Opening Statement
You probably think we have been waiting three weeks to get here. I’ve been waiting 12 years at TCU. Let me just say from everybody back in Ft. Worth, we want to thank the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, John Junker and everybody here that’s been a part of it. It’s been a long stretch for us. Twelve years ago people said this couldn’t be done. When we came to TCU, they were 1-10. We’ve worked ourselves up the ladder. We came here to try to give you a great ball game. We know we have a great opponent. I know a lot has been said, and I’m one of those guys that reads a lot. Chris (Petersen) was actually a quarterback when I was a linebacker coach at UC- Davis. Him and I go way back. You can never trust those offensive guys. We have a lot of admiration for Boise State. We have a lot of admiration for what they do and how they’ve done it. The combined records between the two schools is 48-3 in the last two years. So on behalf of our chancellor, our football team, the university and the fans, which I think you will love the people in purple when they get here. You’re going to love them because wherever they go they have a lot of class, they spend a lot of money and you are going to like how they do things. Words can’t tell you how excited we are about being here. I brought the guys back early because I wanted to make sure we got in great practices before we came here. So we got back to the way we played when we played at Utah because we know we’re going to have to play that way to have a chance against a great Boise State team. No. 3 or 4 against the No. 5, what else can you ask for?
About Andy Dalton’s improvement at quarterback
We’re very fortunate. Three years ago, we had a senior quarterback by the name of Chad Huffman that left for Major League Baseball for about $900,000. He left this redshirt-freshman quarterback by the name of Andy Dalton to start against Texas. That didn’t turn out really well back then. Because of all of the growth we were able to do in the season that he played, what Andy has done is grown up and became our leader. Not just on offense, but on the whole football team. And he has really changed the face of TCU football. We’ve been known for defense. We broke every scoring record that we possibly could, even though we have done that the last three out of four years here at TCU. He’s a leader. It used to be where he asked for people to do things. Now, he demands it. That’s what leaders do. He’s been a difference in our football team.
About his relationship with Boise State head coach Chris Petersen
He hasn’t changed. He was a winner as a quarterback and he is a winner as a coach. He’s always been under control and played with confidence. He’s a guy that I’ve always admired. He’s a family man. He’s a good football coach. He does things the right way. Boise (State) is very lucky they have a Chris Petersen at the helm because I think he leads in the right manner. He was the runner-up to the Harlon Hill (Award) if I remember right when he was quarterback, which is the best player in Division II. We went to the playoffs and we got beat out early. But Chris was always a guy that kept things positive. Obviously, through the years he has grown up to become a great head football coach.
About the team’s newfound respect after being invited to a BCS bowl
No. 1, probably the biggest hurdle we had to get over recruiting-wise at TCU was that automatic qualifying conferences said, “You don’t want to go to TCU because you will never play for a national championship and you’ll never get to a BCS bowl.” No longer is that hurdle there. Thanks to the Fiesta Bowl we’re able to do some things and we’re able to get into some homes that maybe even three weeks ago we weren’t able to do. On a national stage, I don’t know if you can even put it into words what it has been able to do for us. The thing that I like most about our football team, and what America has seen, that not only have we won but that we played very hard and we played with a lot of class. That’s what we’re going to try to do on the fourth, to make sure that the Fiesta Bowl made a great choice. You’ve got two great football teams. Who knows who is going to win this game? The last time we got together a year ago it was 17-16. I don’t know if it is going to be 52-51 or 17-16, but you know this much – both football teams know how to win. Both football teams have a lot of class. Both football teams are very physical. And they are going to give you a great ballgame because both of them want to be here. I can tell you right now that when they asked me, if I had a choice, this is where I wanted to go. And Boise (State) was the team I wanted to play. You want to play the best. I think both Boise (State) and TCU are automatic qualifying schools. I think we both belong and there are a few others. I think the Fiesta Bowl made great choices in picking two teams. And I think you’ll find that both teams really want to be here. Both teams are going to give you everything they have. We’re going to be excited about the fourth and getting out on the field.
