Earlier in the week, we put out a post asking for you all to send in your questions! We hand picked a few that caught our eye/that we thought would be good to openly discuss right before the first game of the season:

What color will Gary wear for the first game?

You know, ever since the Alamo bowl Gary Patterson’s gameday wardrobe has become a source of hot gossip. Personally, I think he’s going to be rocking the new short sleeve purple coaches polo that Nike releases every year (with patented purple visor of course). Hopefully he won’t have to change at half time because our team will be doing everything right.

My favorite Gary gameday fit is the gameday sweater that he will rarely break out in the later games in the season when it gets colder. Gary if you are reading this, please rock the sweater more. Not enough coaches do it, and you pull it off well.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention SB Nation - our mother site - has a world renown podcast: “The Shutdown Fullcast” that every year recommends Gary Patterson rock a mesh tank top the first game of the season. That would...certainly be something.

Do you think Duggan earns the starting QB role outright during the season, and if so by what game?

This is a bit of a pickle of a question. I haven’t seen Alex Delton play in our system and I’ve only really seen him play in a system that asks him to do that absolute least as a passer. I don’t want to try and forecast him failing, but man is it tough to not let my excitement for Duggan take over my body and mind.

I would love to see Duggan take over the starting role by the SMU game, and to be honest, if Delton looks bad early on in the Purdue game, then we could very much see that happen. I’m not saying Delton is a lock to screw the pooch in the first game on the road, but if Duggan were to come in and make an impact (barring injury to Delton) my guess would be that it happens during a road game. The first two road games for us are at Purdue in week 3 right after a bye week and then at Iowa State in week 6.

If Duggan doesn’t win the job by that Iowa State game, my guess is that it isn’t happening unless he comes on so strong at the end. If he can’t be denied then he can’t be denied, and Gary will do whatever gives his team the best chance to win now.

I don’t want to just disrespect Alex Delton, but I don’t think that this QB race is over by any means - and I think that Duggan comes in and can be the full time starter by the end of the Iowa State game, potentially sooner if things break a certain way.

Is Texas Back?

I’m going to answer this question not seriously and then seriously.

Not so seriously: Texas is back for sure. Back to receiving peak pre-season hype and you already know that they are going to be back to losing to TCU this year (plz).

Seriously: Obviously last year was an improvement for the Horns, and while they did beat us last year and they did so barely - I went back and watched that game recently and had forgotten how we had gifted it to them - they lost a lot of playmakers going into this year. They have some young studs, but Ehlinger is going to have to take things to the next level to make up for what they lost from last year.

Honestly, I think they’re going to go 8-4.

Will we put Reagor, Jet, and Sewo in the backfield all at once?

You know how you never knew you wanted something so bad until the first time that you say it out loud? Ya that’s what just happened to me just now. WHO NEEDS A QB WHEN YOU’VE GOT A 3 HEADED MONSTER IN THE BACKFIELD. Run a run pass option, with a potential keeper from Reagor...please and thank you!

My answer: Dear Lord I hope we get to see something like that. Sunny bust open the cook book!

What kind of numbers will Reagor put up?

Passing: 2 passing TD’s, 88 yards

Receiving: 1,221 yards, 12 TD’s, 88 catches

Rushing: 15 carries, 210 yards, 3 touchdowns

What’s really exciting is that if we see good to great QB play this year - those receiving numbers could get even better. I’m also here for Reagor the QB.

How telling will Purdue win/loss be?

When it comes to TCU, it is typically very easy to tell if we are going to be a good or bad team relatively early on. By that I mean, if you look at our past 5 seasons, it’s been apparent what type of team we will be by the end of September:

-2014: Beat #3 ranked OU in the 4th game of the season (Good)

-2015: Went 8-0 to start the season and had come out with a win after a dog fight on the road against Tech and a big comeback against Kansas State (Good)

-2016: Lost at home 2nd game of the season to Arkansas. (Bad)

-2017: Went on the road to Fayetteville and held Arkansas to 7 points (Good)

-2018: Lost to Texas in an ugly game in their 4th game of the season. (Bad)

If we go into West Lafayette at night and our offense looks bad anemic and our defense is the only thing that is keeping it close with the Boilermakers then the chances are that we are a bad team.

I always say the most important game of the first half of the season is the first game where our team is likely to experience some adversity. Most of the games above are prime examples of that, either our first game with a good power 5 team or our first game on the road against a power 5 team. We will be playing in WL at night, so it is going to be a good crowd, and they are good for 1 scare a year.

If we can bunker down and handle business on the road then it will be very good to see that this team can handle playing in a very hostile environment. If we roll over, fold, and take an L - we’ll probably be able to predict that this team’s ceiling is closer to 2018 than it was to 2017.