Time for TCU to no longer just be happy about being here

FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU finished its 2012 conference home schedule without a win for the first time since 1986. The prevailing feeling generated by fans and players etc. is that this first season in the Big 12 was a massive success.

If you look at the numbers - 7-5 record, 4-5 conference - this is TCU's worst season since 2007. The string of double-digit win seasons has been snapped at four. TCU will likely finish unranked for the first time since 2004.

Look past the numbers and this may have been one of the best seasons ever coached by Gary Patterson, and easily the most entertaining TCU regular season in decades. The scene and the crowds at Amon G. Carter Stadium this season were fun, and a place to be.

Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Kansas State and the rest coming to Fort Worth was laughably better than Colorado State, UNLV or New Mexico.

That said, enough with the "Thank yous, we're so happy to be invited to the cool kids' party" from GP and all of TCU nation. This school has tripped over itself in thanking de facto Big 12 commissioner DeLoss Dodds and everyone else associated with the conference. TCU proved it can hang and it belongs in the Big 12, and no one was embarrassed by adding the Horned Frogs to this league. 

Gratitude and humility are always appreciated, but TCU earned this. They were invited for a reason.

In this first season of the Big 12, TCU should have been happy to be invited to the cool kids' party. Now go find the homecoming queen and take her out.

 

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

How Johnny Football could help Texas establish a Heisman first

After much internal debate, Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M should win the Heisman Trophy over Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.

Te'o is the best defensive player on a defensive-oriented team that won games specifically because of stopping the other guy, but Manziel has been the best college player this season. Texas A&M is not having this season without Johnny Football. Notre Dame may not be undefeated, but the Irish would still have had a very good season without Te'o.

When the Heisman Trophy is awarded on Dec. 8 in New York City, Manziel should be there. He should win.

If he does win he will make history not only for his university, but the great state a Texas.

The Heisman trophy has been awarded since 1935 and seven times it has gone to players from Texas schools. While the trophy has been awarded to native Texans in consecutive years (Earl Campbell in '77, Billy Simms in '78, etc.) never has the Heisman trophy gone to a Texas school in consecutive seasons.

Baylor's Robert Griffin III won the award last season, meaning Johnny Football could give the Heisman a Texas Two Year Step.

Here are the Heisman winners from Texas:

1938 Davey O'Brien, TCU
1948 Doak Walker, SMU
1957 John David Crow, Texas A&M
1977 Earl Campbell, Texas
1989 Andre Ware, Houston 
1998 Ricky Williams, Texas
2011 Robert Griffin III, Baylor 

 

 

 

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

Why Gary Patterson may scrap the 'Frog Walk'

FORT WORTH, Texas - Trying to establish a new tradition, Gary Patterson and TCU have done a 'Frog Walk' before every home game. Just as many college teams do elsewhere, the players and staff walk as a team through the tailgate scene/campus to the stadium. It may be fun. It may be a way to connect with fans. It was also new, and thus far at the renovated Amon G. Carter Stadium the Frog Walk has yielded nothing.

"I'm superstitous. We may cut that out," Gary Patterson said on Tuesday. 

Why? Despite playing in a wonderfully renovated stadium, the team has been dramatically better on the road than at home. There is a very good chance all of TCU's wins in the Big 12 will have come on the road, and not a one will be at home.

TCU HOME BIG 12
Oct. 6 v. Iowa State, L 37-23
Oct. 20 v. No. 17 Texas Tech, L 56-53 (3 ot)
Nov. 10 v. No. 1 Kansas State, L 23-10
Dec. 1 v. No. 11 Oklahoma 

TCU AWAY BIG 12
Sept. 15 at Kansas, W 20-6
Oct. 13 at Baylor, W 49-21
Oct. 27 at Okie State, L 36-14
Nov. 3 at No. 21 West Virginia, W 39-38 (2 ot)
Nov. 22 at No. 16 Texas, W 20-13 

The Oklahoma Sooners amateur football team is favored by 6.5 points to win on Saturday against TCU. If that holds, TCU would finish a conference home record without a win for the first time in ... forever.

"It's never happened while I've been here," GP said.

The last time TCU finished without a home win in a conference schedule was 1986 when the Frogs finished 3-8 overall, and 1-7 in the Southwest Conference under coach Jim Wacker. Their lone conference win that season was 30-14 at Houston on Nov. 1, 1986.

"If you don't win at home you'll never win a championship," GP said. 

TCU's first season in the Big 12 has to be classified a success. All things considered - a new conference, the February drug bust, the departure of quarterback Casey Pachall and the need to start Trevone Boykin, relying on so many freshman to play - this was a good year.

It would be just a little bizarre to finish a season with so much process without at least one home Big 12 win.

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

TCU's win in Austin is fun but it is not bigger than this ...

Back from a week off ...

