Red Raiders already announcing plans for football game against Horned Frogs

It's never too early to start planning for anything, and the good people at The Texas Tech University have already unveiled its plans for the home football game between the Red Raiders and TCU Horned Frogs.

Today is May 13, 2013.
That game is scheduled for Thursday, September 12, 2013.

This will be the first home Big 12 game for new head coach Kliff Kingsbury, so it's kind of a big deal. So big that you should probably find your parking spot soon, today preferably.

Of note:
* Potential game times range between 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. If this game starts at 8 p.m., we're looking at an 11:30 p.m. finish. Hopefully. The safe bet is midnight.

* Individual tickets will go on sale for this game on August 1. It should be noted that today is May 13.

* Classes at Tech will remain as scheduled for both Thursday and Friday. The university's "top priority is getting students/faculty to their classes and researchers to their labs while transitioning to host the football game later in the day."

What fell on the cutting room floor was, "The university's top priority is to squeeze as much cash from this game as possible. If studies/research can fit into that priority, all the better. Please don't be too drunk before kickoff."

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Gary Patterson has mastered the art of the non-conference schedule

Show of hands who knew Minnesota has a football team?

TCU has announced it will play a home and home football series against the University of Minnesota beginning in 2014. 

Call it the Jim Wacker Series. The much-beloved deceased was the head coach at TCU from 1983 to '91, and then went to Minnesota where he was from 1992 to 1996.

This photo is from Wacker's days at TCU where he was asking this handsome young kicker why he kicked the ball out of bounds to start the game. I think.

TCU will host the Golden Gophers on Sept. 13, 2014. It will play at Minny on Sept. 3, 2015. 

(BTW - The Twin Cities are a perfect place to visit in the summer months. U of M is a great campus. There is a lot to do up there, and the weather is usually fantastic in September - the snow doesn't fall until around September 23rd.)

This series is another example of TCU head coach Gary Patterson doing what he does as well as anyone in the country - scheduling the fake "hard" game. All good coaches do it. At least the ones who want to keep their jobs.

Minnesota is an ideal non-conference opponent. The Gophers are not some MAC, Sun Belt or FCS dog. Season ticket holders won't complain that TCU is bringing in a bad non-conference opponent that they won't even leave the parking lot to enter the stadium to watch.

The Gophers can will be spun as a Big 10 opponent who have appeared in a bowl game nine times since the start of the century. All true.

The fine print won't include that this team has not won a bowl game in its last five appearances, and has been in a grand total of 15 bowl games since 1961.
The fine print on the Gophers won't include that they are 67-87 since 2000. They are 26-49 since 2007 and have one winning season in that stretch.

The way college football works for the BCS affiliated schools, there is minimal incentive to load up the non-conference schedule with challenges any greater than this.

Basically, this is like adding another Kansas to the schedule. 

As any good coach knows, you can never play Kansas enough.

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

The Dallas Cowboys best draft picks of all time - No. 5

As a celebration of NFL draft week, The Big Mac Blog will look back at the best and worst of the Dallas Cowboys' draft history. We now continue with the good. The criteria is simple - the lower the expection, i.e. the selection, and the greater the return, the better pick.

5. Larry Brown, CB, TCU, 1991, 320th selection
LB may not have been the world's greatest defensive back, but for a man who was one of the last picks in the 1991 draft he was both productive and valuable on a level few ever see from this spot. 

He played eight NFL seasons, intercepted 14 passes and returned two for touchdowns. Maybe he was the beneficiary of a Cowboys defense that abused so many, but he made plays.

Brown's biggest contribution came in Super Bowl XXX when he intercepted a pair of passes by Pittsburgh Steelers QB Neil O'Donnell in the second half.

The Steelers' trailed 13-7 in the third quarter and were around midfield. On third down, Brown intercepted a pass and returned it 44 yards, which set up an Emmitt Smith touchdown.

The Cowboys led 20-17 with 4:15 remaining in the game when the Steelers had the ball at their own 32. On second down, Brown picked off O'Donnell again and returned it 33 yards to the six-yard-line. Smith scored again to secure the Cowboys last Super Bowl win.

