MWC unit previews: SECONDARIES

The Wimple's ranking of the MWC's secondaries, best to worst:

Air Force's corners are the conference's best returning tandem: Anthony Wright and Reggie Rembert were 1st- and 2nd-team all-MWC. Jon Davis joins returns as safety with them, and the only newcomer is Phil Ohili, who has two years' experience as a backup. Air Force and TCU had the best pass defenses in the MWC last season, holding opposing squads to 154 and 157 ypg, and 57.6% and 47.4% completions. AFA returns 75% of its starters secondary; TCU only 40%-- although new starting cornerback Jason Teague played lots and often in '09. AFA's and TCU's secondaries are the class of the conference in 2010.

See TCU's and the rest of the MWC's secondary ranking after the jump.

MWC unit previews: Special Teams

Preseason practices are just weeks away.  To get you there, the Wimple begins the MWC unit rankings, starting with special teams. 

Frogs Omaha-bound

Schloss's crew, following sophomore Kyle Winkler's dominating performance on the mound, knocked Texas out of the baseball post-season, and earned their first trip to Omaha for the college world series. Congrats, Frogs. Florida State awaits.









For a hilarious bit of gamesmanship, hear a Longhorn fan heckle Bryan Holiday ("get in the batter's box and shut up") second before Holiday hits one out of the park (literally) to put the game on ice.

Rumor mill spits out the best possible scenario for MWC

Here it is, folks, supposedly from the BYU AD's mouth: the best possible outcome for TCU and the MWC, after the expansion dust settles:

Kansas is in talks with the Mtn West as we speak and has been for a few days now... Kansas State [also]. ... Mizzou also contacted the Mtn West and is gathering information just in case. ...The Mtn West is scheduled to get BCS status (according to the BCS Commissioner) in 2011. The BCS has also informed the Mtn West that if they do get BCS status in 2011 and the Big12 collapses, the Mtn West is "very likely" to take over the BCS Fiesta Bowl auto-bid hosting slot. ...
The Mtn West will be taking 3 teams and only 3 teams [Boise, Kansas, K-State or Missouri]. They currently have 9 teams and the Mtn West Commish says they will halt expansion at 12 because the Mtn West does not have a big TV deal like the PAC10 will have. In 2015-2016 the Mwc Commish said the league would consider adding 2-4 more teams if the TV deal is increased dramatically at that time.

If this is true, and it happens, the MWC would be a better spot than anybody could have imagined even just a week ago. This would make the Mountain West a first-class basketball conference, a BCS autobid football conference, with better than just an at-large affiliation with the big bowls. And a conference poised to garner a vastly superior TV deal than its current one.

The decade's most dominant programs

Last in this series about the most dominant teams from 2000 to 2009 are the top ten. There is a qualitative difference in this group, compared to the others in the posts below. Here, bad years are those during which a team falls out of the top 40 in the Dominance Ranking-- and for the Texas, Boise, Oklahoma, and Virginia Tech, "bad" means below the top 20 (there are only three such years between them!).

Of these ten programs, only Boise State, Virginia Tech, and Georgia lack a first-place finish in the Dominance Ranking any year this decade, and only Georgia lacks also a runner-up finish (its highest finish was sixth, in 2002).

1. Texas- 7.50
2. Boise State- 9.90
3. Oklahoma- 10.20
4. Virginia Tech- 10.70
5. Florida- 14.90
6. USC- 17.80
7. Ohio State- 20.40
8. TCU- 21.90
9. LSU- 22.00
10. Georgia- 24.60

TCU spring report

TCU held spring drills from a position it hadn’t since early 2006: front runner. The Frogs are commentators’ unanimous choice to win the Mountain West– with the more insightful conference watchers hedging their bets slightly because of the roady to Salt Lake City in November. Do these expectations align well with the Horned Frogs’ lineup on the field? Very much so. And TCU’s strength stems first from its experiences and depth along both lines.

The Frogs return four starts to the offensive line. Marcus Cannon moves to LT, Kyle Dooley, Jake Kirkpatrick, and Josh Vernon (pushed hard by Blaize Foltz) return at LG, C, and RG, respectively. (those four shown left, next to the only departed starter, big #70, Marshall Newhouse.) Filling Cannon’s shoes at RT will be Jeff Olson and/or Zach Roth, with James Dunbar backing up whoever fails to win that starting nod. Barring injury or academic issue, that will be the Frogs’ only question on offense going into fall practice.

Masticate on that a minute; TCU has 10 of 11 starting spots on offense well decided, going into fall drills. And this is a year after the Frogs broke nearly every school offensive record. Yes, TCU ought to field a frightening offense in 2010.

What do the other positions on offense look like?

