Tank Carder first got famous as a youth national championship BMX racer. In TCU football lore, he’ll be known for clinching the program’s first Rose Bowl victory. Carder, a junior linebacker, swatted away Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien’s game-tying two-point conversion pass with 2:01 remaining to preserve a 21-19 Horned Frogs lead. TCU would recover the ensuing onsides kick, then ran out the clock to wrap up the program’s most significant victories.
The triumph caps a 13-0 season for the third-ranked Horned Frogs, who likely converted any doubters to recognize that despite the Frogs’ place in the Mountain West Conference, they belong among the college football elite. They became the first team from outside the sport’s BCS conferences to win a Rose Bowl and the fourth smaller-league team (third school) to win a BCS bowl since 2004.
TCU has posted several major victories in recent years. But the Rose Bowl ranks as its best in the postseason since at least a 1956 Cotton Bowl win over Syracuse. Led by quarterback Andy Dalton, the Frogs scored touchdowns on their first two drives and took a 14-13 lead into halftime. Carder and the defense dominated the second half, pressuring Tolzien and, for a while, shutting off the Badgers’ power rushing attack.
That changed in the game’s final eight minutes. Wisconsin’s John Clay, who went from starter early in the year to little-used down the stretch, pushed the Badgers out of poor field position with a pair of long runs.
The triumph caps a 13-0 season for the third-ranked Horned Frogs, who likely converted any doubters to recognize that despite the Frogs’ place in the Mountain West Conference, they belong among the college football elite. They became the first team from outside the sport’s BCS conferences to win a Rose Bowl and the fourth smaller-league team (third school) to win a BCS bowl since 2004.
TCU has posted several major victories in recent years. But the Rose Bowl ranks as its best in the postseason since at least a 1956 Cotton Bowl win over Syracuse. Led by quarterback Andy Dalton, the Frogs scored touchdowns on their first two drives and took a 14-13 lead into halftime. Carder and the defense dominated the second half, pressuring Tolzien and, for a while, shutting off the Badgers’ power rushing attack.
That changed in the game’s final eight minutes. Wisconsin’s John Clay, who went from starter early in the year to little-used down the stretch, pushed the Badgers out of poor field position with a pair of long runs.