Brown is now one of seven defensive players to be named Super Bowl MVP; the others were Chuck Howley (Cowboys, LB, Super Bowl V), Jake Scott (Dolphins, S, Super Bowl VII), Harvey Martin & Randy White (Cowboys, DL, Super Bowl XII), Richard Dent (Bears, DE, Super Bowl XX), Ray Lewis (Ravens, LB, Super Bowl XXXV).

After this Super Bowl, Brown signed a five-year, $12.5 million contract with the Oakland Raiders that included a signing bonus of $3.5 million. It made him one of the highest paid DBs in the NFL at the time. 

Brown's detractors said those Super Bowl picks were both gifts. They were right, but Brown was in the right place at the right time, didn't drop the ball, and posted big returns to set up two touchdowns that were vital to the win.

It never really clicked with the Raiders, where he was a bit exposed as a guy who wasn't a lock down corner. In two seasons in Oakland, he started just once and played 12 games before he was cut. He returned to the Cowboys in '98 where he played four games. 

Picked immediately after: Rob Luedeke, C, Penn State
Picked immediately ahead of: Mark Drabczak, G, Minnesota

Twitter @MacEngelProf

tengel@star-telegram.com

Facebook Mac Engel

TCU will be representing at the Final Four

TCU senior forward Garlon Green is probably not the best dunker in his family, but he will be representing the Green household next week in Atlanta at the Final Four festivities.

Green has been invited to participate in the NCAA Slam Dunk competition. The event also includes and men's and women's 3-point shooting competition.

Garlon will be doing this just a short while after his older brother Gerald, who plays for the Indiana Pacers, participated in the NBA Slam Dunk competition during All-Star weekend in Houston.

"I really had no idea until (TCU men's basketball media relations director Andy Anderson) called and told me they asked me," Garlon said in a short phone interview. "I really didn't expect it. I didn't have a lot of dunks this season compared to last year because our style of offense changed."

It's nice to see a guy who maybe didn't have the world's most celebrated career get a chance to do something fun as a senior such as this.

Green, 6-7, does not have the hops of his older brother, but he can fly when given the proper amount of room.

He said he has talked to Gerald about what to do, and has a few ideas of what he may try when the competition starts.

"We talk every day. He's my best friend," Green said. "I have some ideas. I'm not going to give anything away, though."

The competition will be at 6 p.m. CT at Georgia Tech. Click here to check out the field and his opponents.

 

 

 

Twitter @MacEngelProf

tengel@star-telegram.com

Facebook Mac Engel

Expect a small alteration for Horned Frogs v. LSU

Not necessarily a big fan of the trend of men's college football and men's basketball teams changing uniform schemes at halftime, but this fad is not going away.

A few birdies told ME EXCLUSIVELY that we should expect TCU to be sporting some new duds for its highly anticipated men's college football game against LSU at 8 p.m. on Aug. 31 at Cowboys Stadium.

BTW - There is no better time to play LSU; if TCU wins this game, put Gary Patterson in Canton, Cooperstown, Toronto and Springfield.

This sounds about right regarding some new unis'. It will be a big game on real national TV against a monster opponent, and an ideal time for Nike to roll out some cool new schemes and patterns for TCU.

Please, for the love of God, none of this throwback Zubaz crap. 

My suggestion? Go with Crimson and White. That is a color scheme that seems to work OK against LSU.

 

Twitter @MacEngelProf

tengel@star-telegram.com

Facebook Mac Engel

Year 1 of TCU under Trent Johnson - be patient

FORT WORTH, Texas - How TCU won two basketball games in the Big 12 may be the greatest achievement of any TCU team in this first season of this new conference. No athletic program at TCU was more poorly equipped for this promotion than men's basketball, and that is no slam against head coach Trent Johnson or his players.

TCU's upset win against Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon was a nice way to send off a senior class and a team that was over-matched from the start of this season.

The Frogs had two players who would have been recruited by other Big 12 teams - point guard Kyan Anderson and forward Amric Fields. The rest were recruited to be Mountain West players. And Fields was lost for the season when he blew out his ACL in the third game. 

