Music to listen to: Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughn
State of TCU football: When the Southwestern Conference disbanded in 1996, TCU was left out of the developing Big 12 conference and forgone as a college football afterthought. This was the same school that gave us Bob Lilly, in my opinion the greatest Dallas Cowboy ever, Davey O’Brien (the best college quarterback in the nation is awarded the honor named after him), Sammy Baugh and numerous other legends. However, though the efforts of guys like LaDanian Tomlinson, Dennis Francione, Andy Dalton and mostly current head Gary Patterson, the Horned Frogs have gone from nomads bouncing around to different conferences (since 1996, TCU has been a member of three conferences, winning at least one title in each of them) to joining the big time and taking a seat at the perverbial big table in the Big 12.
What I like: Casey Pachall had an excellent first season as a starter for the Horned Frogs and should gain even more confidence coming off a school-record 2,921 yards passing last season. TCU also returns its leading rusher from last season Wayman James and receiver Josh Boyce.
The defense should be solid as well led by defensive end Stansly Maponga and solid linebackers.
What I don’t like: If you read enough of my previews, I put a premium on line play, especially on the offensive side and the Horned Frogs must replace three starting linemen this year. The issue won’t be helped by competing in the Big 12 against superior competition than previous seasons in the Mountain West. The secondary could use some improvement as well.
Uniform/Mascot Grade: B-
I like purple and black individually as colors within uniforms but the dark shades of both hues doesn’t work for me. The uniforms look hot and off-colored. I like when more white is incorporated into the color scheme and the silver pants are a nice alternative that should be visited more often. I would also like to see the alternative helmets used more often because the purple one makes the overall scheme look too dark. The mascot is called Super Frog. The grade got deducted a half-letter grade just for that.
Schedule:
9/8 Grambling
9/15 at Kansas
9/22 Virginia
9/29 at SMU
10/6 Iowa State
10/13 at Baylor
10/20 Texas Tech
10/27 at Oklahoma State
11/3 at West Virginia
11/10 Kansas State
11/24 at Texas
12/1 Oklahoma
The Horned Frogs could be 5-0 heading into their contest at Baylor, which represents the swing game for the entire season. The back half of the schedule will be difficult with TCU facing the top-five teams in the Big 12 in five consecutive weeks so gaining a victory over the Bears could make the difference between a 7-5 season and a potential 10-win campaign.
Current/Former Co-Ed that I would like to attend a box social with:
Any school in the state of Texas will not lack in talent off the field but I’m going to take Kristin Holt, who was on American Idol and host a variety of television shows.
Final thoughts: Similar to Nebraska last season and potentially West Virginia, the change in conference may bring some uncertainty to the Horned Frogs. While TCU has been firmly entrenched in the state of Texas, the unofficial home base of the Big 12, the step up in competition will be felt. However, the Horned Frogs return a solid quarterback and Patterson is one of the best defensive coaches in college football so TCU may be a darkhorse to contend for the conference title or fall back into the middle of the pack.
Prediction: 8-4, 5-4 Big 12
Those are my thoughts, what are yours?
Preseason Top-25:
The Sports Inquirer 
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