Dalton leads the pack, for the fourth year running. His backup is the winner of the ongoing competition between Yogi Gallegos (right) and Casey Pachall. Pachall’s got the arm and speed and hype; but Gallegos has proven spunky, has a semester’s on Pachall with the playbook, and simply won’t cede the fight for backup snaps.

Dalton has an embarrassment of riches around him. On the ground, he’ll be handing off to returners Matthew Tucker and Ed Wesley (left), and new faces Waymon James and Andre Dean. (Dwight Smith’s injury takes him out of the rotation until further notice.) No team in the conference (country?) will have fresher runningbacks late in the game than TCU. Look for Wesley to line up in the slot, filling the Ryan Christian role to overflowing. Tucker and Dean run through blockers; Wesley and James run around them. Formation-wise, the Frogs are tooling more with the pistol. They’ve used it before, but it has appeared more often this spring. All the better, thinks the Wimple, to give more touches to the Gang of Four at tailback.

In the air, Dalton and the offensive coordinators have to figure out how to get a new WR into the rotation, joining Antoine Hicks and Curtis Clay outside, Jimmy Young and Jeremy Kerley inside, and Bart Johnson, Jonathan Jones, and Skye Dawson behind them. The new face? Redshirt freshman Josh Boyce, who lit up the defense all spring. In other news, Young’s move inside was an eye-opener this spring; he welcomed the move, because it shows the NFL another side of his talent. Add TEs Evan Frosch, Logan Brock, and Corey Fuller, and the real mystery this year on offense is how the heck Dalton & Co. will spread the ball to so many playmakers.

On defense, TCU looks on paper like it may lose some of its punch. However, it looked that way coming into 2009, and the Frogs rose up to clinch a second consecutive national top ranking for defense. So: count the Frogs out of contention for the top spot at your peril.

Along the line, just like their offensive compadres across the trench, rising seniors abound. Clarence Leatch, Kelly Griffin, Cory Grant, and Wayne Daniels will be an all-senior line. (Grant, Griffin, and Daniels are suffocating some poor UNLV Rebel, left.) Likely no single one of them will match new Indianapolis Colt Jerry Hughes’s production, the four of them will make the conference’s most formidable defensive front. Again. (Junior Ross Forrest or redshirt freshman Stansley Maponga may start ahead of Leatch. This is one of the defensive questions that is yet unsettled going into fall.)

Behind Griffin and Grant are three young tackles who have risen to battle for the #2 spots, in a yet-unsettled order: junior Jeremy Coleman, sophomore D. J. Yendrey, and early-enrolled true freshman David Johnson.

The second would-be difficult departure for TCU is Daryl Washington’s, at linebacker. Tanner Brock (#35, left) is tasked with replacing the athlete (now an Arizona Cardinal). Kenny Cain is pushing for that job as well, but to date it appears to be Brock’s to lose. Brock joins returning standout Tank Carder in the youngest linebacking corps at TCU in several years.

The final holes to fill this offseason at TCU are in the secondary. Four year starting corners Rafael Priest and Nick Sanders were ably backed up last year by Greg McCoy and Jason Teague, who may outperform their elders this season. McCoy (right) had a monstrous spring, snagging passes right and left. Both McCoy and Teague started at least once last season. The only questions at corner were their backups; Malcolm Williams has moved over to be one of them, and done very well.

At safety, the master communicator and least-trumpeted star of the show, Tejay Johnson, returns, grooming a protégé in Jurrell Thompson, who impressed this spring. Ibiloye, Luttrell, and Jones all will see a lot of PT in 2010, but exactly which of them, with Thompson, will start and which will backup remains uncertain.

How to play be a 1st round NFL pick

TCU's 2010 schedule, analyzed

While not the gold-plated gift-wrapped schedule given the Horned Frogs in 2009, TCU does have a favorable schedule in 2010. (See it in the table on the sidebar.)

The Frogs stick to the tried-and-true formula for non-conference games: one cartel semi-heavy-weight, one Big12 team, SMU, and one creampuff. The semi-heavy-weight cartel team is the opener, at JerryWorld, in Oregon State. The location takes a lot of the punch out of this matchup; the crowd, jet-lag, and general comfort level will be thoroughly friendly for the Frogs.

The creampuff is largely an unknown 2A team; these games are unfair, and good for little more than injuries and concession sales. The Wimple wishes TCU would add North Texas instead of a 2A team. The level of competition would hardly be different, and an all-1A schedule appeals to the computers. Oh well.

Baylor is the Big12 team on the schedule, for the third time in four years. The Bears come to Fort Worth again, and likely will leave just as shut-out as last time. Yes, Robert Griffin is a dynamic quarterback. No, he hasn’t played a defense like TCU’s before, and yes, doofus Baylor fans will supply all the bulletin board material needed to motivate the Frogs. This will be fun.

