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Pannel Egboh grew up about an hour east of Fort Worth, the hometown to TCU. Egboh, now a junior defensive end on the Stanford football team, was leaning toward becoming a Horned Frog. He ran into a small snag though. TCU did not offer him a scholarship.

"It's a cool place to visit and a cool place to go to school," Egboh said. "I'll be thinking about not being offered a scholarship while I'm playing."

Playing the Horned Frogs, in Stanford's homecoming game on Saturday at 2 p.m., becomes his consolation prize. It's the first time the two schools have met on a football field.

"At least when we go there next year I'll have all my family and friends around," said Egboh, whose blocked PAT turned out to be the margin of victory over USC in last weekend's monumental 24-23 upset last weekend -- earning him Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week.

"He's a pillar on the defense," Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said. "He's playing every down hard and giving tremendous effort. He's playing at an all-Pac-10 caliber level."

TCU (3-3) plays a Pac-10 opponent for the first time since beating Arizona in 2003, and visits Northern California for the first time since 2000, when as a member of the WAC, the Horned Frogs lost at San Jose State.

It's a tricky week for the Cardinal (2-3), still glowing in the aftermath of its shocking victory over then No. 2 USC last weekend. For the first time in years, Stanford must be wary of a letdown.

"We're in uncharted waters," Harbaugh said. "Now we're dealing with success, something that hasn't happened here with this group. This team has handled adversity. They've learned how to do that from the first day of camp. Handling success, with grace and humility, is our big challenge. TCU does not care that we beat USC. They are devising ways to come in here and beat us."

Egboh acknowledged the challenges for himself and his teammates.

"That game (USC) was the greatest win I've ever been a part of," he said. "I was talking to my mom about how tough it's going to be to put it behind us and focus on TCU. I told myself that we definitely need to win more because I liked that. I need to have a solid game against TCU and keep the consistency going."

Egboh said part of the reason for his play (he also had 10 tackles) against the Trojans was because he got his swagger back and had fun playing the game.

"It's all about swagger," he said. "We took down a top team and now we know we can do that with anybody."

Harbaugh gave himself and the coaching staff six hours to drink in the victory over the Trojans before going to work on the Horned Frogs.

"It was one of the best six-hour periods of my life," he said. "But it ended early. Now it's time to get locked in on TCU."

The players were given an extra 24 hours to soak in all the adulation surrounding the victory before trying to shake free of so much homage and look ahead to the homecoming game.

"The players know what it took to put themselves into position to win on Saturday," Harbaugh said. "For the first time, we have the target our backs."

Stanford senior T.C. Ostrander was cleared to play this Saturday after doctors examined him on Monday, but Harbaugh named redshirt sophomore Tavita Pritchard the starter for a second straight week.

"Whether I'm the third guy, the starter or the backup, I'm going to prepare every time like I'm the starter," Pritchard said. "Not a whole lot has changed. I hate to see T.C. go down like he did. You want to see everybody succeed. At the same time, you work to get where you are to play at this level. I've prepared my whole life for this, and it's hitting me in the face right now."

Ostrander, who suffered a seizure at a Palo Alto restaurant on Sept. 30 and was held out of the USC game for precautionary reasons, worked out with the Cardinal on Tuesday.

"I want to be on the field," Ostrander said. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but coach made a decision and if that's his decision, I will go along with it and just do the things I need to do to get better."

Sophomore running back Toby Gerhart, meanwhile, will miss his fifth game of the year due to injury, and is questionable for the game at Arizona on Oct. 20.

As for a possible quarterback controversy, Cardinal senior Evan Moore says it doesn't matter.

"We all know your position is never secure," he said. "All I know is we have two great quarterbacks."

The USC win may have splashed Stanford across the front pages of newspapers and web sites around the country and Moore says that's great but the team never saw themselves differently.

"The national perception of the program has certainly changed," he said. "It was an incredible win but we do have good football players here; players who will be in the NFL. Our own perception has been confirmed. This is what we've believed we could do all along."

After Denny Green's 1990 team knocked off top-ranked Notre Dame in Game 4, the Cardinal went on to lose three straight and finished the season at 5-6. Seventeen years later, Moore wants to make sure history does not repeat itself.

"A lot of these guys have been through tough times and we'd feel better if we can keep it going," Moore said. "I'm looking at the next seven games to turn things around; to turn it around this year. After what they did for us on Saturday night (showing up in the thousands to welcome the bus home) it would be a shame to disappoint them. We have the fans and we need to fuel them."

Even after its victory on the road against the Trojans, Stanford once again finds itself three-point underdogs against the Horned Frogs.

"Business as usual," Moore said. "We've been there before. It's another opportunity to come home and show our fans a reason to get excited."