Even if TCU defeats No. 11 Oklahoma on Saturday in Fort Worth on Saturday it will not trump the Frogs' most recent win in Austin against Texas on Thanksgiving.
Even if TCU defeats TBD Team in the SomethingWhateverCorporateSellout.Com Bowl in December it will not trump the Frogs' most recent win in Austin against Texas on Thanksgiving.

That 20-13 win against UT will be the biggest highlight of TCU's first season in the Big 12.

But stop any chatter about that win being the biggest in the Gary Patterson era. Texas may have been ranked No. 18, but that is an average team. These are not your Vince Young or Colt McCoy Horns. The Frogs may have been the underdog entering that game, but it should not be a huge surprise they won.

The Frogs are better than the Horns, and they probably will be for the next few seasons.

Nothing should diminish the significance of a TCU team going to Austin and winning for the first time there since 1967. From a regional rival perspective, it is big. It is fun. It gives TCU its 7th win of the season, improves bowl positioning, etc.

But this is not bigger than TCU defeating Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl. Until TCU wins the national title, nothing will be bigger than that win.

Other than the national title game, the Rose Bowl is the biggest college game of the season. Countless moons, planets, stars and other variables had to break just right for TCU to even be in that game. That Wisconsin team had been rolling teams by absurd margins, and was stacked.

If TCU goes to the Rose Bowl and is blown out - like Hawaii against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl a few years previously - perhaps this conference promotion never occurs. TCU earned that win, and in doing so opened countless doors for the football team, and the entire university.

Without that win against Wisconsin, TCU may never have had the chance to again play Texas as a conference rival on Thanksigiving.

 

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

How Ben Bass made it to the Cowboys is greatness

IRVING, Texas - An NFL agent once told me if you are being paid to play football you are doing pretty well. Ben Bass may never be the second coming of Harvey Martin, but the man is collecting a check to play football. Not many people who ever play football can say that.

This week, the size of Bass's check just increased by a large amount.

Bass was elevated from the Dallas Cowboys practice squad to the active roster after the team lost Kenyon Coleman to a season-ending, torn triceps injury. At 6-foot-5, 295 pounds Bass has the ideal frame to be an NFL player. 

Only the diehard Texas A&M Aggie fan knows Ben Bass, and even the diehards may not remember much about him. He started one time last season as a senior in College Station. He was not drafted and only after a tryout with the Cowboys during the rookie mini-camp did he sign with the team. 

Now he is expected to play against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

A graduate of Plano West, Bass attended A&M from 2007 to 2011 with one small interruption.

In 2009, Bass was kicked out of school because of bad grades. Then coach Mike Sherman told him if he brought his grades up, he could return. Most of the time when that happens the player is never heard from again.

In his year away from Texas A&M, Bass attended Blinn Junior College in nearby Brenham and brought his grades up. Then Sherman told Bass he had to make a pitch to the defensive coaches, who did bring him back.

Now he is an active NFL player. This never happens.

"It was a great example of a guy who came in and just took advantage of an opportunity," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "He was a guy that we liked, but literally from Day 1 that he belonged here in some way, shape or form. He kinda came from nowhere and showed us that he deserves to be on this football team."

 

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

Video: Galloway & Big Mac pledge allegiance to Johnny Football & the Aggies

 

Dispelling the University of Texas QB myth

From the Things My Little Brain Can't Comprehend File - The University of Texas continued inability to land the Grade A quarterbacks. Or at least the following ...

Andrew Luck - Stanford 
Robert Griffin III - Baylor
Chase Daniel - Missouri
Graham Harrell - Texas Tech
Andy Dalton - TCU
Kevin Kolb - Houston
Todd Reesing - Kansas (OK, I'm a KU grad so I had to throw this one in here)
Now add to the list Johnny Manziel - Texas A&M

Since Mack Brown arrived in Austin in 1998 to effectively turn the University of Texas into Wal Mart, he has established himself as one of the best recruiters in the country. Mommies and daddies love them some Mack.

There is growing sentiment that he has not landed consistently landed the best players at the most valuable spot. It's simply not entirely true.

Since Mack arrived he has had ...
Major Applewhite
Chris Simms
Chance Mock
Vince Young
Colt McCoy
Garrett Gilbert
David Ash

These guys aren't stiffs.

Much of the perception that UT has whiffed on QB's would be dramatically different had Simms' UT career arced just a bit higher, and Gilbert developed into the player so many thought he would. One Division I head coach told me of Gilbert that after he arrived to college "this was not the same player (he) saw in high school."

Mack has found good quarterbacks, two of which were outstanding (VY, Colt). The problem for Mack is that while he lands the best recruiting classes in the country, QBs from all around him routinely go elsewhere and to win Heisman trophies.

The Horns are 8-2 and sophomore QB David Ash has passed for 2,354 yards with 17 TDs and 5 INTs. Hardly horrible. Much like Colt McCoy, Ash does appear to be at least developing.

It is, however, really hard to look good when you aren't RGIII, Luck or Johnny Football.

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

What does the TCU sales department know about the QB situation?