Finally SMU. This year– the first year in memory– the Mustangs don’t double the “creampuff” category. In fact, the Frogs may face a decent test in their Friday night roady to Dallas to face the Mustangs. The spread still probably will be in the double digits: perhaps half of last season’s ridiculous 40-point bet. But SMU showed a new and encouraging intensity in last year’s tilt, and have added confidence and a little success to their mojo since then. The Wimple doesn’t see SMU pulling off a 2005-esque upset this year, but he is glad the 2011 game is in Fort Worth.

Conference play– and the Frogs’ first foray outside the Metroplex this season– begins in Fort Collins at week 5. Colorado State won’t be a gimme at Sonny Lubick stadium this season. If the Frogs take bad injury luck north again, like they did in 2008, this could be uncomfortably close. Next come three MWC top-halfers to Fort Worth. Wyoming brings their now-confident spread to ACS first, followed by BYU’s not-so-new quarterback, and then Air Force’s triple option. TCU cashes in a lot of schedule grace with these three coming at or after the halfway-point in the season, and all at home.

By this point the Frogs probably will be 8-0, having played without a bye, and almost a month at home. The next two roadtrips will be a challenge. First it’s a late game in Las Vegas, which TCU will win handily. UNLV may be playing harder in 2010, but it will be in the midst of a thorough identity change, and out for the count before halftime. The team will return to Fort Worth sometime in the wee hours of Sunday, with the season’s toughest game looming. Week 10 (November 6, again) features the Frogs’ return to Salt Lake City to face the Utes. This year the game starts at 1:30 in the afternoon, and TCU (hopefully) will have the senior quarterback. Again the possibility of a BCS berth (or something larger) may hang on the outcome of this match. It may be the biggest Mountain West game of the year, or longer.

The Frogs host San Diego State in week 11, and then enjoy their only bye of the year, before finishing against a much improved New Mexico in Albuquerque.

TCU ought to be favored in every game this year, except maybe the grudge match in Salt Lake City. TCU hasn’t won in Rice-Eccles at least since its entry into the Mountain West. This will be TCU’s first day game there since then, and if injuries don’t significantly alter the two-deep beforehand, TCU will have the more experienced team at nearly every position.

So the schedule doesn’t hinder the Frogs; given TCU’s unprecedented pre-season poll position (#6 in ESPN’s post-spring lineup), any ceiling on the 2010 Frogs will be self-imposed. If the Horned Frogs show 2009-like intensity consistently in 2010, the purple-clad Fort Worth crew may force a rewrite of the BCS rules come bowl season.

2009 Wimple Awards

The third annual Wimple Awards:

The 2009 Purple Wimple Players of the Year: Daryl Washington, Jerry Hughes
On a team full of playmakers, Daryl Washington and Jerry Hughes proved the most consistent big-play threats in purple. Washington stepped into the daunting shoes of Robert Henson, filled them, and then some. Washington was one of the emotional leaders of the team, as well as one of the defense's best performers. In 2009 the senior averaged over eight tackles per game, and never tallied less than five-- and in those three in which he only got five, at least one was for a loss. Washington played big in big games: his career best game was at Clemson, where he not only tallied 13 stops, but chased down C. J. Spiller in a footrace, bringing down the ACC Player of the Year and turning what would have been a touchdown into a field goal. Washington made ten and nine tackles at BYU and at Air Force, respectively, making him the Frogs' most valuable performer away from Amon Carter Stadium, as well as in it. Jerry Hughes's numbers themselves say much of the story: 58 tackles (21 of them for a loss); 13 sacks; seven (officially) QB hurries; two forced fumbles. Elite defenders rack up totals like that, and of those, only the best do it more than once. Hughes did it twice, despite being the number one threat on opposing offensive-coordinators' minds all off-season. For his effort he brought home the hardware in 2009, winning the Ted Henricks award, as well as his second consecutive spot as as first-team consensus All-American. (This year he was a the unanimous pick.) Hughes and Washington have played every year on special teams. Few Frogs have as obvious and as bright a future in the NFL as these two have; their years at TCU-- even when not starting-- were brilliant. Like Jason Phillips last year, and Chase Ortiz the year before, it will be hard to imagine the TCU team-- especially the defense-- without these defenders prowling in the middle of it and camping out in the opponents' backfields, making them look slow and stupid.




