Hello Celebritys

The 2011 TCU spring game is in the books and there is a lot to talk about. This was the public’s first opportunity to see the 2011 Horned Frogs in person, and I hate to say it, but can we have Andy Dalton back?? Kidding…kind of… Anyways, let’s get to the good stuff.

- The quarterback position has a long way to go. I thought Casey Pachall looked much better than Matt Brown, but neither QB was spectacular. I would say Brown is the better runner, but Pachall made better throws and reads. Don’t get me wrong, both QB’s made some nice plays, but there were also a couple bad throws and a tendency to hold onto the ball for too long.

- I love TCU’s stable of running backs. Ed Wesley was held out, but we got to see a good dose of Matthew Tucker, Aundre Dean, and Dwight Smith. Dean had a few nice, hard runs. I had questioned him last season since a lot of his yardage came in mop up duty, but he can be a force for TCU this fall. I was also very impressed with Dwight Smith. His speed moving laterally is just as impressive as his straight on speed. On one play Smith juked left, and cut back right to leave a defender on skates.

- Skye Dawson seemed to be Pachall’s receiver of choice. Dawson made numerous catches and could easily be the replacement for Jeremy Kerley this season. Josh Boyce had a couple catches also. It was a rough day for Antoine Hicks. Hicks dropped a sure TD in the end zone and also got the wind knocked out of him after falling on the ball and fumbling.

- My biggest concern for the offense headed into this season is the offensive line. The defense was able to get pressure on both QB’s and every yard on the ground was hard earned. I don’t know if it had to do with how well TCU’s defense was playing, or if there are some concerns there.

- The defense looked outstanding. The first and second team were flying around the ball and delivering hard hits. Tank Carder didn’t participate, but as far as I could tell the rest of the first team defense was intact. At this point, the defense is light years ahead of the offense. That is to be expected though.

- Stansly Maponga is a beast. There is no other way to put it. We saw what he did last season, and 2011 should be ever better. It seemed like Maponga was in the backfield in almost every play. I was also impressed with nose tackle Ray Burns. I remember seeing Burns make a few good stops and a tackle in the backfield.

- I think Travaras Battle will be a good corner for the Frogs. He made a couple of good pass deflections and was also in the mix on running plays.

- The construction on the stadium is looking good. I can’t wait until it’s completely finished because it is starting to look extremely cool. I was surprised at how good the field looked considering all of the construction going on around it.

- If you didn’t check out the spring sale you missed a good opportunity to scoop up some jerseys.

Overall I would say it was a good spring game. Both sides of the ball have improvements yet to make, but all of that should be ironed out by the time September rolls around. This team is a work is progress, but I have no doubt Patterson will have the guys ready.

From TCU Media Relations: TCU wide receiver Skye Dawson has been ranked by ESPN.com as the sixth-fastest player in the nation.

A junior from Mesquite, Texas, Dawson won the 60 meters at the 2010 Mountain West Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships with a time of 6.69. He was also part of a Horned Frog 4x100 meter outdoor relay team that won the MWC title and ranked in the top five in the nation.

As a senior at Dallas Christian School, Dawson ran a 10.43 to win the Texas Relays 100-meter dash. He also won the state title in the 100, 4x100 and long jump.

Dawson placed sixth on the Horned Frogs last season with 12 receptions for 170 yards (14.2 average). He had at least one catch in nine games, including a season-best four receptions for 69 yards in a 30-21 victory over Oregon State.

Day two of TCU spring practice is in the books. Coach Patterson was pleased with what he has seen in these last two practices and said there has been “lots of energy.” It is early though and this team hasn’t put on the pads yet. Here are my observations and a few minutes of audio from Coach Patterson from this afternoon.

- I thought Casey Pachall looked good. He was making the right reads and putting the ball in the right places. Pachall took all the first team reps while Matt Brown worked with the second group. More on that below.

- Tight ends Logan Brock and Corey Fuller were both making nice catches. Not just regular catches, but catches with guys in their face. Hopefully TCU will utilize the tight end position more this season.

- Josh Boyce and Skye Dawson looked sharp in their routes and catching. With those two and Antoine Hicks, I think this receiving core will be just fine come September.

