By Will Martin
Don’t believe everything you read or hear. Sometimes you’re going to be proven wrong.
Take the case of what transpired earlier in hot and steamy Ft. Worth for the 2013 TCU Frogs home opener against the Lions of SE Louisiana.
A six touchdown underdog taking on an FCS opponent under Coach Ron Roberts, Oregon transfer Bryan Bennett at Quarterback, potential All-Americans in Gasten Gabriel and Todd Washington.
Last post I spoke about a team that TCU might possibly be challenged by with their physicality and unfamiliarity. For one half of play that held to be true.
Unfamiliarity would also be a key cog in the Horned Frogs wheel of good fortune as the second half would commence. All it took was an injury.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6umM-zXveM
We won’t know for a few days the extent of injury that befell Casey Pachall right before the half. He was favoring his arm/wrist right before TCU took a 17-14 halftime lead on a Jaden Oberkrom 46-yard field goal. The first was quiet until a ten play 49 yard drive by TCU culminated in a Wayman James 1 yard burst for a 7-0 lead. That drive used close to five minutes.
Bryan Bennett would get the Lions on the board with a six play 83 yard drive finishing with a 1-yard plunge by the former Duck himself. A drive that took all of two and a half minutes highlighted by a 45-yard keeper by Bennett with 5:25 left in the 2nd period.
TCU would retake the lead 14-7 62 seconds later when BJ Catalon would fire off a 15-yard run, completing a 60 yard drive in five plays. The 41,170 in attendance this day at Amon Carter Stadium began to wonder if indeed this was going to be one of those days. SE Louisiana would answer with a four play 75 yard drive in under two minutes to tie things up 14-all when Bryan Bennett connected with Flower Mound FM Marcus alum Jeff Smiley for a 65 yards bomb with 2:32 left.
The Lions were hanging tough.
Borrowing a page from Peyton Manning’s book for the third period (Hmm…Denver trailed 17-14 in THAT game too!) Trevone Boykin would take over at QB for the Horned Frogs and quickly engineered three consecutive touchdown drives. Brandon Carter caught a 29 yard pass to begin the second half and would have a 5-yard gallop into the end zone to extend the Frogs lead to 24-14. 6 plays 57 yards and only two and a half minutes used up.
Josh Doctson would then get a touchdown grab from 27 yards out after a TCU interception gave them possession in Lions territory. 2 plays 44 yards, another Jaden Oberkrum kick TCU was in control 31-14 with 7:52 left and most of the 41,170 in attendance seeking cooler climes.
TCU upped its lead to 38-14 1 minute into the final period when Aaron Green caught a 9 yard pass from Trevone Boykin. One more field goal by Lion Sean Sebastian completed the scoring. TCU defeated the Lions of SE Louisana 38-17 to improve to 1-1.
Statistically Bryan Bennett led all players in rushing yards with 132 on 18 carries. TCU on the ground was led by BJ Catalon (11-61 yards) and Wayman James (8-39 yards). The Horned Frogs averaged 4.4 yards per carry with a team total of 184 on 39 carries. TCU also won the passing battle as Casey Pachall went 8 for 14 and 100 yards in the 1st half while Trevone Boykin had a slightly better percentage as he was 9 for 13 for 133 yards and 2 scores.
I take back what I said about making Casey Pachall a starter. It appeared that the team responded well to Trevone Boykin when he entered the contest. Tyler Matthews had some mop up time at games end.
SE Louisiana played tough and not like a squad favored to lose by 43.5 points. Like TCU they too fall to 1-1. Ron Roberts looks to have a great program in place for the Cajun Crazies. Your beloved Frogs must now prepare for a road trip to Lubbock (Happy Birthday Buddy Holly this day 1938) Texas and the Wrecking Crew of Texas Tech.
Fresh off a 41-23 victory at SMU and playing Stephen F. Austin later this date TCU gets to prepare for the moxie of Freshman Quarterback Baker Mayfield and the Wide Receiver Eric Ward. A Senior who will probably become your all time reception leader in Tech history when all is said and done. Jordan Davis will try to keep the Frogs secondary busy.
Don’t be surprised if Stephen F. Austin makes a game of things out in West Lubbock. Much like the Lions of today this is another FCS team that made Weber State have to hustle its way to a 50-40 victory. New Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury likes to keep things uptempo offensively so anticipate a high scoring game.
For the sake of TCU may Stephen F. Austin go Stone Cold and apply a stunner before the kids from Ft. Worth leapfrog their way out west and proceed to stomp a mud puddle on the drawn guns.
That’s the latest. Props to Coach Patterson.
