Could the TCU Horned Frogs Overtake the Dallas Cowboys For Football Supremacy?

In North Texas football is king. For the Dallas Cowboys, the team who once were crowned "America's Team," they are about to be replaced by a team who used to be 'that cute little team in Fort Worth.'

The TCU Horned Frogs, fresh off an unbeaten season and a Rose Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers, it seems fans are beginning to stray away from the big silver star and over to the team named for a strange looking animal. And who can blame them?


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Since his hiring in 2000, head coach Gary Patterson has led his team to top 25 finishes in eight of his 10 seasons including top 10 finishes in each of the last three seasons.

He has his team and his players at the highest level they have seen in years. Sure the TCU football program has had their share of great players, such as NFL running back LaDainian Tomlinson, but the 2010 team wasn't filled with big time "stars."

The team had a quarterback, Andy Dalton, who did his job and put up record numbers in his final year. They had the nation's best defense led by hard hitting linebacker, Tank Carder, and departed cornerback Tejay Johnson. Everything went their way and it ended with a goose egg in the loss column and a celebration in Pasadena, California.

For the fans here in the Dallas and Forth Worth areas, they have gotten use to the Dallas Cowboys being the only football in town.

Nevermind the fact they had Southern Methodist University to the east, led by new head coach June Jones who has them on the right track for the first time in a long time, and Texas Christian University to the west. They wanted the far-too-big television screen and the stadium that cost over a billion dollars to build.

For years, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones had done and said the right things to keep fans coming back to his team and his stadium. Even after he built a brand new state of the art football stadium, raised parking prices to $75, and ticket prices to, well, out of range of families and the average fan, people still showed up.

But for the past 16 seasons, the fans have walked away from every NFL season in disappointment. Their team had not won a Super Bowl since 1996 and had just a single playoff victory. Despite all that, still the fans came and brought the same expectations they had the year before.

Could there finally be a changing of the guard? Could the Dallas Cowboys possibly play second fiddle to a college football team?

At this point one might wonder if Jones wouldn't love to have Patterson as his head coach. He has not had any luck finding the right guy since Jimmy Johnson left for greener pastures.

But, for reasons passing understanding, Patterson remains in Fort Worth and with a school who will finish up their final season in the Mountain West Conference before heading to the Big East Conference and a shot at an automatic BCS bid year in and year out.

The Cowboys have had their time in the sun and now it seems the Horned Frogs are making a strong case for fans in the metroplex to believe in what they are selling.

Like them or not, they are no longer the cute little team anymore. Now they have national attention and the fans who normally would not give them a second look, are buying up tickets like it's the last time they will get to see this team.

The final nail in the coffin of the Dallas Cowboys, whether you want to believe it or not, will be the continuation of the NFL lockout. If there is no professional football in 2011, the TCU Horned Frogs are the team who will benefit the most from it.

Before the 2010 college football season began, I remember listening to a good friend of mine on his radio show calling TCU "that cute little team." I laughed and knew it was just the biased opinion that seems to resonate here in Dallas.

But, when the season ended, he admitted to me that he never saw this kind of season coming from a team in the Mountain West.

If his opinion has changed, what are the odds the opinions of the rest of the naysayers have also changed?


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Will TCU QB Casey Pachall Become Another Andy Dalton?

With quarterback Andy Dalton moving on, the TCU Horned Frogs will need to move on as well with life after their star quarterback. But they may not have to wait long to see yet another star emerge.

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Casey Pachall, a four-star recruit out of Brownwood High School in Brownwood, Texas, is the most likely candidate to take over the starting quarterback position and make his own mark on the TCU football program.

Coming out of high school, Pachall was recruited not only by TCU but also by the likes of Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Florida just to name a few. The fact that he picked TCU should show the kind of belief this young quarterback had in this program and where it was going.

Sitting behind Dalton, Pachall knew he was just going to need to be patient and wait for his time to come. He did get to play sparingly in "mop up" time against New Mexico late in the season. A game the Horned Frogs would go on to win in blowout fashion, 66-14.

Pachall would four of his six pass attempts in that game for 54 yards and a touchdown, also adding 22 rushing yards on five carries and a score.

While Dalton might have been the winningest quarterback in school history, Pachall has the ability to put up similar or better numbers if he does stay for two years as as starter.

He is not your prototypical pocket passers. Pachall pull it down and take off with more speed than Dalton brought to the position. He has great arm strength and the ability to thread the needle when needed. Pachall will force defenses to stay honest when he is either under center or from the shotgun position.

