Louisiana Tech @ Texas Christian preview

POINSETTIA BOWL STORYLINES

1. Two surprise conference champions riding seven-game winning streaks square off in the Poinsettia Bowl. No. 15 TCU finished with a perfect record in the Mountain West, including a dramatic victory over preseason favorite Boise State, to claim its third consecutive title. Louisiana Tech — picked to finish fourth in the WAC — dethroned preseason favorite Hawaii to claim its first conference title.

2. Louisiana Tech will be without leading rusher Lennon Creer, who is ineligible. Creer, a Tennessee transfer, missed the final two games of the season with an injury and was ruled academically ineligible for the bowl last week. Walk-on Hunter Lee is second on the team in rushing.

3. From a motivational standpoint, the Bulldogs might have an advantage. They’re making just their sixth bowl appearance and first since 2008, while the Horned Frogs will play in a bowl for the seventh consecutive season on the heels of back-to-back BCS bowl appearances.

4. These teams feature very similar playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. TCU linebacker Tank Carder was named the Mountain West’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, while Louisiana Tech’s Adrien Cole earned the same honor in the WAC after posting 121 tackles, 12 of which were for loss.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN Line: TCU -10.5

ABOUT TCU (10-2, 7-0 Mountain West Conference): After losing eight starters from 2010, including quarterback Andy Dalton, the Horned Frogs’ offense was expected to struggle this year. But that hasn’t been the case at all as sophomore quarterback Casey Pachall filled the hole left by Dalton by tossing 24 touchdowns to only six interceptions. TCU finished ninth nationally with 41.7 points per game, but all that success led to one drawback — co-offensive coordinator Justin Fuente left the program to become the head coach at Memphis, which has won only five combined games in the past three seasons.

ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (8-4, 6-1 Western Athletic Conference): The outlook was bleak for second-year coach Sonny Dykes when his Bulldogs stumbled out of the gates in 2011 with a 1-4 start. But Louisiana Tech steamrolled through the back half of the schedule, winning seven straight games, five of which came by double digits. Dykes was named the WAC Coach of the Year, helping engineer an offense that averaged 30.6 points and 398 yards, both in the top 50 nationally. Junior quarterback Colby Cameron took over for injured freshman Nick Isham five games ago, and since that point the Bulldogs scored 35 points per game on 445 total yards.

PREDICTION: TCU 30, Louisiana Tech 28. The Horned Frogs will have enough firepower to come away with a victory, but this one will be a fight to the end.