About people alluding to the Fiesta Bowl as a championship game because you have two undefeated teams
In this day and age of college football it’s really hard to be undefeated. I don’t care what conference you play in and how you do it and how you go about it. The level of competition in Division I football now is so close and such a fine line. It’s a very fine line between the penthouse and the outhouse. You have to get yourself ready to go and understand that it is really hard to get to this point. Boise (State) has done that in the past. This is the first time TCU has done that since 1935 and 1938. So, it’s been a long time. If you look at the amount of teams that played in BCS games from different conferences and it’s a very small group. We’re very honored that we’re a part of it. But being undefeated is a special thing. When you get a team together and get a chance to do that, you not only have to be good but you have to have a great work ethic. But you have to be a little bit lucky because you have to get a couple of bounces. We’ve come so close three or four times in the last couple of years to be at this point. I’ve always come back to John (Junker) at the Fiesta Frolic and I’ve said, “We’re this close.” Everybody said you should be disappointed because you’re not playing for the national championship. No, we’re playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. And if you ask anybody in the country this group does the greatest job in hospitality and putting on a bowl of anybody that is out there. You’re going to find out from our kids, our players and our staff, and our alumni and our fans that we’re going to be in full force and we’re going to be glad that we are here.
About coaching in a BCS bowl game after a long coaching career
If you looked at my resume you can see that I came the low-road. I’ve been at UC-Davis. I’ve been at the Sonoma States. In 27 years early in my career, I had 11 different stops before I’ve been here now. For me, this is a dream come true. You’ve always watched TV. All coaches down deep are fans. I’ve watched the Fiesta Bowl and when they were the representative of the national championship game and know that a lot of great teams have come before us. That’s the way we want to be remembered. When we leave the state of Arizona, we want to be remembered that they were glad that TCU was there.
About TCU’s offense this year
Let me just back up about our offense. We could have scored a lot more points this year. One of the things that I’ve always felt like in this game, and you only have about 120 head coaches, is that you have to have class. We’ve had a few ballgames where we backed off a bit. I think we only threw 35 passes in the fourth quarter in the last five or six ballgames. Our offense has been balanced. I believe if you want to win ballgames you have to shorten the game. Even though it is easier to call defenses if you are scoring a lot of points. We always want to be around 50-50, 200-200 (yards offense) or 220-220 (yards offense) to be good at what we do. We’re just very fortunate this year because we had so many kids returning. We ended up having two redshirt freshmen running backs, Matthew Tucker and Ed Wesley, that came on and gave us a three-man rotation at running back. And then we had all of our wide receivers grow up. We don’t have any seniors this year. A lot like Boise (State), which they don’t have many seniors. I actually challenged our offense in the spring. We went back and changed how we called formations so we get the ball in the likes of Jeremy Kerley. We used to be a one wide receiver offense, where we would run the football and then we would have a go-to guy. We found out that people could really hone in on that. You can’t always win with great defense, and we came very close. We had to spread it out and had to get the ball in the hands of other guys. We’re very fortunate that we have some guys that we can do that with.
About how the Mountain West Conference teams have fared in bowl games this year
Beside the Mountain West, two other teams that we played both SMU and Clemson, all five have won their bowl games. But as far as the Mountain West is concerned, we have been growing. I’m not one to get on a pedestal and be a rah-rah guy when it comes to that. It’s very well documented as far as I’m concerned is that the way you climb the mountain is with your actions on the field. I thing again, you go back to that class thing. I think people take notice when you do the right things and you show with your actions. That’s one of the things the Mountain West has been able to do. Starting with the first game of the season with BYU beating Oklahoma. At the time, no one knew how Oklahoma would be. They took that challenge. They had Utah that was in a BCS game a year before. Take it back with Utah when they played in the Fiesta Bowl years before that. It’s been a continual growth. I think that is what we are trying to get accomplished. We understand that we’re going to be fierce competitors when we’re in conference. As far as bowl games, I’m a big cheerleader. But I think all of the coaches believe the same thing. The best way for us to talk is with our pads. Even though that is coach speak, I truly believe that is what’s made the difference for us at TCU. People have kind of taken notice and became TCU fans because of the way we’ve gone about it.
