Nov. 12, 2005
Final Stats
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Quentily Harmon caught a touchdown pass and Cory Rodgers ran for another TCU score before UNLV even gained a yard and the No. 18 Horned Frogs were quickly on way to keeping their slim BCS hopes alive with a 51-3 victory Saturday night.
Already playing their regular-season finale, the Horned Frogs (10-1, 8-0 Mountain West Conference) won their ninth straight game - only No. 1 USC (32 games) and No. 2 Texas (17) have longer active winning streaks. It is TCU's fourth 10-win season in six years.
Freshman Aaron Brown ran for 105 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries. Rodgers also caught a 55-yard TD in the third quarter from Jeff Ballard, who was 17-of-31 passing for 279 yards and the two TDs.
While getting into the Bowl Championship Series will be a stretch, coach Gary Patterson wanted to keep his team focused on finishing strong. TCU clinched the outright Mountain West title with a 33-6 victory over Colorado State last week, but held off celebrating that until after beating the Rebels (2-8, 1-6).
The Frogs were 17th in the latest BCS standings, five spots below what would make them eligible for one of those four bowl games. Now, they sit back and watch for the rest of November and hope for a series of upsets in other games.
Chris Manfredini kicked the first of his three field goals, a 29-yarder, to end TCU's opening drive.
Ronnie Smith then muffed the kickoff return, which was recovered by Ervin Dickerson at the UNLV 31. Four plays later, on fourth-and-5 from the 26, Ballard hit Harmon, who juggled the ball crossing the goal line but gathered it in for a 10-0 lead.
The Rebels lost a yard on their first play and Jarrod Jackson threw an incomplete pass before Drew Coleman's interception and 22-yard return set TCU up at the 18. Rogers swept around left end on the third play for a 9-yard TD and a 17-point lead just 7 1/2 minutes into the game.
Brown had a pair of 1-yard runs and Manfredini a 22-yard field goal in the second quarter to give the Horned Frogs a 34-3 halftime lead.
TCU had 312 of its 587 yards by halftime, when Ballard had thrown for 187 yards to six different receivers.
UNLV had just 157 total yards, 62 of them on a pass to Erick Jackson midway through the third quarter. But Sergio Aguayo, who kicked a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter, was wide left on a 38-yard attempt.
The Rebels were the second straight TCU opponent held without a touchdown.
Patterson is the only coach to lead the Horned Frogs to three 10-win seasons (2002, 2003 and 2005), and was the defensive coordinator when they won 10 games in 2000. TCU has only four other 10-win seasons, all in the 1930s.
In its inaugural MWC season, TCU became only the third team to get through the league undefeated. The Frogs captured their first outright conference title since 1958, having shared four titles in three conferences (Southwest, Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA) the previous 11 seasons.
TCU's only loss was 21-10 at SMU on Sept. 10, a week after a season-opening 17-10 upset victory at then-No. 7 Oklahoma. The winning streak began with consecutive overtime victories, but the Frogs have won their last seven games by an average of 25 points.