There are encouraging signs: Johnson knows what he is doing; despite every reason, his team never quit on him; he is not going to employ this "grind it out" style forever; Fields is expected back; players are coming; Anderson is one of the better point guards in the Big 12, and he has two years left.

"It's been about what I expected, with the exception of the injuries" Johnson said in a recent phone interview. "I can't talk about (this season) without talking about that. It put pressure on the seniors to be in certain rolls, and to apply pressure more than their skill level or talent."

I offered Johnson my theory on the first season of college basketball coaches - the first year is more about the third year.
Year 1 Coach plays who he has, and the transition is ugly.
Year 2 Coach plays the young people he wants and there looks to be some direction.
Year 3 Coach has his group for two years, and that's when you know if it can work.

"That's your asseessment," he said. "I hate the rebuilding tag. We're going to get it done. We just are. You've seen it in college basketball - you get the right two guys, as long as they can play."

TCU basketball is one of the hardest jobs in high major basketball. The interest level is minimal, and the tradition is non-existent. If this has any shot of working, Johnson is going to need some patience on the part of the administration.

He landed a solid recruiting class - F Brandon Parrish, C Karviar Shepherd, G Michael Williams - and expect that he is going to find a few others to come in next season. If he can find one or two decent transfers, next season should be better.

And he already beat Kansas.

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Why TCU defensive end Stansly Maponga had to leave

FORT WORTH, Texas - The name "Maponga" used to be a bit of a four-letter expression around TCU a few years ago.

When a player screwed up, TCU coach Gary Patterson would send said player - usually then freshman defensive end Stansly Maponga - to do a series of nasty conditioning drills that included rope work, pushing a heavy ball up a steep hill, etc. They were called "Mapongas".

Any time a player screws up during a TCU practice, they are often "asked" to do Mapongas.

"I'm glad that's part of my legacy here," Maponga said at TCU today after completing his Pro Day workouts for the NFL scouts and coaches. "Those were fun."

Even though Patterson tried like a dog to talk Maponga out of it, and this rookie class is heavy on defensive linemen, he is going to the NFL with one year left of college eligibility remaining.

"He did. It is what it is," Maponga said. "I appreciate everything he did for me and my family."

It's the impossible equation where the coach wants to keep the player because he knows it's going to make his team better vs. the player, who either needs to, or wants to, go.

It sounds like family is a big reason why Maponga is leaving. He said his mother is working three jobs, and Maponga himself recently became a father to a little girl, who is four months old. A handful of people around the program said they thought Maponga was also just tired of school as well.

Maponga, who is battling a recurring foot problem that may require surgery, is being talked about as a fourth round pick. At TCU's pro day, his 40-yard dash times were 4.84 and 4.85.

Coaches from three NFL teams attended the pro day - Eagles, Dolphins, Steelers - and he said he feels comfortable either as a defensive end or outside linebacker. He said he has a scheduled meeting with the Atlanta Falcons soon.

The one NFL scout I talked to liked him a lot, and thought he would be a fourth or fifth round pick. 

 

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Myck Kabongo needs to return to Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas - University of Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes says that former Longhorns guard Cory Joseph has told him if could do it again he should have stayed in college rather than turn pro early. The same for P.J. Tucker.

Longhorns point guard Myck Kabongo would be wise to learn from Joseph and Tucker's decisions and stick around for one more year. All signs point to Kabongo leaving UT after this season for the NBA draft, but he would be so smart to give stick around a little bit longer.

Kabongo has now played three games in this his sophomore season. A stupid and pointless NCAA suspension has all but wiped out Kabongo's year, and as a result killed UT's season. Kabongo is a natural point guard with solid floor-director's skills. UT is 2-1 since he returned, and maybe can make a run at .500 now that he is back.

"Think about it - he's played three games and done pretty well," Barnes said after UT defeated TCU on Tuesday night in Fort Worth. "We were at Kansas and getting killed and I asked him if he wanted to come out of the game. He said, 'Coach, I want to play.' He told his teammates, 'We're not quitting.' That speaks volumes about him. (His team) knows there is a confidence level they feel. There is a difference with Myck out there and we see it."

