start.

Furthermore, the team has not lost since junior quarterback Colby Cameron has taken over as the starter and has won five of their last seven games by double digits.

Louisiana Tech will be excited to be taking on a team that suddenly has a lot of name recognition after recent successes and will definitely be looking to make a name for themselves at the expense of the Horned Frogs.

TCU must respect Louisiana Tech if they want to make sure that doesn't happen.

Overwhelm from the Start

It may be cliche, but setting a tone early will be pivotal if TCU wants to win the Poinsettia bowl.

Clearly, TCU has the better pedigree and has done well in bowl games under Gary Patterson. They also clearly have superior talent on both sides of the ball. They must make that abundantly clear from the outset.

Louisiana Tech has not had near the success of TCU and has not won a bowl game since 2008. A lot of the excitement could be quelled rather quickly if they find themselves down early or unable to execute any of their offense.

In both of TCU's losses, slow starts plagued them as their second-half surges came just short against Baylor and SMU.

Louisiana Tech has made a habit of keeping up with teams with more talent by getting off to good starts, as they did  in their losses to Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State and Houston.

Establishing a rhythm offensively and getting off to a fast start on defense could cause this game to be over by halftime. If TCU digs a hole like they have in the past, things will be interesting.

Win the Turnover Battle

Nothing accelerates an upset quite like consistently turning the ball over.

If the Frogs want to stave off the upset and play up to their potential they must take care of the football. Sensational sophomore quarterback Casey Pachall has done an excellent job of doing that  throughout the season and he must rise to the occasion once again now that he is starting in his first bowl game.

The concern is ball security. TCU has had issues at times this season with holding on to the ball and not fumbling. Fortunately they've been able to recover a lot of these fumbles but that's not something you want to count on in a bowl game.

With a revolving door of running backs and all of the moving parts of TCU's offense, fumbles are more likely, but in this game they must make sure to keep them in check.

Casey Pachall Must Finish Strong

With Andy Dalton graduating, many critics wondered aloud how well the Frogs would be able to replace the four-year starter at quarterback. Replacing a four-year starter at quarterback is never easy, but Casey Pachall has made it look as easy as can possibly be done.

The sophomore has somewhat quietly had an outstanding season, throwing for 2,715 yards while tossing 24 touchdown passes to only six interceptions.

While Pachall hasn't really gotten much publicity for his great season, the Poinsettia bowl could serve as a great launching pad for a highly-successful 2012 campaign.

At 6-foot-5 and 216 pounds Pachall is quite the specimen and is welll-suited to push Andy Dalton as the best quarterback in the team's modern era.

With Pachall at the helm the Frogs have been able to score from anywhere on the field, as they showed in their 36-35 victory over Boise State, which was powered by multiple long touchdown tosses. Their quick-strike ability is among the best in the country and gives them a clear advantage in this game.

If TCU is able to come into this game focused and motivated, get off to a fast start, limit their turnovers and get a great performance from Casey Pachall, they should be able to leave the Mountain West on a winning note.

In short, the only way they will lose this game is if they beat themselves.