TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson goes over the top to keep a first-quarter drive alive.(AP)

"I'm proud of the kids for the way they bounced back. They did a great job and the coaches did a great job of getting them ready. We played focused, played hard and played enthused."

LaDainian Tomlinson ran for 231 yards and his 50th career touchdown and Casey Printers scored on a pair of short keepers for the Horned Frogs. All three of those scores came in a span of less than six minutes split by halftime.

Even though the Horned Frogs got off to a slow start, Tomlinson insisted they didn't find it difficult bouncing back from last week's disappointment.

"It wasn't hard at all. We had a purpose," Tomlinson said. "That's the way we knew it would be, because we are a better team than we showed."

Fresno State (5-4, 4-2) opened the scoring on David Carr's 27-yard TD pass to Bernard Berrian with 2:40 left in the first quarter. But the Bulldogs didn't score again.

Printers scored both of his touchdowns -- from the 2 and 1 -- in the final 2:51 of the first half, and Tomlinson scored on a 65-yard run on the first possession after halftime.

Tomlinson, the nation's leading rusher with 1,679 yards, had his 11th consecutive game with more than 100 yards. That stretch began when he set an NCAA Division I-A record with 406 yards last season against Texas-El Paso, next week's opponent and the surprise WAC leader.

Tomlinson's longest run of the season came on a third-and-14 play. He took an inside handoff, fended off a tackler after bolting through an open gap and sprinted to the end zone, shaking Dante Marsh's attempted ankle tackle at the 15.

"When the opportunity came, I couldn't pass it up. It was a wide-open hole," Tomlinson said.

That run alone was more than Tomlinson had last season against Fresno, which held him to 49 yards on 20 carries as the Bulldogs won 26-19 in overtime.

TCU won the inaugural Mobile Bowl last season, 28-14 over East Carolina. The Dec. 20 game will be the first bowl this season and match the Frogs against a team from Conference USA, the league they are moving to next season.

This is the first time that TCU has gone to three consecutive bowl games. The Frogs beat USC 28-19 in the 1998 Sun Bowl, at the end of Franchione's first season and just a year after they were 1-10.

Printers tied Saturday's game at 7-all on a 2-yard keeper with 2:51 left in the first half, the TD capping an 11-play, 64-yard drive. He went into the end zone untouched as several defenders pursued Tomlinson instead.

When Fresno got the ball back, its drive was kept alive by a pass interference call on third-and-15. But on the next play, Russell Gary stepped in front of the intended receiver and returned the interception 54 yards before being tackled by Carr at the 1. Two plays later, Printers scored.

"We couldn't make the plays when we needed to, especially on offense," Fresno coach Pat Hill said. "We just couldn't get anything going."

The Bulldogs were held to 224 total yards -- 140 below their season average. They had just 41 yards rushing on 30 attempts.

With 4,784 yards, Tomlinson passed Marshall Faulk (4,589 yards at San Diego State) for second place on the WAC career rushing list. He is within 29 yards of former Colorado State standout Steve Bartalo's 4,813 yards.

TCU couldn't score on its first four drives, even though three of them ended in Fresno territory.

Frogs linebacker Chad Bayer recovered a fumble by Paris Gaines at the 26 on the second play of the game. Their fake field-goal attempt failed when holder Matt Schobel's 5-yard shuffle pass to George Layne came up a yard short of a first down.

Printers fumbled at the Fresno 33 on the second possession, the turnover leading to Fresno's only score. Chris Kaylakie was wide right on a 36-yard field-goal attempt midway through the second quarter.

Kaylakie kicked a 46-yard field goal late in the third quarter for the other TCU points.

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