Myck looks like a guy who lives to set up his teammates, and has the quickness to penetrate and kick. This is a not shoot-first point guard. But he is only 6-foot-1, and he needs to develop a consistent perimeter shot.

If you are going to be 6-1 in the NBA, you better be stupid quick and have the ability to knock down an open shot. Talent alone says he is going to get NBA money at some point, the question is how big that first check is.

If he genuinely thinks he is a top 10 pick, he has to leave. Anything other than that, he should stay. 

Under Barnes UT has had a lot of players leave early. Players like LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant made the right call. Joseph and Tucker both have told Barnes they should not have left. 

Selfishly, I hope Kabongo stays. He is fun to watch. If he does return, UT should be again be near the top of the Big 12 next season. If he doesn't, hopefully that check is a big one.

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Mack Brown's message to Rick Barnes - don't lose to TCU

This is not what we had in mind when TCU joined the Big 12 - Bad vs. Really Bad.

On Tuesday night at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, the TCU men's basketball team hosts the University of Texas in a game that still must be played. Texas is in eighth in the Big 12. TCU is 12th in a 10-team league. 

TCU has lost three straight since upsetting No. 5 Kansas 62-55 on Feb. 6.

When TCU upset the Longhorns football team on Thanksgiving, all of UT nation felt shame. That point may have been the single most uncomfortable moment for Horns' coach Mack Brown. 

It's one thing to be embarrassed (again) by Oklahoma in the Red River game in Dallas. It's quite another to lose at home against a squad of TCU freshmen, and a quarterback who was almost a running back.

Even though UT's football team was down, losing to that TCU team in Austin was a smack in the face.

Much like Mack Brown, UT men's basketball coach Rick Barnes is having his worst season in Austin since he arrived in 1998. The team can't score, there isn't enough talent, and the return of point guard Myck Kabongo from NCAA suspension is too late.

Barnes has two things going for him:

1.) His boss - DeLoss Dodds - now is an advocate of losing so the fan base can appreciate success again. Talk about a great job. Not only are you at Texas but you have the green light to lose.

2.) Barnes coaches a sport that is not football. That really helps.

The Horns have six games remaining before the Big 12 tournament. Unless they win the conference tournament (they won't) the Horns are going to miss the NCAA tourney for the first time in the Barnes era. They can still post a winning record, and likely will be invited to one of those low tier tournaments that only gamblers watch.

There are soft whispers that perhaps Dodds should violate his own rules and fire a coach who is losing. UT would be dumb to fire a man who has done so much to build that program, but if Barnes wants to make sure his detractors remain at the fringe he would be wise not to lose to TCU.

 

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

TCU & West Virginia - comparatively speaking in the Big 12

TCU's first season in the Big 12 Conference has gone just about as good (or bad) as many of the coaches and administrators thought it would when it made this jump. The one sport the people around the school thought could immediately "hang" begins its schedule on Feb. 15, when the baseball team travels to play Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi for a three-game series.

According to BaseballAmerica.com, TCU is ranked 14th and Ole Miss is 13th.

Looking at the two athletic deparments and the "major" sports, here is how both TCU and West Virginia's first season in the Big 12 are going, compared against how each school performed in its previous conference last year.

TCU:          '12-'13 Big 12           '11-'12 MWC 
Football:        7-6, 4-5                   11-2, 7-0
M hoops:      10-14, 1-10                18-15, 7-7
W hoops:       7-15, 0-11                16-14, 9-5
Volleyball:    15-14, 4-12               25-7, 9-5
W soccer:      7-10-4, 1-5-2            7-11-1, 1-5 

West Virginia: '12-'13 Big 12      '11-'12 Big East
Football:            7-6, 4-5                 10-3, 5-2 
M hoops:          12-11, 5-5               19-14, 9-9
W hoops:          14-9, 6-6                24-10, 11-5 
W soccer:        11-5-4, 7-0-1          17-5-0, 10-1
M soccer:         9-6-2, 4-2-1           11-8-1, 6-3-0
Volleyball:      8-22, 0-16                 7-19, 5-9

Conclusion - It gets better. Ask Baylor.

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel