Valero Alamo Bowl: Oregon vs TCU TV info, live stream, odds, predictions

The TCU Horned Frogs and Oregon Ducks meet in the Alamo Bowl but TCU won’t have star quarterback Trevone Boykin who was suspended after he was arrested on New Year’s Eve.

TCU and Oregon were scheduled to bring in two of the most high-powered offenses in all of college football into their Valero Alamo Bowl matchup. This game was supposed to display two of the best quarterbacks in the country, but after Trevone Boykin’s arrest early Thursday night, TCU will be without its dual-threat quarterback. 

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Even with a 1,000-yard running back and one of the top wide receivers in the country, the loss of Boykin could be a back-breaker. It could, however, also be a coming-out moment for Boykin’s fill-in, which will be either Foster Sawyer or Bram Kohlhausen, if not both.

With such daunting attacks on offense, these teams expected much more from their seasons, with both being favored by many to win their respected conferences. Though they fell short of such aspirations, the Ducks have been one of the hottest teams in the country their last six games, and the Horned Frogs are looking to give a duo of star seniors a proper sendoff after a big win against Baylor in their last contest.

• Date: Saturday, January 2
• Time: 6:45 ET
• Location: San Antonio, Texas
• TV Channel: ESPN
• Live Stream: WatchESPN
• Spread: Oregon -7

For Oregon, their season was quickly derailed of returning to the playoffs with a loss to Michigan State. They later were blown out by Utah and had a surprising defeat at the hands of Washington State. Despite these setbacks, quarterback Vernon Adams healed from an early finger injury and found his form in the backend of the schedule.

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Oregon’s offense has blazed through opponent’s defenses, scoring 243 points in their last five games. That’s nearly 49 a game, made fully possible by a multi-dimensional attack. While Adams has amounted 773 passing yards and nine touchdown throws in the last two games alone, Royce Freeman has continued to give fantastic production in the run game. Between the 1,706 yards Freeman has gobbled up and the supreme efficiency of Adams (25 touchdowns to six interceptions), it’s no wonder why Oregon has returned to being one of the nation’s most prolific offenses.

Their defense, however, has been an entirely different story. Giving up 42 points to Eastern Washington, 62 to Utah or 55 to Arizona State must have TCU licking their chops. But there are a couple bright spots on this Ducks defense, the biggest highlight being DeForest Buckner. With 9.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss, the Ducks are going to need all the pressure they can get from him to disrupt the inexperienced quarterbacks of the Horned Frogs.

And that TCU offense will have to be ready to roll without Boykin, having gained momentum in a big win over Baylor last time out. Though the squad that scored over 40 points a game hasn’t been recently on display with All-American wide receiver John Doctson out for the game

Doctson had 1,300-plus yards, nearly 80 receptions and 14 touchdowns in 2015, but his wrist injury will keep him on the sidelines. Another senior, running back Aaron Green, balanced out the offense with over 1,000 yards on the ground this season with double-digit touchdowns.

Back in full-health after an ankle injury suffered against Kansas, Boykin was expected to do big things in his last collegiate game. It was one last outing to try to impress (if playing Oregon’s D actually applies) NFL scouts. He’ll now hope that his already questionable draft stock isn’t depleted drastically after he assaulted a police officer.

In his place will be Sawyer and Kohlhausen. The freshman Sawyer had limited success in what little action he had, including a 1 for 7 performance against Kansas and a three-interception debacle against Oklahoma in his only start. Kohlhausen had results were slightly more positive against those two opponents, but it’s likely that TCU will implement both quarterbacks in the hope that one of them will catch fire. More than likely, Kohlhausen will get the majority of the snaps.

The TCU defense will have to do much more than that. Even in the Big 12 conference filled to the brim with impressive offenses, Oregon might have the best one TCU has faced. But TCU has held their own in many games later in the year, and have given up less than the NCAA average (26) points-per-game.

But their run defense is still a soft spot, and correcting that against a back like Freeman will be a herculean task.

For TCU, they must take at least one dimension away from the well-oiled machine that is the Ducks offense. In the end, just holding them to anything less than a ghastly number of points would be appreciated by their Boykin-less offense.

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For Oregon, it’ll be all about much of the same. If they have the offense rolling, as usual, not TCU or any other team in the country is going to keep up. Given the ability to have such an air and ground game, Oregon could quickly put TCU in a hole far too deep to climb out of.

Even with both schools boasting great offenses, Oregon’s may not be stoppable at this point. TCU has a respectable defense, but the loss of Boykin will undoubtedly hurt. Both defenses may prove better than we think, but the Oregon scoring weapons should prevail in the end.