Pachall will being a whole new dynamic to the TCU offense, one that hasn't been seen for quite some time.  You can not expect a first year starter to come in and duplicate what Dalton did for this football program. But there is absolutely no doubt that Pachall has the ability to bring his own style to the offense and make this team look much different offensively than it did last season.

He is going to have his first year problems and jitters when he's out on the field, but once he gets comfortable in the offense and with his teammates, this young man might be a hard one to stop.


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Video and Analysis of TCU RB Ed Wesley

The 2010 TCU Horned Frogs were led to an unbeaten season by their shut down defense and one of the best quarterbacks in school history.

But for all the credit guys like linebacker Tank Carder and quarterback Andy Dalton get, most college football as well as TCU fans overlook a guy who put his own stamp on this past season.


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For those of you do not know anything about running back Ed Wesley, it's ok, you are absolutely not alone. In fact, Wesley was named by Rivals.com as one of top 10 overlooked returning stars from the 2010 season. He also became the first TCU running back to rush for more than 1,000 yards (1,063) since Robert Merrill did it back in 2003 (1,107).

This past season, Wesley outrushed the Air Force Falcons, the nation's best rushing offense (346.9 ypg) at the time, 209-184, the 20th best performance by a running back in TCU history and the most yards since Joseph Turner put up 226 in 2007 against San Diego State.

If you followed this young running back from his days at McArthur High School in Irving, Texas, you saw the kind of potential Wesley had. His speed through the holes in the defense, his ability to avoid tacklers, and change directions on a dime, made him a difficult player to deal with.

While Wesley's 209-yard performance against Air Force was impressive, his 165 yards and two touchdowns against Baylor was his best game of the season in terms of yards per carry. Wesley carried the ball 19 times and averaged almost nine yards per carry (8.7) against the Bears in a 45-10 blowout by TCU.

With Dalton now in the NFL, it seems the spotlight might shift from a start quarterback to a mostly unknown running back. After a 1,000 yard season in 2010, more might be expected of this young player.

If Rivals.com is correct, he could go from unknown to a star in one of the biggest media markets in the country.

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NFL Draft: Andy Dalton's Addition Signals the End of the Carson Palmer Era in Cincinnati

The decision was already made but the Cincinnati Bengals stayed in denial and were living on hopes and dreams that their quarterback, Carson Palmer, would return to the team instead of making good on his retirement promise.

When they drafted former TCU quarterback Andy Dalton in the second round of the NFL Draft, it was Cincinnati's way of giving up and realizing they had to pick up a quarterback. They couldn't go all in when they weren't holding the best hand.

There is no doubt Palmer was watching it all from home or heard it through the grapevine. When the news was finally delivered to his ears, his smile would probably make the Grand Canyon look like just a small crack in the ground. He knew he wanted and could retire but also knew the Bengals were hoping it was nothing but a bluff.

At this point, I would not be ready to hand the keys to the franchise over to a first year quarterback but I'm not sure they have much of a choice.

If Dalton is not going to be the starter when the 2011 season begins, if there's going to be a season, the only other quarterback the Bengals have is Palmer's younger brother, Jordan Palmer. They lose one Palmer only to have another still staring at them, reminding them of the quarterback who could have still been there.

With the lockout still in affect, until a ruling next week, there is really no indication as to what might happen with the 2011 season. But, for Andy Dalton, he will be ready to go if and when there is a season to play. There is no question he will be ready to take over as the team's starter if they ask him to do exactly that.

His numbers from his last few years at TCU speak for themselves but they do not translate into NFL success. The young quarterback will have to prove himself to his teammates and as a quarterback in this league.

While those in the Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex may believe in his capability and future he will quickly learn that he isn't playing college football anymore.


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The TCU Horned Frogs Likely to Hand Offensive Reigns to Casey Pachall

The TCU Horned Frogs would love to have quarterback Andy Dalton back for just one more season.

After going undefeated in 2010, and going into their last season as a member of the Mountain West Conference, it would only make sense why they would want to go out on top.

But, unfortunately for the football program and head coach Gary Patterson, they will have to usher in a new era as Dalton has moved on to the next level of his football career, leaving the head coach to look for the man who will best lead this program into the Big East Conference in 2011.

If their spring game was any indication it looks as if the one filling the position might be a foregone conclusion.

Coming into their spring game, TCU had a quarterback battle going on between Casey Pachall and Matt Brown.

When the game came to a close, Patterson wouldn't say he was completely happy with what he saw but did say the offense needed to be more consistent and they needed to limit the number of sacks. But when it came to the quarterbacks, it was clear who the head coach was happier with.

