Baylor, TCU revive a rivalry and it's the Bears who have the most to celebrate

It's revivalry Saturday in Waco.

Baylor plays host to TCU. The two rival programs are on differing trajectories.

Matt Rhule's Bears need only one more win to qualify for a bowl. And if it happens, what a turnaround that would be. This is the same team that celebrated only one victory in 2017, Rhule's first season on campus.

Then there are the flailing Horned Frogs. They need to win two more games to become bowl-eligible, meaning TCU must sweep Saturday's contest against Baylor and then hold off Oklahoma State at Amon Carter. The Frogs have won once since the first of October. They are far removed from last year's team, which made the Big 12 title game and beat Stanford in the Alamo Bowl for a 11-3 season.

The Bears have been gritty. They pushed Texas to the last few seconds. The last time they played at McLane Stadium, they upset the Cowboys to put the team in a bowl conversation. The Bears lost 28-14 to Iowa State in frigid Ames last Saturday. Baylor was rallying in the fourth quarter when starting quarterback Charlie Brewer was tossed for arguing a call with an official.

Baylor has been trying to revive itself after a sexual assault scandal rocked the program in 2016. Midway through the 2016 season, the Bears, who were led by interim coach Jim Grobe, were 6-1. The Horned Frogs rolled them 62-22. The program hasn't found any sort of equilibrium until this season.

Rhule says he wants the win most for the seniors, who stuck with the program through the bad and now deserve some good.

"And I think if you ask them, these last two years have been tough years for them," Rhule said this week. "And for it now to all culminate and come full circle, where those same guys that were out there in that rout, (TCU) here they are now with a chance to go out there on Senior Day and play their best football game. Because that’s what this is, this is an opportunity for us to play our best football, for those seniors to walk off the field and sing 'That Good Ol’ Baylor Line' and walk in the locker room and dance and sing and love each other and hug on each other, they will have stood for something.

"If we lost the game, I still believe they stand for something, don’t get me wrong," he added. "But they will have a chance to finish it off the right way and then go play Texas Tech. I think for me, it’s more about us and the journey our seniors have been through and the things that we’ve been through this year and the opportunity to go play one more game at home in front of our family and friends and try to play our best game.”

Conversely, it's been mostly painful this season in Fort Worth. The Frogs could finish with a losing record in the regular season for the first time since 2013. The only other time it's happened in Patterson's tenure has been 2004.

And TCU's slide into mediocrity has been a steady one, picking up momentum each Saturday. The Frogs looked capable of competing for a Big 12 title in mid-September when they lost a winnable game to Ohio State.

It found a new bottom last Saturday in Morgantown with a 47-10 loss to West Virginia. The Frogs scored their fewest points of the season and totaled only 222 yards, another low. TCU had a minus-seven yards rushing thanks in part to four sacks of quarterback Michael Collins.

Patterson said the blame covers everyone.

“The answer really is our whole group, not just the quarterback. All of us have to make more plays," Patterson said during Monday's Big 12 teleconference. "When we get a chance to have a critical catch, you can’t drop it on third down. Runs, we’ve got to make sure we do things. We can’t hurt ourselves with penalties.”

Maybe the emotions generated by a rivalry will revive both programs.