The TCU Horned Frogs came quite close to moving to a 13-0 record on the season.

Even though TCU trailed by double-digits in the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game against Kansas State, Max Duggan did not throw in the towel during the contest. He guided TCU to two scoring drives in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime, but in the end, the Wildcats secured the conference title via a 31-28 win.

Duggan was visibly emotional during his post-game press conference. However, multiple current and former TCU players helped him get over the loss, including Andy Dalton. Duggan revealed on Wednesday that Dalton reached out to him after the contest.

Looking back at the defeat, Duggan sees that it was quite an “emotional 24 hours.”

“It was an emotional 24 hours of — you know, you lose a league championship game, something that you wanted to set out for as a goal, and you come out the next day and you are able to compete for a national championship,” Duggan said during a press conference on Wednesday ahead of the 2022 Fiesta Bowl.

“A lot of emotions in that 24 hours and lots of ups and downs. Kind of staying neutral is something that he talks about, not getting too high on the highs and not too lows on the lows. Staying even keel. … It was tough. You go the whole year and you are playing well, and then it's hard to beat a team twice, especially a Kansas State team that is playing so good. We played them twice. We fell short. Yeah, that one hurt. But we were able to get an opportunity to come and play in the playoffs. It was something we wanted to do.”

Duggan now has his sights set on the College Football Playoff, as TCU will meet the reigning Big Ten champions in the Michigan Wolverines in the semifinal round. For the TCU quarterback, there is much that stands out to him about the Wolverines' stout defense.

“They are really good in all aspects of their team, especially on defense,” Duggan said. “Whether it's the front four getting pressure, whether their backers creating trouble for us, guys on the back end, DBs making it hard for us.”

The winner of this upcoming duel between TCU and Michigan will go on to square off with either Georgia or Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national title game.