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When these two purple people matchup, it’s almost always a tightly-contested game. With just 13 games in their shared history, the Frogs and Cats don’t have longevity, but they do have entertainment. In the eight times they have played since TCU joined the Big 12, only four have been by more than one score and no team has won more than two in a row — in fact, to this point, almost all of the wins have been of the back-to-back variety (TCU won four out of five from 2014-2018), something the Horned Frogs are hoping to change Saturday in Fort Worth.
This is a different K State program, though; under Chris Klieman, the Cats are reinventing themselves on the fly — and of Friday night, it appears they will be looking to win in Fort Worth for just the third time without their starting QB, as message boards seemed to indicate Skylar Thompson did not travel with the team.
If you aren’t one of the 12,000 or so in the Carter Saturday, you can still cheer the Frogs from afar. Here’s how:
(all notes courtesy of www.gofrogs.com)
TCU Football vs. Kansas State
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020
TIME: 3 p.m.
LOCATION: Fort Worth, Texas (Amon G. Carter Stadium
SERIES RECORD: TCU leads, 7-6LAST MEETING: Kansas State won, 24-17 (2019)
TV: FOX (Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman)
RADIO: WBAP 820 AM, KTCU 88.7 FM (Brian Estridge, John Denton, Landry Burdine)
SPANISH RADIO: KFZO 99.1 FM (Miguel Cruz, Elvis Gallegos)
ABOUT THE GAME
• TCU returns home to face Kansas State on Saturday at 3 p.m. on FOX.
• Four of the Horned Frogs’ opening five games this season are at home. TCU leaves the state of Texas just twice this season.
• TCU is looking to open its season with a record of 2-1 or better after three games for the 18th time in Gary Patterson’s 20 seasons as head coach.
• Patterson is a 1983 graduate of Kansas State and a former safety and outside linebacker for the Wildcats.
• Patterson is 4-4 as a head coach versus Kansas State with all eight meetings taking place since the Horned Frogs began Big 12 play in 2012.
• Under Patterson, the Horned Frogs are 89-25 in home games at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
SERIES HISTORY
• TCU has won two of the last three meetings with Kansas State and four of the past six.
• TCU and Kansas State are playing for just the 14th time in their history with the Horned Frogs holding a 7-6 series lead.
• Since beginning Big 12 play in 2012, TCU is 4-4 versus Kansas State. The Horned Frogs are 2-2 in Fort Worth and 2-2 in Manhattan.
• Overall, TCU is 4-2 against Kansas State in Fort Worth and 3-4 in Manhattan.
• Prior to TCU beginning Big 12 play in 2012, the schools had not met on the gridiron since 1986.
• The first game in the series was a 45-0 Kansas State victory in Manhattan in 1922.
• After that initial game, the schools did not play until four consecutive seasons from 1983-86.
• A 52-45 win in Manhattan in 2015 saw TCU rally from a 35-17 halftime deficit. At the time, it equaled the largest come-from-behind win (18 points) in Gary Patterson’s tenure as head coach.
TIES TO THE SUNFLOWER STATE
• TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson was born in Larned, Kan., and is a native of Rozel, Kan.
• Patterson went to Pawnee Heights High School and then Dodge City Community College, before heading to Kansas State.
SIXTH IS FINE FOR NOW
• The Horned Frogs were picked sixth in the 2020 Preseason Big 12 Media Preseason Poll.
• TCU won conference championships in both previous seasons it was picked sixth or lower in a preseason poll under Head Coach Gary Patterson (6th, 2005 Mountain West; 7th, 2014 Big 12).
BEGINNING OF DECADE MAGIC
• Since Gary Patterson arrived at TCU as defensive coordinator in 1998, TCU has fared well in the opening season of a new decade.
• In 2010, TCU went 13-0, won the Rose Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 2 nationally.
• The Horned Frogs were 10-2 and won the WAC in 2000. Patterson began that season as defensive coordinator before being named head coach prior to the Mobile Alabama Bowl versus Southern Miss.
TCU NOTABLES
• Over the last six seasons, TCU is tied for the Big 12’s second-best conference record (33-22) and has the third-best overall mark (52-27).
• TCU is one of just seven programs nationally to finish in the top 10 of the final polls at least three times (2014, 2015, 2017) in the last six seasons. The others are Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Penn State.
• TCU had five 11-win seasons last decade, equaling the combined number of the 11 other FBS programs in Texas.
• Patterson, at 20 seasons, is the nation’s second-longest tenured head coach, trailing only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz (22nd year).
• Patterson recently released two music singles in which he wrote and provided lead vocals on, “Take A Step Back” and “Game On.”
• TCU is the only school in the nation to lead its conference in total defense the last three seasons.
• The Horned Frogs have just 11 scholarship seniors on this year’s team.
• Linebacker Garret Wallow and safeties Trevon Moehrig and Ar’Darius Washington have received preseason All-America honors.
• Quarterback Max Duggan is tied for fourth in the nation in completion percentage (73.5) and is 10th in passing efficiency (170.5).
• Max Duggan’s 84.2 completion percentage (16-of-19) against Iowa State ranked as fifth-best for a single game in TCU history. He passed for 241 yards and three touchdowns in just second-half action. Duggan is second in the nation in passing efficiency (232.3), behind only Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence.