TCU's success exceeds preseason expectations

FORT WORTH, Texas — This magical season for the Texas Christian football team still needs a fitting end. The Horned Frogs, who remained No. 4 in all the polls this week, including the Bowl Championship Series standings, are one win from finishing the regular season 12-0 and playing in the school's first BCS game.

Most preseason polls had the Horned Frogs ranked around No. 17, such as The Associated Press and the USA Today coaches' poll. That was the highest preseason ranking for them since 1960. The Mountain West Conference media picked TCU to win the conference, so a good year from the Frogs was expected. But to be on the cusp of a 12-win season, which hasn't been done since the 1935 team went 12-1 and won the school's first national championship, has even given coach Gary Patterson pause.

"I don't think anybody really expected it to happen," Patterson said of the Frogs' unbeaten season. "You want it to, but you never expect it. You have to go to Provo (Utah) and you have to go to Air Force on the coldest day in the history of Colorado Springs. I don't think anybody would have said they'll come out of (this schedule) and it would be like it is."

The lone defeat in '35 came in the second-to-last week of the regular season at home against SMU, 20-14. It was the Frogs' final conference game before playing Santa Clara in San Francisco in a nonconference game prior to the Sugar Bowl. The Frogs' defense that year had five shutouts, including three in a row before allowing six points to Rice and then a season-high 20 to SMU.

The same scenario, to some degree, is set up for the Frogs this week as they play host to New Mexico at noon Saturday at Amon G. Carter Stadium in their regular-season finale. The Lobos (1-10, 1-6) are coming off their first win of the year against Colorado State.

Patterson said the expedited progress of freshmen and sophomores, such as running backs Ed Wesley and Matthew Tucker and linebackers Tanner Brock and Tank Carder, are indicative of the team's fast start. All four have been integral and are good reflections of the team's success.

"When we recruited them we knew they'd become (key parts) someday, but you didn't know they'd become that by the first ballgame," Patterson said.

A rain-soaked Patterson, in a rare moment of candor after the Frogs had just won at Clemson on Sept. 26, told reporters he hoped his team would at least be 3-1 before MWC play started two weeks later. With a home game against SMU the next week to finish the nonconference schedule, it was clear that Patterson was referring to the Clemson game.