- Speaking of the receiving core, Coach Patterson mentioned that they have changed the way they call plays a little bit to make it easier for the new WR’s coming in this fall. They changed it two years ago, but did not change it last season due to so many returning starters. Does this mean Patterson hopes to get Brandon Carter and/or LaDarius Brown on the field this season as true freshmen? Or it could be they just wanted to simplify things…Stay tuned…

- Redshirt freshman Sam Carter could be a star in the making at strong safety. He looked good today and others have said he looked sharp yesterday also. “We’ve only taught two days but really it’s amazing, he is a very smart player” Patterson said after practice when asked about how quickly Carter was picking up the position.

- This team is young, but Coach Patterson said he’s been very happy with all of the redshirt freshman and sophomores. He also noted that he has “really enjoyed up to this point the level of enthusiasm of trying to get better, communicating, and listening that this group has done to this point.”

- For your Dwight Smith update, he looked good and is fully healthy from all I know.

- Remember how people were making a big fuss about the new Nike cleats TCU wore in the Rose Bowl? Well, they must not have been that bad because there were players wearing them in practice today…

Here are the post practice questions I got in with Coach Patterson. To listen to Patterson’s comments, the .mp3 is posted below.

Angry Trey: Is this spring different than last year’s since the team is younger?

Coach Patterson: No. For the last 14 years we’ve taught it the same way. Same coverage got taught 14 years ago that just got taught today. The same blitz package got taught the same way. Yesterday we taught the tackling drill without pads on. It was younger so it wasn’t as good as what last years was but you have to have a starting point. You got to see how much a team can grow in 15 days because we teach spring ball just like it’s part of two-a-days. You get 29 practices in the fall and 15 in the spring. This is the growing up stage of our part of it. We are very physical in the spring, we are very demanding in the spring, we believe we have to get stronger in the spring, and academically we have to get ourselves in the right position so you can clear your mind come summer time so you can handle the grind when you get in the fall.

Angry Trey: I know you are looking for players and talent but is this the point when leaders start to emerge?

Coach Patterson: I don’t know, right now in the teaching phase everyone is trying to hang on. We’ll get through 5 days of teaching and then we start over and were not teaching anything new. The same thing happens in the fall. You go through 5 days of teaching and then you go into an evaluation stage, then you go into a getting better stage, so right now just like all of us, we will only be as good as our weakest link. So if one guy isn’t getting it done, it affects all of us.

Angry Trey: Is the QB job Casey’s to lose or is it an open battle?

Coach Patterson: No, right now he is just the next guy. Somebody asked me yesterday if this is the lowest amount of quarterbacks we'll have in the fall and the answer is no. We had to go in Andy Dalton’s freshman year, he was the starter, Marcus Jackson was the backup, and then Yogi Gallegos came in as a true freshman which is what we will start the fall with this year too.

Coach Patterson was asked other questions also, the full media session is below. It’s around six minutes long.

TCU took care of business Saturday night against Oregon State 30-21 to improve to 1-0 on the year. First things first, I would like to point out that I was only one point off from my prediction of 31-20. Now we can resume. With this win TCU improved to 14-3 in its last 17 games versus teams from BCS automatic-qualifying conferences and Gary Patterson improved his record to 4-0 against Pac-10 teams.

- Andy Dalton recorded his 30th victory as TCU’s starting quarterback, breaking Slingin’ Sammy Baugh’s school record of 29 from 1934-36. Dalton looked good on all but two plays and those were the ones he threw interceptions. He finished with 175 yard passing, 64 yards rushing, and 3 total touchdowns.

- I am glad TCU came out with the intentions of pounding the ball on the ground. Ed Wesley was great, rushing for 134 yards and a touchdown. You could see that the Oregon State defense was wearing down in the third and fourth quarter.

- The defense was ok, but not great. They got the job done. You can add Jacquizz Rodgers to the list of “elite running backs” that were supposed to shred the TCU defense but didn’t.

- Jeremy Kerley tied a career high with six receptions, and had a couple decent punt returns, one almost going to the house. Out of all the WR’s, I was most impressed with Skye Dawson. I like that TCU is involving him in the offense more.

- TCU should have won by more than they did, the turnovers hurt them tremendously. The Frogs dominated in first downs, rushing yards, total yards, and time of possession.

- If I see another fake punt executed to perfection against the Frogs one more time, I might pull my hair out. I think everyone that watched the Fiesta Bowl saw that one coming.

- The new Nike Pro Combat Uniforms looked amazing. I might like them better than last seasons, I am not sure yet.

Bring on Tennessee Tech, the Carter should be rocking next Saturday. Go Frogs!!