TCU News: Frogs Fly to 3-0

Football:

Frogs over Ponies: No. 20 TCU rallies for 56-36 win over SMU | WTOP

Last year, GP was just happy to get wins. This year, he wants his team to play well and win. That’s a good sign.

TCU: The Frogs’ defense gave up 463 total yards and some big plays even while containing Sutton. That will be a concern for Patterson going into Big 12 play. But there is plenty of experience on that defensive unit, so the players will know how to respond. There were also the three lost fumbles by the offense.

“Really, to be honest with you, we didn’t play well on either side,” Patterson said. “We got to 3-0. That’s what the plan was.”

Gary Patterson not happy after TCU's 20-point win over rival SMU: 'Should have been 80' | Sports Day

Patterson said they practiced defending both the trick plays all week in practice, but Morris did so much pre-snap shifting, his team got confused. He wasn’t happy about the effort, either.

"We acted a little bit like the nail today instead of the hammer," he said, and that was at the tail end of an answer about the 38-yard Hail Mary from Kenny Hill to Jalen Raegor before halftime, the play that turned the game in TCU's favor at last.

Of course, poor-mouthing your play and players is old stuff. Bear Bryant was king of the genre. Keeps your players' heads from swelling.

The thing is, no one disagreed with Gary after Saturday's game. Certainly not yours truly, who has eyes, after all.

TCU takes a punch, then overwhelms SMU 56-36 with offensive firepower | The Star-Telegram

The Mustang defenders DIDN’T EVEN JUMP on the Hail Mary play at the end of the half.

The Frogs trailed 19-7 with 12:10 left in the second quarter but rallied with an 11-yard touchdown catch by Shaun Nixon and Kenedy Snell’s 71-yard catch and run up the left sideline for a 21-19 lead.

Josh Williams kicked his third field goal to give SMU a 22-21 lead with 17 seconds left before halftime.

KaVontae Turpin’s 25-yard kickoff return and an 18-yard run by Snell set up a snap at the SMU 38 with three seconds left. Reagor came down with the Hail Mary catch, the only player among a pack of others to leave his feet for the ball.

‘You think you’re going to catch him?’ Not this TCU freshman, not right now | The Star-Telegram

Snell caught a short pass and took off down the sideline.

HE GONE.

“We’ve been chasing Snell all through two-a-days,” TCU coach Gary Patterson told reporters Saturday night. “I told you. I mean, throw a flare screen to him and you think you’re going to get an angle on him, you’re going to catch him? You’re not going to catch him.”

That’s what quarterback Kenny Hill was thinking when he threw it, a checkdown to Snell waiting in the left flat on second-and-12 in the second quarter.

“Speed, man. That dude can roll,” Hill said. “Right when I got it to him and I looked where everybody was, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s gone.’

After another TCU blowout, the Iron Skillet is burnt and boring | The Star-Telegram

I got lambasted on twitter for sending out a picture of the empty stands during the third quarter of a one-score game, referencing the fact that people that went to TCU or started following them post-SWC just don’t care about this rivalry. But it’s true - you can blame the heat (it was hot, sure), but at the end of the day - this game has been meaningless for the last 20 years because SMU can’t win, or even threaten, consistently.

The Frogs under coach Gary Patterson are now 14-2 against SMU, and if this game did not have historical significance it’s no different than TCU playing Southern Miss. In fact, it pretty much feels like TCU against Southern Miss.

The current TCU players don’t care about beating SMU. Their priority is Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, etc., not a private school to the East that is not in a Power Five conference.

Outside of a few mistakes, Frogs get high marks in rolling past SMU | The Star-Telegram

Special Teams are a real concern for TCU heading into Stillwater, as the Frogs have yet to put a foot on a field goal attempt this season.

Special Teams

B — One serious blunder cost a letter grade. Adam Nunez failed to handle Lucas Gravelle’s snap on a 50-yard field goal attempt, and it became one of the Frogs’ three turnovers. Ross Blacklock blocked an SMU field goal try. Jonathan Song was perfect on extra points.