Texas Christian University football team

Done deal there, racing away to a 14-0 lead as 9 and one-half underdogs and then holding off a last Wolverine surge to come away with a remarkable 51-45 triumph and then decide what comes next.

In the locker room not long after, the Horned Frogs had already decided that whoever they played in the Jan. 9national championship at Inglewood, Calif., would be like Michigan, the choice, maybe even in double digits.

How true, for after No. 1 undefeated Georgia nipped No. 4 Ohio State, 42-41, at midnight in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, and at the same time that the ball dropped down in Times Square, the odds were assembled and there were the Bulldogs as a 13 and one-half pick according to Las Vegas.

If you want to again sell TCU short, consider this, it will no doubt be even more confidence. It’s something new for these Horned Frogs, but nice to know they had won all of their 12 conference games until the finale versus the Wildcats. Not bad, but not quite as impressive as Georgia’s run of 13 in a row and being top-ranked all season.

Except that TCU was emotional enough to send the Wolverines packing and now feels it belongs at the field of the Los Angeles Rams come championship day.

As for the Bulldogs, the odds are what they are, and they have plenty of respect for the Horned Frogs come kickoff time at 5:30 that night at Sofi Stadium.

Quarterback Caleb Williams, whose 8th-ranked Southern California team was stunned by 14-ranked Tulane, 46-45, on a long drawn-out final drive that ended on an overturned 7-yard touchdown that brought the Green Wave a huge celebration, was named the Heisman winner who lost back-to-back against Utah and then this one to end its disappointing finish.

But there were others deserving of the award and two are in the lineup of Texas Christian and Georgia.

There’s the Horned Frogs’ senior Max Duggan who is concluding in his fourth straight season after coming to the private school in Fort Worth as a four-star recruit. But he needed heart surgery before his sophomore year and played most of last season with a broken bone in his foot.

But it was an up-and-down campaign until Duggan pieced it all together down the stretch, got his side past Michigan in a marvelous effort from start to finish, and now has a shot at reeling in a national title, Georgia or no Georgia.

The Bulldogs go with a no doubt underrated quarterback in Steton Bennett. He provided the run and pass that engineered the Dawgs’ offense. He was the man on the other side of the ball that brought Georgia tough to hang with.

Now the two Heisman finalists wind down with a chance to hoist a national championship trophy. Yes, Lincoln Riley walked out on Oklahoma to haul off Williams as USC’s head coach, earned him the Heisman, and then the Trojans flopped at the wrong times after Utah sent Williams scrambling in the final minutes and Tulane did the same in the Cotton Bowl at Arlington, Tx., via the exciting 46-45 final.

And for Duggan and Bennett is the path they hoped for.

“Yeah, we already knew we’d be underdogs again,” said Duggan, “so bring it on.”

Nothing new to report on Bulldogs or what the Georgia fans also refer to as Bulldawgs. Or whatever else.

Plenty of close games among the 42 already played. In one-pointers along with Tulane over USC, there was Brigham Young over Southern Methodist, 24-23, Oregon over North Carolina, 28-27, Georgia over Ohio State, 42-41,

in 2-pointers, Arkansas over Kansas, 55-53, Middle Tennessee over San Diego State, 25-23, Pittsburgh over UCLA, 37-35, Toledo over Liberty, 21-19, Buffalo over Georgia Southern, 23-21. In 3-pointers, FSU over Oklahoma, 35-32, Boise State over North Texas, 35-32, Ohio over Wyoming, 30-27, in overtime.

That’s all folks until the finale matching TCU’s upset-minded Horned Frogs versus unbeaten Georgia that the odds have big on their minds.