Offensive Player of the Year: Andy Dalton
The Wimple made the point last year, when awarding the quarterback with this same award, that no single player accounted for the Frogs' increase in productivity between '07 and '08 than Dalton. It is a singular delight, then, to note that this continues to be true. No single Frog accounts for more of the difference between the offense's record-setting '08 season, and its substantially more impressive (and record-setting) '09 output than Andy Dalton. With over 500 more yards, and 12 more touchdowns than last season, the junior had the best single season any TCU quarterback has had since at least the leather helmet era, if not ever. Dalton threw more touchdowns in 2009 (23) than he threw the previous two years combined, and threw only eight interceptions. Raw production aside, Dalton proved more durable than in the past, quicker and more dangerous as a running threat, and smarter than the defenses he faced. Against Clemson, he executed the Slice relentlessly, running for almost 70 yards in the second half, keeping TCU's scoring drives alive. Against Utah, Dalton completely negated the Utes' exotic blitzes, reading and passing over them repeatedly, and quickly! Dalton's increased production and smart performance was the most valuable component in TCU's best ever offensive year. His return in 2010 makes TCU a viable contender for the crystal trophy.

Defensive Player of the Year: Raphael Priest
The senior cornerback was one of the steadiest performers on the team, let alone in the secondary, which was marked by unexpected turmoil all season. How often did this fleet athlete lock down receivers sent to steal a deep pass? Priest's fourth starting campaign was perhaps his best. Priest started all but one game in the regular season--the only missed start of his career--and likely will continue football professionally this fall.

















Special Teams Player of the Year: Jeremy Kerley
Few players can take not receiving the ball as a compliment, but Jeremy Kerley is not like most players. Opposing teams kicked away from him all year, and when forced to punt his way, tried to punt out of bounds. It's hard to blame them: when Kerley fielded a punt or kickoff, he was electric. Twice Kerley returned kicks for touchdowns, both times igniting the Frogs' then-sluggish teammates. Kerley's touchdown return against Colorado State (watch it here and weep for other teams' special teams) is a lesson in agility, vision, and speed. It won ESPN's best play of the year, and should have.








Senior of the Year: Marshall Newhouse
Like Herbert Taylor before him, Marshall Newhouse began playing as a true freshman at TCU, at right tackle, and migrated to left tackle to replace a graduating senior. Chase Ortiz called Newhouse the most talented o-lineman at TCU, and after four years, the Wimple will brook no dissent on the issue. Newhouse has proven Taylor's equal in talent and, just as importantly, durability. The senior started or played in every TCU game since 2006. Last year, Marshall Newhouse anchored (with then-senior Blake Shlueter) an o-line that topped its best year in almost a decade, registering over 220 ground yards per game and over 33 points per game. Newhouse, the only starting senior on the line in 2009, led the group that bested both of those marks. The line allowed the fewest sacks (12) since joining the MWC, at least.











Freshman of the Year: Ed Wesley, Matthew Tucker
Behind the best o-line in at least a decade, these two runningbacks burst on the scene and have left Frog watchers wondering how the three incoming bluechip runningbacks will fit into the backfield. Ed Wesley was not only unheralded as a recruit, but was considered a poor choice by the few commentators who took any notice of him at all coming out of high school. Word filtered out during his redshirt year, however, that he was elusive and difficult for the Frogs' tremendous defense to stop. Thankfully he ran into the face of other teams' defenses in 2009, and relentlessly. Wesley averaged over six yards per carry, splitting snaps with Turner and Tucker. He also racked up 170 aerial yards, making Wesley one of the Frogs most versatile and dangerous weapons.
True freshman Matt Tucker had considerably more hype to live up to as a recruit to TCU, and did so in spades. Too talented for the coaches to redshirt him, Tucker made waves from his first practice in August. By season's open, the freshman had worked his way to second in the Frogs' three-back ground attack. By the postseason, Tucker had amassed 6.4 ypc, with slightly more touches than Wesley, and twice as many touchdowns (8).







Can't Wait to See Next Year: Dwight Smith, Casey Pachall, Stansley Maponga, David Johnson, James Dunbar.

TCU wraps up, upset, but set up.

So the Frogs didn't turn into princes upon invitation to a BCS bowl, and indeed the Wimple's forecast that any one loss in 2010 would feel like a letdown proved true. But good news accompanies even the truth of this prediction. How far fell the Frogs after that loss? TCU went to Glendale ranked #3 by the press, and #4 by the BCS. AP and the coaches put TCU in their final ballots at #6 (there is no final BCS poll).

How did the Frogs get to so high a ranking? By spreading the ball around. It began in Virginia, where TCU's three-headed backfield and utterly dominant o-line tallied 154 yards, keeping TCU in possession of the ball almost 35 minutes. They tallied 212 a week later against Texas State, and Dalton joined the fun against Clemson a week later. When the trio only managed 128 yards in the face of Clemson's impressive d-line, the junior signal-caller galloped for 100 himself, 68 of those in the second half. Still working with a partially concealed playbook against SMU, Dalton rode the SMU pony to a conference-high 160 efficiency rating. Turner, Wesley, and Tucker tallied 196 yards. Following a bitter-cold close call at Air Force, TCU upped the intensity of its ground game against Colorado State. Against the Rams, 14 Frogs toted the rock, for 278 yards and three touchdowns.

