Links O' War: August 13th, 2012

Happy Monday morning everyone... Did you enjoy the closing ceremonies? Me too... Really, I have seen a lot of bitching about the opening/closing ceremonies but I thought they were amazing. I loved the music, insane theatrics and lots of quality, patented British self loathing. In fact, I would rather watch those ceremonies than watch a bunch of Chinese men, recently removed from labor camps, forced by fear of death to drum in unison for months on end in preparation for their big show... The Brits may be insane (they did NOT get Oasis back together, they went for the Spice Girls reunion instead, which I will never forgive them for), but it was a quality show.

As an aside, can you imagine what Russia is going to do? They have no cultural history at all, I am thinking it will be two hours of Putin demonstrating through a one act play all of Russia's great military conquests and then launching himself into space. I, again, would rather have the Brits.

We will get to the links in a minute, but first I wanted to give you guys a quick update on what FOW has planned for this fall. You will have fantastic coverage every single day of the week beginning in September and continuing through December. So, no need to go elsewhere, just head on over to FOW and get your TCU fix. More details to come very soon!

Not much out there this morning in the way of news... I will post a new GoFrogs preview a little later this morning, but I did want to show you another cool preview from a fantastic sports blog, Pre-Snap Read.

It's not just because they named us as a top blog (and we are, btw, in every way including traffic... KF has the biggest Forum), but because they clearly put forward a strong effort with this preview.

The 2012 TCU Preview from the Pre-Snap Read has TCU at #22 in the country, about seven spots lower than normal, but makes a good case for the Frogs still being a top five team in the Big 12. You should click on the link and read the entire preview, but check out this snapshot for a quick preview.

There are two non-B.C.S. conference programs who could step right into this Big 12 - the deepest league in the country, in my opinion - and immediately challenge for a conference title. Boise State is one; T.C.U. is the other. Why the Horned Frogs are up for this challenge has everything to do with the system Patterson and his staff have installed over the last decade-plus. It's not so much a blueprint for beating specific teams as a blueprint for beating every team: T.C.U. wins at the point of attack, controls the line of scrimmage, runs the ball effectively, limits its turnovers, forces its own turnovers and dominates on special teams. No matter what league you're in, whether the Mountain West or the Big 12, Sun Belt or SEC, this is a winning formula.

In other words, my issues with these specific team involve T.C.U.'s personnel - and in no way, shape or form the program's ability to win games in the Big 12. If you think that Patterson and T.C.U. can't win in this league, and eventually win big, then you haven't been watching the Horned Frogs take flight over the last five years. In terms of personnel, however, T.C.U. is dealing with some question marks on both sides of the ball. The first is the offensive line, which is patchwork at tackle; as a result, I worry that T.C.U. won' be able to keep Pachall clean against some of the Big 12's ferocious defensive fronts. On defense, there's too much youth throughout, especially in the secondary, to call for a marked improvement over last year's weaker numbers. These issues are survivable in the Mountain West but not in the Big 12, as T.C.U. will soon find out. But I like the fact that T.C.U.'s tough conference slate comes late in the year; by that point, the Frogs may be on the same page.

Maybe my friends, maybe.