• The KillerFrogs

Diehards: Former TCU WR Deante Gray calls 2014 playoff snub a ‘slap in the face’

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
Diehards: Former TCU WR Deante Gray calls 2014 playoff snub a ‘slap in the face’

Dean Straka
@dwstraka49

It’s now been more than three years since TCU football was dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff rankings of the 2014 regular season — despite coming off a 55-3 win over Iowa State.

And for at least one player on that Big 12 championship team, the wounds inflicted by the playoff committee are still fresh.

Former Horned Frogs wide receiver Deante Gray, in a radio interview with Heartland College Sports’ Pete Mundo, said it still hurts to think about what could have been after TCU wasn’t picked for a chance to compete for a trip to the national championship game and more.

Gray, who played at TCU from 2012-2016, described it as a “slap on the face” when it was revealed that his team wouldn’t be heading to Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl game that New Year’s Day — especially after dominating the competition week after week in the stretch run of the regular season.

Read more at https://www.diehards.com/tcu/former-tcu-wr-deante-gray
 

Hoosierfrog

Tier 1
Regardless that people say they made the right decision with Ohio A&M, any team can win twice in an invitational tournament. And regardless of what a Wexosu says, the Fighting Seeds didn’t deserve to move up that far by playing an overrated Wisconsin team. This was pure and blatant bias. If this had been a social thing The Reverend Jesse and Al would have been marching in the streets.
 

Limp Lizard

Full Member
Two things killed TCU's chance outside of the tOSU bias:
  1. that was the B12 with Briles whining so much and co-champions after a year of "One True Champion".
  2. A mediocre Florida State barely going undefeated. Fla St. was the defending national champ and had gone undefeated (with many lackluster performances), so I don't know how they could have kept them out. If FSU had lost a game, then I imagine we would still debating whether or not Baylor or TCU was the best choice, since one of those would have been chosen.
 

BABYFACE

Full Member
Gray is right, and TCU should have been in.

My theory on TCU being placed at 6 instead of 5 was damage control by the CFB PC when replacing the Frogs with O ST. They thought of placing Baylor at 5 and TCU at 6 would eliminate or minimize the debate of O St going in over TCU. The committee now says Baylor would be next in line. That is my theory. Funny thing, the debate after wards was not about if O St was more deserving that Baylor. The talk in the sports media was should have TCU dropped out of the top 4 and should have O ST jumped them.

The other talk was the right choice was made because O St won it all that year. Yes, but if TCU had gone instead, the Frogs could have won it all that year also. I actually think they would have. Great team chemistry that season.
 

BABYFACE

Full Member
Two things killed TCU's chance outside of the tOSU bias:
  1. that was the B12 with Briles whining so much and co-champions after a year of "One True Champion".
  2. A mediocre Florida State barely going undefeated. Fla St. was the defending national champ and had gone undefeated (with many lackluster performances), so I don't know how they could have kept them out. If FSU had lost a game, then I imagine we would still debating whether or not Baylor or TCU was the best choice, since one of those would have been chosen.
I agree that Briles and the Baylor people torpedoed the Big 12 and TCU that year.
 

Gunner

Active Member
Thanks to the Briles Delaney, who hates competition, we got screwed.

Delaney, 'til this day, claims history and tradition should be the deciding factors in choosing a national championship. Competition be damned!
 

Kyle101011

Active Member
afraid to ask, but how did the frogs blow the 2016 cws when they were still 3 wins away from the national title?
Good point. I just think out of the 5 CWS we’ve been to that was the easiest field and I think we had the team to do it. Out of the remaining 4 teams (us, Arizona,CC, and OSU)I thought we were the best. None were national seeds. It just felt like our year.
Unlike this year where all of the final 4 teams were national seeds.
 

Atomic Frawg

Full Member
Fellas, the main thing that stopped us from ein in the playoffs was money. Don't fool yourselves. The NCG was in Arlington. They wanted outside fanbases in town to make loot and not TCU fans who would've eaten at home, slept at home, and drove over to the game for the win. I have absolutely ZERO doubt that every DFW mayor was sending swag bags to the committee members in Grapevine prodding them not to pick the home team. Yep, I said it, and I mean it. Briles be damned. They could've yelled 61-58 'til the cows came home, and we would've still been in. Once OSU beat Whisky the they had the talking point they needed to justify their picks. It was the money, and we were doomed from the start of the season.

A quick shout out to Ole Miss (best booty we ever had).
 

Froginbedford

Full Member
Regardless that people say they made the right decision with Ohio A&M, any team can win twice in an invitational tournament. And regardless of what a Wexosu says, the Fighting Seeds didn’t deserve to move up that far by playing an overrated Wisconsin team. This was pure and blatant bias. If this had been a social thing The Reverend Jesse and Al would have been marching in the streets.

The committee can always say it made the correct choice because whomever it chose won the tournament finale....
 
Top