Those six games clearly were tune-ups for TCU, which blew the dust off of long-unused pages of its playbook for the tilt in Provo, where the Frogs dominated BYU in all three phases, for all sixty minutes. The steam-roll had only begun: Colorado State was the first of six conference opponents to give up more than 40 points to TCU; the other five came in a row: UNLV, San Diego State, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Of those five, only Utah scored more than 12, and only New Mexico held the Frogs to less than 326 rushing yards. TCU sold out its first conference game since its Southwest Conference days, (breaking its home record) when Utah and ESPN Gameday came to town. The Frogs rode the Mountain West all the way to 3rd in both human polls, and 4th in the BCS, and a record-setting bowl bid. Never before had a BCS bowl chosen a non-cartel team over a cartel-team; Boise State matched that record with a remarkable one of its own: never before had a second non-cartel team secured a BCS berth in one season. Their excitement about that unprecedented chance to bowl for big money carried into their outstanding Fiesta Bowl win over the Frogs.

TCU's 2009 senior class is small, but talented. Four of them (Washington, Hughes, Newhouse, and Gresham) are invited to the NFL Combine, and three will play in senior all-star games. Probably six or seven will be on NFL rosters next season (Washinigton and Hughes will be TCU's highest-picked draftees in years). It was the Frogs' juniors that carried the greatest load this year. Dalton, Cannon, Kirkpatrick, Vernon, Kerley, Young, Clay, Johnson on offense; Griffin, Grant, Daniels, Luttrell, Johnson, Ibiloye, Teague, and Jones on defense. Next season these juniors (then seniors) will cap the most talented team to wear purple in decades, perhaps ever.

TCU has finished seven of the last ten seasons ranked, but never maintained anything close to that strength in the polls across an offseason. After finishing 21/18th in 2000, TCU debuted 2001 unranked. After finished 23/22nd in 2002, TCU began the next year at 25th. After a 25/23rd finish in '03, TCU began 2004 unranked. After finished 2005 ranked 11/9th, TCU began the next season ranked 22nd. The exception is that TCU took a 22/21st finish in 2006 to a 22nd ranked beginning to 2007. The Frogs began 2008 --/44th, and finished 7/7th, only to debut 2009 ten spots lower at 17/17th. 2009 concluded with TCU 6/6th.

Incredibly, early-preseason polls rank TCU the same: sixth. A similar ranking in August would herald a new paradigm in college football. Boise and TCU likely will begin the 2010 season ranked in the top ten-- the first two non-cartel teams to achieve that kind of confidence and recognition among voters. While several non-cartel teams have clawed their way into the national title discussion by year-end, none have ever begun the year in that conversation. Boise certainly will do so in 2010, and TCU might.

The 2010 seniors clearly will be the most talented class to graduate from TCU since the 1950s, if not longer. They will be just the first such class, however. In a few weeks Gary Patterson's crew will close the second jaw-dropping class of recruits in as many years. The remarkable truth is that Patterson has created much more than a flash in the pan success in Fort Worth. He has set up the Frogs to succeed repeatedly on a once-unthinkably-high level. That players like Tanner Brock, Jason Teague, Greg McCoy, Blaize Foltz, Matt Tucker, Curtis Clay, Zach Roth, D.J. Yendry, Braylon Broughton, Andre Dean, Waymon James, and Casey Pachall didn't start this season is a revealing tribute to the quality of TCU's upperclassmen.

In sum, with the talent returning and enrolling (including early-enrolled Dwight Smith, called the best runningback to come from east Texas in a generation), a top-ten pre-season rank, and continuity on the staff, TCU is set up perfectly for a run at the sport's holy grail. It'll be decided in Glendale in 2010, and for the first time since our grandparents were young, it is not unreasonable to consider the Frogs in the running for it. It's crystal, football-shaped, and until 2010, had been reserved only for the privileged few. Next year, that club may have to expand like nobody could have imagined just a year or two ago.

Boise State 17, TCU 10

Outcoached.

TCU hasn't had to swallow that pill in a long time. But Boise State administered a terrific dose of the medicine in the Fiesta Bowl, first in defending TCU's rush attack quirkily enough to scare the Frogs' young OCs away from the run, and second in faking a punt (pictured) to keep the Bronco's only touchdown drive alive. Those changes, with terrific play by Boise's secondary (snagging three Dalton passes) made just enough difference to give Boise State the win.

While Boise sustained drives better than TCU (converting 40% of its third- and fourth-downs, compared to TCU's dismal eight percent), both teams punted eight times. Boise held the ball a full ten minutes longer than TCU, and ran eight more plays, but engineered exactly no more points from them than TCU did. TCU passed for 30 yards more than BSU, and scored on a pass play. Boise ran for 40 yards more than TCU, and scored on a run play. Both teams had 12 passing first downs, 3 or 4 rushing first downs, and one penalty first down. Neither quarterback had a typical day; Moore was pressured most of the night, and Dalton threw three interceptions, one of which was returned (accounting for all of the difference in the score), and the last killed TCU's attempt to tie the game in the final two minutes.