"I thought Casey Pachall played pretty dang good," Patterson told the media on Monday. "Running the football, running the offense, he didn't turn the ball over; I thought he did very well."

However, Pachall was a little harder on himself than was his head coach. "I felt like I did several things good, but didn't do as good as I wanted to. There were several throws and reads I didn't make and I felt like I should have. As an offense, we were a little slow. Little mistakes cost us each drive. But that's something we will get fixed."

The heir apparent to Dalton came in to the program in 2009 as a very highly touted recruit. He's been able to learn from the former TCU quarterback and it showed during his time with the media as well as his throws on the field.

Sure he might have more work to do but when it comes to Patterson and his coaching staff deciding on who their starter will be when the 2011 season opens, Pachall seems to have the inside track. It doesn't hurt that he's taken snaps with the practice team since he came in right out of high school.

"It does feel like I've been here for a while because I came in early," Pachall told Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. "That first spring was a little tough. Being what you'd consider a high school kid coming in and competing against all these athletes it was a little overwhelming at first, but eventually I started getting a hold of things."

That experience has led to the kind of performance the young quarterback put on during their spring game a few weeks ago. It's that experience that will give him a little more confidence to win the starting job and be able to win the confidence of his teammates right off the bat.

There will be growing pains and he will make mistakes here and there. How Pachall learns from those mistakes and gets better is how he'll be critiqued and looked at by both the fans and the media.

The Horned Frogs are in good hands with Casey Pachall. Sure he's no Andy Dalton but he doesn't have to be. Give him a little time and you may see he's a man all his own.

2011 NFL Draft: Could TCU's Andy Dalton Be the Surprise of the Draft?

For the TCU fans who have watched quarterback Andy Dalton, they know there's more to him than most of the college football world cared to see for themselves.

They were too busy watching the likes of Auburn's Cam Newton, Arkansas' Ryan Mallett, Washington's Jake Locker, and Missouri's Blaine Gabbert.

Though Dalton started all four years at TCU, his final three seasons is what the fans will remember him for. He led the Horned Frogs to a combined record of 36-3 over his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. Wrapping up his final year in purple and white with a perfect 13-0 record and a Rose Bowl win over the Wisconsin Badgers.

What a better way to wrap up your college career.

Now, with the NFL Draft bearing down on him, he's gone from one of the top college quarterbacks in the country to a guy who seems to be lost in the spotlight of the other so-called "stars."

There's been talk about Mallett being the number one overall while others think Gabbert will be the man going No. 1 to the Carolina Panthers.

While you watch for that first pick with anticipation, keep your eyes focused closely on the young man from Katy, Texas. You may be surprised when his name is called before some other names you thought for sure would be already off the board.

He's not your prototypical NFL quarterback and a guy you would call the next "face of the franchise," but his name seems to be gaining strength over the last few weeks. If this continues, we might actually see Dalton as the third or fourth quarterback taken in the draft.

GASP! What did he say?

You heard me right. After Gabbert and Newton leave the board before the 10th pick is called, it won't be Mallett or Locker who will be up next. It will be TCU's own, Andy Dalton.

In 2010, Dalton set career numbers in completion percentage (66.1), total passing yards (2,857), touchdowns (28), and yards per game (219.8) which included an astounding 355 yard 3 touchdown performance against Utah when the Utes were ranked in the top five.

There are certain quarterbacks NFL teams will take chances on. Most of the time, they are guys who weren't the biggest stars in college but put up numbers that made believers of just about every scout who came across this young man.

We can talk about the teams TCU did or didn't play and you can try to argue with me that anyone who plays outside of the SEC and Big Ten isn't ready to play at the next level. If you want to use that argument, you're more than welcome to. I just think someone forgot to tell former LSU quarterback, JaMarcus Russell.

I'm nto the only one who believes Dalton will be off the board before the first round comes to an end. Former NFL quarterback turned ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer gave his guarantee Dalton would be off the board in the first round.

SI.com draft analyst Tony Pauline also weighed in on Dalton saying he'd be off the board before the 40th overall pick came around.

He's been compared by some to Green Bay Packers' quarterback, and Super Bowl Champion, Aaron Rodgers who was someone most didn't see anything in when he came out of Cal.

Whatever your take is on the quarterback out of TCU, it seems he's not only passed Mallett but could be gaining on Newton and Gabbert as well.

Ok, maybe that's stretching it a tad too much.

Still, Dalton could absolutely be the surprise of the NFL Draft next month. Not only that, he could surprise his future teammates by challenging for the starting job in 2011. Unless of course the NFL can't find a reason to play any of their games this season.


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