12/18/10
The turnover seems sizable, yet anyone who’s followed Horned Frog football knows that another Top 10 year-end ranking – and there have been four in the past six years – again looks feasible. Losing Dalton will make many fain from jumping on the TCU bandwagon this time around, but Coach Gary Patterson has proven those who underestimate his recruiting make a serious mistake. Sophomore-to-be Casey Pachall is the latest unearthed gem, last season’s No.9 (Rivals) dual-threat QB who has added 20 pounds and plenty of FBS-level mentoring to his ample skill set. The new hurler gets the potency of the team’s top three rushers to distract DLmen; experienced all-MWC runner Ed Wesley will help Pachall adjust quickly. The holes in the OL will need shoring, and re-manning here poses the biggest challenge for the staff on this side of the ball. The DL also loses major cogs and some of its girth in the middle for run stopping. All-conference LBs Carder and Brock (team’s top tackler) will compensate for any early line struggles. For a defense ranked in the top 10 in most major categories for the past three-years (have been No.1 in total defense four of the past ten years, including this year’s top marks in total, passing and scoring D), the line’s ability to hold its own will prove to be the key domino – if they struggle, the other defensive units will sequentially be affected, as well as if they keep the legacy going, the new DL will be part-and-parcel responsible for TCU’s continued defensive dominance in all areas (as has proven to be true in the Patterson era). The fact that few teams mimic coordinator Dick Bumpas’s 4-2-5 defensive spread proves how subtle and intricate it is to pull off with this much success, so advantage Horned Frogs in most coaching categories, too. Factor in how TCU’s three mere losses over the past three years have each time been to undefeated teams and you get why this program is BCS material, not to mention why they were courted to change to a BCS-level conference. Anyone Old School-types who think Texas Christian will somehow slide back to mediocrity due to the new faces will be left wondering how Patterson does it…again and again and again, and now again.