In the end, Boise's defense was the x-factor. They outplayed TCU's offense so effectively the Frogs could not win, despite their own defense's very good showing. Hughes, Washington, Carder-- all the usual suspects-- were typically terrific.

Much has been-- and should be-- said about TCU's abandoning the run. Matthew Tucker was given just one carry; Ed Wesley only two. Credit Boise's surprise use of a 3-3 and 3-2 front: it scared TCU's young offensive coordinators away from the Frogs' bread and butter, keeping potent purple playmakers off the field. In 2010, the Frogs' stable of runningbacks will be even more audacious than this season: Waymon James, Andre Dean, and Dwight Smith join Tucker and Wesley. Perhaps TCU will be more faithful to its roots, and roster, next season.

KDFW33's "Purple Reign"

    

Repeat All-American

In honor of Jerry Hughes' second consecutive season as a consensus (at least!) first-team All-American, comes this trivia question: Who was the last Horned Frog to repeat as a first-team All-American?

TCU v. Boise, in the stats

Statistically, Boise State is one very impressive football team. A few particulars:

This team is very young. Only one senior is listed as starting on the team's official depth chart: all-American punt returner and CB Kyle Wilson. (Boise listed 13 in its '08 Poinsettia guide.) Only two freshmen are starters: WR Kirby Moore, and LB J.C. Percy. Compare TCU: six starting seniors: LT Marshall Newhouse, TB Joe Turner, DE Jerry Hughes, LB Daryl Washington, and CBs Nick Sanders and Raphael Priest; one starting freshman: TB Matthew Tucker.

Young, however, does not mean inexperienced. Fully 18 starters played TCU in last year's bowlgame. Four were starting o-linemen last season, as were three starting d-linemen. That continuity up front has really paid off for Boise's offense, which ranks first nationally in sacks allowed (improving four spots) and has the nation's 20th best rushing attack (a 19-place improvement). The Bronocs accomplished this facing an average 88th best rush defense. (All stats available here.) Compare TCU: fifth in sacks allowed and rushing offense, facing an average 74th best rush defense.

Boise broke in three new starting wideouts, and fell from the 12th best passing offense to the 30th best, nationally. The sum total of these changes in the way the team produces yards and points has been a net gain for the broncos, however: Boise has added over four points to its per-game average, while facing an average 75th best pass defenses. Compare TCU: 67th best passing offense, fourth best scoring offense, facing an average 57th best pass defense.

Last year's defensive front was probably better, registering tenth best in sacks made and 15th best rushing defense. In '09, the returner-heavy front fell to 40th best rushing defense, and 72nd in sacks made, while facing an average 58th best rushing attacks. Behind the four-man defensive front on the blue turf are two linebackers and five defensive backs, like TCU uses. Both corners and two safeties are returning starters, as is one of the linebackers. The bottom line: Boise fell from third to 16th best in scoring defense. Compare TCU: third in rushing D, sixth in scoring D, 21st in sacks made, facing an average 75th best rushing offense.

All of these returners take a back seat in accolades, however, to their second-year starting sophomore quarterback, Kellen Moore, who leads the nation in efficiency, while facing an average 75th best pass defense. His efforts, behind a very good line has been is the key to the Bronco's nation-leading average of over 44 points per game. Moore has garnered several spots on all-American team this season. That line is surprisingly small-- averaging just over 285 lbs. Compare TCU: starting beefeaters average 32 pounds heavier, Andy Dalton is fourth in efficiency, facing an average 57th best pass defense; TCU is fourth in scoring offense at almost 41 points per game.

So what's the takeaway? TCU's offensive production is just a whisker behind Boise's, but in the face of significantly stiffer defenses, while the Bronco's defense lags slightly behind TCU's, in the face of significantly better offenses. Or, in order words, one must concede the Fiesta Bowl's point: these teams are pretty well matched.

Poinsettia II (a.k.a. '10 Fiesta)

Lately the Wimple has eschewed link lists, but conveying the consensus is important now.
Here's SI's Cory McCartney, ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski, Yahoo's Matt Hinton and Holly Anderson (who quotes others), BCSGuru's guru, CFN's Fiutak & Cirminiello, CBS's Dennis Dodd, the Washington Post's John Feinstein, the Trentonian's Matthew Osborne, RealClearSports's Matthew Sanderson, all saying TCU-Boise is a slap in their respective faces. Thank you very much, BCS. You've managed to relegate the outsiders to the outside, even when they pluck off two berths in your playpen. And now you'll pay them both half the announced payout, and send them home without giving either one of them a chance to prove itself on your grand stage.

