Stanford running back Bryce Love breaks through the line for a first down against Notre Dame on Nov. 25. Love is second in the nation with 1,973 yards rushing. AP

The Stanford Cardinal (9-4) comes to Texas to face TCU (10-3) in the Alamo Bowl as the runner-up of the Pac 12.

The last time the Horned Frogs played the Cardinal was 2008 as part of a two-season, non-conference pairing. TCU won both games.

Five things about Stanford every TCU fan should know:

Click to resize

1. Nine from Texas — Stanford has nine players from Texas, including four from Tarrant County. Tight end Kaden Smith (Flower Mound Marcus) is third on the team with 23 receptions for 414 yards and five touchdowns.

Yr.

Player

Pos.

High School

Sr.

Brandon Simmons

FS

Mansfield Timberview

Soph.

Obi Eboh

CB

Southlake Carroll

Soph.

Richard McNitzky

LS

San Antonio MacArthur

Soph.

Kaden Smith

TE

Flower Mound Marcus

Soph.

Trevor Speights

RB

McAllen Memorial

Soph.

Michael Williams

DT

Fort Worth All Saints

Fr.

Paulson Adebo

CB

Mansfield

Fr.

Walker Little

OT

Houston Episcopal

Fr.

Joe McGrath

SS

San Antonio Alamo Heights

2. Running with Love — Running back Bryce Love is second in the nation with 1,973 yards and 17 touchdowns. The blazing fast junior is third nationally with 8.32 yards per carry... and he is a pre-med student on top of that.

3. Pick 16 — The Cardinal defense has 16 interceptions spread out between 10 players. Only 10 schools have more interceptions than Stanford. Safety Justin Reid leads the team with five picks.

4. Small and expensive — For once, TCU isn’t by far the smaller school. Stanford has an undergraduate enrollment of 7,032. TCU is at 10,394, including graduate students. Stanford has more graduate students 9,304 so therefore 16,336 total students, almost 6,000 more than TCU. Tuition fees and other costs push the cost of tuition, room and board to nearly $70,000 at Stanford. TCU is about $58,000 a year.

5. Bowl bound — Stanford has been to nine consecutive bowls, including the past seven under head coach David Shaw, who is trying to win 10 games for the sixth season. Shaw is 4-2 in bowls. TCU has been to a bowl the past four seasons and 15 of 17 season under Gary Patterson. Patterson is 9-6 in bowl games, including a loss in the Mobile Alabama Bowl, which was his first game as TCU’s head coach in 2000.

 

Stefan Stevenson: 817-390-7760, @StevensonFWST

This story was originally published December 04, 2017 6:33 PM.