Dallas Cowboys pulling for TCU to bring home title; Jerry Jones says TCU is no joke

TCU is taking the first step on Monday in what the Dallas Cowboys hope will be a North Texas championship game two-step when the Horned Frogs face the Georgia in the College Football Playoff Championship at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

The Cowboys, who began their championship quest in the playoffs next week, hope to end their season out west as well in the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.

There are some players in the Cowboys locker room who continue to treat TCU as an unknown underdog and claim it got a fluke win over Michigan in the CFP semifinals to the frustration of former Horned Frogs tackle, a Aviante Collins, a member of the Cowboys practice squad, who has worn purple all week, per quarterback Dak Prescott.

“There are saying Michigan should have won and it was a fluke,” Collins. “I said your team ain/t there. That shut ‘em real quick. I‘m excited about it. Georgia is a really good football team. But don’t count us out. Nobody thought we would make this far.”

Prescott, who played at Mississippi State, remains consumed by his bias for the Southeastern Conference.

But TCU has grown on him. The Horned Frogs’ run to the championship game has impressed Prescott. He is also impressed with quarterback Max Duggan.

“SEC is the best,” Prescott said. “I’ve gained respect for TCU, shoot yeah. 100% respect for TCU. That’s a resilient team, a tough team. Doesn’t matter who they play, the only thing that matters is the score at the end. The quarterback is tough as hell. You got a quarterback like that anything is possible. He’s tough. He wasn’t even projected me to starter and he’s got all these guys following him.

“I’m pulling for him honestly. I don’t know if I want them to win over the SEC, but I’m damn sure pulling for them. and hope it’s a great one. If they win I’d be just as excited.”

Outside of Collins and kick returner KaVontae Turpin, another TCU alum, nobody on the Cowboys is more and impressed with TCU than owner Jerry Jones.

He called their season “magical” and believes it’s one of the greatest stories in the history of college football, considering their size compared to the traditional football powerhouses, as well at the lucrative NIL opportunities at the bigger programs.

“I’m so impressed and proud of what TCU is doing,” Jones said on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan. “The fact that they are here is just magical. I don’t mean it to be rare in that sense. I mean it to be from the standpoint of having come as far as this team and this school has come when you look at the lay of the land today. This is as impressive had it been done at anytime in my mind in college football for TCU, a school of that enrollment, school of that stature, stepping up here and having a chance to win the national championship.

This is particularly impressive now that you have the ability of these players to move around and have other incentives than have ever been there before for — let’s say wealthier teams. Can I say that? Whether it be tradition or it be financial, but to be able to sit up here in the face of the way the game is today in college and be lining up to take a kickoff to win the national championship is a huge deal for TCU.”

Jones understands while TCU may be underdogs against Georgia. He played in college at Arkansas and knows the strength of the SEC up close and personal.

But he believes TCU’s magical ride could end with a title.

“The great thing, again, this TCU team is no joke,” Jones said. “Boy, it is a sound, sound, sound team that can win this game. Do they have an uphill battle? They do, but should they do it, it will be one of the real sports stories of my — frankly it would be one of the sports stories of my time.”