Shame on you. Really.

With contrary sentiments, here's SI's Stewart Mandel; and, um... anybody else? A Phoenix newspaper likes the matchup-- especially after Iowa fans (suckers!) sold out the bowl prior to selection Sunday. SI's Andy Staples has moved from calling it the "Separate But Equal Bowl" to a great game that should be the national semifinal. The Wimple heartily agrees.

Oh well. Here's Mark May and Lou "Thkippy" Holtz on the matchup:


...and here're Ivan Maisel and Pat Forde, both of whom go on record preferring TCU over Texas for the title game berth:

2009 All-MWC Frogs

Offensive Player of the Year: Andy Dalton.
Defensive Player of the Year: Jerry Hughes.*
Special Teams Player of the Year: Jeremy Kerley.
Coach of the Year: Gary Patterson.

First Team: Andy Dalton ('08 HM), Marshall Newhouse ('08 2nd Team), Marcus Cannon ('08 HM), Jeremy Kerley (KR)('08 1st Team), Jerry Hughes ('08 1st Team), Daryl Washington, Raphael Priest ('08 2nd Team), Nick Sanders.

Second Team: Joe Turner, Jake Kirkpatrick, Wayne Daniels, Cory Grant, Tank Carder, Teejay Johnson.

Honorable Mention: Evan Frosch, Antoine Hicks, Jeremy Kerley (WR), Ed Wesley, Jimmy Young.*

*for the second year

Frog D about six inches shy of first place

It has to be the closest three teams have ever come to a tie for best total defense in a season; Florida tops the list at 233.08 yards allowed per game, on average. TCU is second, allowing about six inches more than the Gators. Alabama is third, allowing a full two feet and eight inches more than TCU, on average. For the record, Slohio State and Texas each allow about 30 yards more than the three leaders.

Flabama still has to play itself in the SEC title game, perhaps breaking the logjam at the top.
[update: Florida got routed by Alabama, giving up 490 yards in the title game, and now averages 252.8 yards per game this season. Alabama gave up 335 yards, and now averages 241.7 yards per game. Texas now averages just over 251, good for about third place, behind #1 TCU and #2 Alabama. TCU has a decent shot at a second consecutive #1 finish in total defense.]

TCU 51, New Mexico 10

While it's true the game wasn't over before it started, TCU demolished New Mexico, apparently without trying too hard. The Lobos recovered two Horned Frog fumbles, and forced the purple and white to punt seven times. But in the end, it was still a coronation for the conference champs, and an emphatic one at that. TCU out-ran New Mexico 4.5 ypc to 0.3; out-passed UNM 9.5 ypc to 3.6; and threw no interceptions to UNM's four- two of those for TDs.









Dalton and the offense alternated between spectacular and uninspiring. In one first-half five-and-a-half minute stretch, Joe Turner ran for a TD, and Dalton threw TD passes to Bart Johnson and (twice) to Antoine Hicks. The Frogs let up on the gas after that, scoring only 7 more offensive points.



















TCU's run defense showed its might early and often, holding the Lobos to only ten yards on the ground. Kelly Griffin nearly intercepted Donovan Porterie (see photo), and Jerry Hughes tallied his 11th sack of the season (technically 11.5th). Daryl Washington and Tank Carder combined for 21 tackles, five of them for losses, and interception and a pass break-up. Washington and Raphael Priest each had pick-sixes on consecutive UNM drives in the fourth quarter.

photos: Keith Robinson

An open letter to non-cartel coach voters: put TCU #1

Dear non-BCS coach-voters in the USAToday Coaches' Poll:

Few observers in the sport see more clearly than you do how the BCS cartel handicaps your teams, and all of the D-1A non-cartel teams (the so-called "non-AQ" teams). But more than seeing the damage, you all have a unique opportunity to weaken the damaging divide between the BCS cartel's haves and have-nots. You have a vote in the polls-- a say in how college football's best pie gets divided among its teams and conferences.

Why cast your first place vote this week for a member of the cartel that plays a weaker schedule than TCU? Why cast your first place vote this week for a team less balanced than TCU, which is the only team in the NCAA featuring a top-5 offense and defense? (Florida comes closest next: it has a top-5 defense, but its offense is only 15th nationally!) Why cast your first place vote for a team that cries to momma about how unfair it is to be scrutinized by the press and other coaches, while TCU puts up, shuts up, and kicks butt week in and week out?

Your first place vote for TCU would not be an indefensible protest; some of the most prescient commentators on the sport have made powerful cases for TCU already. Here're Matt Hinton's and BCSGuru's, for example. Wyoming's players-- the only athletes in D-1A who've played both TCU and Texas-- say TCU is the better team. Utah's coach called this year's TCU team the best he's ever seen-- and he's seen some great ones.