FORT WORTH, Texas - All ye' conspiracy theorists - come gather and be warm 'round this giant fire of potential quarterback controversy.

On Saturday before TCU hosted No. 2 Kansas State at Amon G. Carter Stadium, I took this picture at the Horned Frogs team store. Sorry, this shot is not Ansel Adams quality.

The sign reads on top of the rack: "ALL #4 JERSEYS ON SALE"

Who wears No. 4? According to the roster listed on www.gofrogs.com, No. 4 is currently worn by freshman safety Jordan Moore. No wonder these jerseys aren't moving.

Further research studies indicate that No. 4 was also previously worn by ... Casey Pachall (cue Law and Order music).

In a first for college football a team's depth chart is being dictated by the marketing/sales department. 

Pachall dis-enrolled from TCU more than a month ago after a DWI. At the time, TCU head coach Gary Patterson said Pachall was going to enter a care facility. He also said if things went well, Pachall could return to the team in the spring.

But if Pachall is going to return why is TCU peddling his No. 4 jersey as priced-to-sell?

No one has touched the Pachall story at TCU since he left school. And this jersey sell is very likely an effort to clear inventory before the end of the year.

Pachall's replacement, Trevone Boykin, has been good, bad, and a freshman. In nine games he has completed 58.3 percent of his passes for 1,540 yards with 14 TDs and 8 Ints. For a freshman thrown into a trying situation, he has been good. Ultimately, if TCU is going to win big in the Big 12, Boykin has to improve.

What TCU can't know is whether Boykin is going to improve enough (Andy Dalton), or this is his ceiling (Casey Printers).

TCU has three games remaining (at Texas, vs. Oklahoma, bowl game) before it really has to address whether Pachall is going to return. As for now, his jersey would make a good stocking stuffer.

 

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

People - Gary Patterson would leave TCU for one job

This didn't take long, but something very reliable called "coachingsearch.com" is saying that TCU head coach Gary Patterson is the leading candidate to become the next head coach at Arkansas. 

Even though TCU is in a BCS conference, has players, and spends money like water, according to out-of-state reports Patterson is always at the top of coaching lists up to and including the L.A. Lakers.

Throw Tennessee in the mix, too. The Volunteers are expected to fire coach Derek Dooley after his team committed the unpardonable sin of losing against Missouri at home on Saturday.

Arkansas is going to be looking for a replacement after Bobby Petrino fill-in John L. Smith has demonstrated to be unable to win the way the Hogs expect.

Kentucky is already looking for a new coach to replace the recently fired Joker Phillips.

Do not rule out Auburn canning Gene Chizik, who is learning that the money spent on Cam Newton was the best investment ever made in the history of that institution.

Last week, Patterson told myself and a handful of reporters he had not heard a peep from Arkansas, and that his focus was on defeating Kansas State.

Patterson interviewed with Arkansas years ago.

I can't see GP leaving TCU any time soon, and probably never, for a variety of reasons.

He has a tremendous amount of power and respect both at his school and in his community. He can win at TCU. He and his wife are building a 835,000 square foot house (numbers approximate) that is very close to the office. He can, and may already be, to TCU what Bill Snyder is to Kansas State.

That said, I do believe there is one job Gary would want - The University of Texas. Maybe not right now, but if the circumstances change in a few years this is the only potential opening I could see GP pursuing. As much as GP has done to raise the entire profile of TCU, Texas is still the flagship school of a giant state that loves football.

A lot of variables would have to change, primarily being the people at UT grew tired enough of Mack Brown to make him a permanent Longhorn Network analyst. That and GP actually wants to leave TCU.

Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Auburn can all call and I don't see GP saying 'yes' to an interview other than to leverage for a few more dollars for himself, or his assistants. 

Should Texas call? That's when TCU should worry.

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

RIP - Darrell Royal

Stories about the finals months, and years, of former University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal's life were painfully sad as he battled Alzheimer's disease.

His wife has been auctioning off some of his considerable memorabilia collection to raise money for the Darrell K. Royal Research Fund for Alzheimer's Disease.

This morning the University of Texas has confirmed that Royal has died in Austin. He was 88.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, he coached at Mississippi State and Washington before he moved to Texas.

He coached at UT from 1957 to 1976 where he compiled a record of 167-47-5. The Horns won national titles in 1963, 1969 and 1970. He retired after the 1976 season.

Royal had a million of quality one liners, such as, "God gives talent, size, speed. But a guy can control how hard he tries."

The people of Fort Worth, and TCU, probably remember this one in 1962 when he said of the Horned Frogs: "They're like a bunch of coackroaches. It's not what they eat and tote off, it's what they fall into and mess up that hurts." Royal was referring to a loss the previous season when his No. 1 ranked Longhorns were upset 6-0 by a 24-point underdog Horned Frog team.

Much as Bear Bryant is to Alabama so is Royal to Texas. He was a giant of a figure, and his legacy has been nearly impossible to follow for the many others who have tried. 

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