By Will Martin
Any concerns that anyone thought a Gary Patterson coached team might have against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota can now be tossed aside.
Patterson now 9-1 when coming off a bye in his tenure at TCU. The challenge will now be to get to 10-1 this week when TCU travels to SMU for the annual Iron Skillet game.
A game that SMU always seems to get up for.
Having done this (in other sports for other teams) let’s now take you to the Four Sevens Conference Room to keep the Frog Nation amped and ready for a road trip on September 27.
For starters we check in with Coach Gary Patterson who-despite a 30-7 romp over Minnesota-found plenty of things to critique and find fault with. Not one to mince words or belabor the point of being an up tempo squad we’ll now let the Coach break what he liked and what he saw. Coach Patterson:
As Trevone Boykin goes so goes the TCU offense and game plan. Having a 27 of 46 passing day with two touchdowns and 354 all purpose yards in the air and on the ground. As TCU improved to 2-0 the Frogs quarterback did a great job to pass the ball to many multiple receivers including finally connecting with speedster Kolby Listenbee late when the game was already in well decided.
TCU also enjoyed a White Out/Family Weekend day at Amon Carter Stadium. Boykin thought it also applied to being able to wear white shoes. Shades of Joe Namath back in the day. Coach Patterson made mention of it in his post game presser. Trevone Boykin was quick to defend what he wore in a funny video meet. Here’s Trevone Boykin!
One of the primary receivers who had a great game himself was Josh Doctson. One grab made national headlines when he leaped high into the air to make an acrobatic one handed grab against the Golden Gopher defender for what became an early 24-0 lead. The space got to 30-0 before Minnesota finally got on the board.
When you consider that TCU is a perfect 12 for 12 inside the Red Zone for knocking the pigskin across in two home games thus far this season it stands to reason why the offense finds a way to get it done.
Let’s now check in with Josh Doctson on his game, his amazing one handed grab, and the 2-0 start that TCU now enjoys in the second ever meeting against Big Ten team Minnesota.
This day actually was one of firsts. I took the time to actually walk through Frog Alley during the pregame and quite by accident found myself walking right into the start of what would become the arrival of the TCU bus and the traditional ‘Frog Walk’ into Amon Carter Stadium. Great band doing the Gameday thing. A slew of Purple and White. Indeed there were a few Golden Gophers in the vicinity on a 73 degree day.
In case you’ve never seen an entry like this have a gander at the following. Pretty cool!
Overall quite the day in Ft. Worth hours after a cold front made its way into the atmosphere and allowed for a fall like feel in North Texas for some football in Ft. Worth. It indeed was a hoot to walk along the sidelines pregame and get a feel for both teams getting ready for a game.
The size of the players always amazes me. I’m more taken aback by the amount of adrenaline and energy that seeps from the players and the coaches. With visits from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State still to come later in October within Big 12 play, one can only imagine the amount of excitement and energy that gets expended before the start of a game.
A crowd of 43,958 came out in full support of TCU with a good show of support by the fans of Minnesota.
The play of Josh Doctson impressed me. I also liked how Trevone Boykin also kept trying to go deep to Kolby Listenbee. Before this season is over there will be one breakout game coming for Mr. Listenbee.
Defensively Paul Dawson came up huge with 15 tackles in the TCU victory. Dawson had some funny insights to share in addition to assessing his teams defense and the 2-0 start. One final video visit with Paul Dawson!
The Hilltop will be the last non conference game for TCU on September 27. Weather was an issue when both teams played two years ago for the Iron Skillet. Will SMU come to play and provide a challenge to the Horned Frogs?
We shall see. See you at the Hilltop!