In short, isn't it time to put the burden of proof on the cartel members for once? Why not cast your first place vote for TCU, and demand the BCS cartel show why an all-time great non-cartel team doesn't deserve to outrank opponents from within the cartel that are less balanced, play weaker schedules, and whine about it?

--Purple Wimple

November 25, 2009

Not just another day in Frog heaven

When TCU takes the field Saturday, it will be well favored to beat New Mexico; to finish the regular season 12-0, giving this year's seniors the most wins of any class of Horned Frogs in history; to clinch a berth to its biggest bowl game since the '50s; and to take an honored place among the great teams of the 1930s that achieved this singular distinction: unbeaten in the regular season. All of that is grand, and worthy of much fanfare; but the Wimple offers another perspective on TCU's remarkable 2009 campaign.

When the Southwest Conference broke up in 1994, leaving TCU and three other weaklings to rot, its abandonment of the Horned Frogs was particularly poignant. Oldtimers well remembered when TCU was the giant among Texas schools during the Depression; not-so-old timers could recall TCU's decade-long duel in the '50s with UT for conference supremacy. But for a generation after TCU surrendered that war, letting two-squad play, limitless scholarships for state schools under the GI Bill, and rampant cheating in paying for recruits, all pass it by, the Horned Frogs were a bland and brand-less squad, losers on the gridiron. Its boosters succumbed to the "way it was" in the early '80s, paying their way to the conference championship in '84, before the hammer fell.

Several years ago, the Wimple recounted all of this in greater detail; this tale of decline reaches bottom with the "walking death penalty" given TCU in '85, and its conference's demise a decade later. Then came the revival-- labeled an "experiment" in that larger telling. Could a rule-abiding, privately-funded non-cartel football team thrive in Division 1-A ? Early returns were hopeful, but the program seemed unable to put the cap on its upswings. Dizzying flirtations with BCS bids ended unfruitfully in 2000 and 2003 with late-season road losses scaring off the cartel suitor-agents. An early-season loss in '05 kept them away until it was too late; another late-season road loss was excuse enough in '08, despite laxer eligibility rules that kept TCU technically (but not practically) in play through selection Sunday. The Wimple's history concluded:

The experiment seemed to have reached its logical limits: a team outside the BCS cartel and resources, committed to recruiting and graduating honest student athletes, could win most games, but not regularly, and not under pressure.

Indeed, TCU appeared good enough to flirt with the big-money bowls, high poll ranking, and NFL-bound talent. But fate never seemed to bless the Frogs' attempts to assemble all of the ingredients. But a TCU victory Saturday will render that sentence incomplete without the following caveat: until 2009. What the Frogs may accomplish in five days is no less than a reversal of almost 50 years' curse. TCU may rise above irrelevance on Saturday; above its nomad journey through the outcasts of Division 1-A; above a couple generations' acceptance as a has-been, a history lesson, a glint only in grandfathers' eyes. TCU again vies with Texas for supremacy in the Lone Star State, and in the nation.

What changed?

Dr. Saturday gives a hint:

"TCU ... is good at everything -- literally everything. The Frogs currently rank in the top 10 nationally in pretty much every conceivable facet of the game: Scoring Offense (No. 5), Total Offense (5), Scoring Defense (6), Total Defense (4), Rushing Offense (5), Pass Efficiency Offense (9), Rushing Defense (6), Passing Defense (3), Pass Efficiency Defense (5), First Downs Gained (7), First Downs Allowed (1), Third Down Defense, Kickoff Returns (1), Sacks Allowed (6), [and] Time of Possession (10)."

There's no doubt the '09 Frogs have added potent offense and special teams play to their portfolio, which has including nationally leading defense frequently since Gary Patterson's arrival in 1998. But the addition of (and better use of) top-talent on offense appears to have been the missing piece. With its new mojo holding the ball, TCU went to Clemson, Air Force, and BYU, and beat all three. In its last six games TCU has averaged over 523 yards per game, 300 of those on the ground. And all of this without a single 1,000-yard rusher or receiver!

Several changes among the coordinators may have prompted the outburst on the field. Rusty Burns has taught the receivers how to upgrade their blocking and route running. First-year playcallers Justin Fuente and Jarrett Anderson have opened the playbook a little. But the Frogs have amassed a frightful cast of weapons for these coaches to deploy in any formation. The talent upgrade that has been underway since about 2005 has begun to show up between the hashmarks. Every indication points to a further rise in the Frogs' on-field prowess.

Given a win Saturday, it will be time to re-cast the narrative of football in purple and white. Beating New Mexico will complete the Revival, and more than merely a new chapter in the history of TCU football: it will commence a new book entirely. That tome's title?

Juggernaut.