TCU News: Happy Football Reporting Day!

Football:

If Big 12 football needs a new voice, how about Gary Patterson’s? | The Star-Telegram

Why not GP? He’s the longest tenured coach in the conference, one of the most unflinchingly honest in the country, and pretty funny to boot.

“I’m the guy that you don’t like walking into a committee because I’m the guy that’s going to ask the question nobody else wants to ask,” he said. “I’ve been doing that for a while, whether I like it or I dislike it. But I do believe that the Big 12 — I hear about we have a problem with what people think about us — it’s a great conference.

How the Texas heat gives TCU football players an edge | The Star-Telegram

GP has long judged the quality of his team by how they handle the heat. Well, it’s hot in Texas - let’s see what they’ve got this year.

As the Frogs prepare for fall camp, they will join other FBS programs in following the NCAA’s new edict of just one contact practice per day that is at least three hours removed from a non-padded, walkthrough session focused on meetings, film reviews and similar non-conditioning activities. The other change for 2017 is that teams can begin their 29 fall practices a week earlier on the NCAA calendar.

Patterson believes his team’s summer workout schedule has the Frogs prepared for a July start to football season.

“Anybody that thinks you can step out on the first day in Texas heat and you didn’t prepare for it, you’re wrong,” Patterson said. “You can’t run in an air-conditioned weight room on the treadmill and think that you’re going to prepare for what’s getting ready to happen.”　　

Top 50 Countdown: No. 22 (tie) TCU Horned Frogs | The Comeback

Here’s hoping that Doug Meacham took the third down fade call with him to Lawrence.

72 –Number of times TCU punted last year. No stat really drives home offensive inefficiency like the number of punts does. A punt means that a drive didn’t end in a turnover, but it also means that the drive didn’t make its way into scoring range. Efficient teams can turn the ball over too. Punts show inefficiency. And the only team in the Big 12 that punted more than TCU last year was Kansas.

For years, TCU’s kicker spoiled Gary Patterson. Can somebody do it again? | The Star-Telegram

Raise your hand if you miss Jaden Oberkrom. TCU hopes they have the next Mr. Reliable waiting in the wings.

“We lost three games we could have won, but there’s a lot of other plays in a game that everybody else could have made,” Patterson said. “It’s real easy to blame the kicker. It’s real easy for there to be a scapegoat. We just need to work through it. If we don’t fix it, then we’re not going to win any more ballgames than we did last year. So we’ve got to fix it.”

Everybody will get a chance to fix it when fall practices begin Sunday.

Jonathan Song, expected to be the kicker a year ago, is recovered from the quadriceps injury that kept him out all year. Graf and Hatfield are in the mix again, as are Cole Bunce and Andrew David, who sat out last year after transferring from Michigan. All are sophomores except Hatfield, a senior.

West Feliciana athlete Derius Davis commits to TCU | NOLA.com

The Frogs snag another one from Louisiana, who chose TCU over Tennessee, Kansas State, and a slough of others. Now that GP has offered him, just wait - the SEC will come calling for this versatile speedster.

"I got close to Rusty Burns," Davis said. "He came to school in the spring. I talk to R.J. Fleming and coach Paul Gonzalez, too. They kept in touch and we talked daily. We just built a really good relationship. It's definitely a place I can see myself at in the future."

After stops at TCU, Arkansas State, Cameron Echols-Luper to give WKU a try | College Football Talk

CEL has found a new home for his last year of collegiate eligibility.

Echols-Luper began his collegiate career at TCU in 2013, transferring to ASU in 2015. After sitting out that season, he was third on the Red Wolves in receptions (26) and receiving yards (407). His 15.7 yards per reception was second on the team.

Basketball:

TCU pair of NIT champs are signed, sealed for European teams | The Star-Telegram

Great news for a pair of fan favorites, as Shep and Parrish will keep their hoop dreams alive overseas.

Parrish, an Arlington Seguin graduate who is the school’s career in games played (136), signed a one-year deal to play with the Worcester Wolves in Worcester, England. The team competes in the British Basketball League.

Shepherd, who ranks second to Parrish on the Frogs’ career list of games played (131), signed a two-year deal to play for the KK Mornar Bar team in Bar, Montenegro. Shepherd said the team participates in three different European leagues and he plans to leave Aug. 12 to begin preparations for a season that starts in October.