Playing With Caution
Frogs hope to spoil 0-5 Army’s Homecoming
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

Teams that are winless don’t always get a lot of respect.

TCU’s opponent on Saturday, Army, is one of those teams. It has yet to win a game this season, and has not had a winning season since the 1996 campaign.

However the Frogs show no signs of disrespect, and use many of the same words to describe the 0-5 Black Knights.

Disciplined. Relentless. Hardworking. Tough.

The team knows it cannot afford to overlook the struggling Army squad, even though Louisville and Southern Miss are not far away. Coach Gary Patterson has said repeatedly that Army is a different football team when it plays at home, but a win will allow the Frogs to go to 2-1 in conference play.

“You can’t overlook anything,” said junior defensive end Bo Schobel. “Once you overlook (someone), then you get beat.”

“You don’t think about 0-5,” said freshman quarterback Tye Gunn. “Every team has good athletes, and usually five to 10 plays wins a ballgame. So they could make five plays and really change the game.”

To add to the pressure of the conference game, it is the Frog’s first trip to West Point, Homecoming for the Black Knights and the school’s 200th anniversary. Past alumni will be in attendance, and it is anticipated that the 39,929 seats at Michie Stadium will be filled with black, gold and gray.

“We expect them to be wild up there,” said senior linebacker LaMarcus McDonald. “They’ve got grandparents coming in, and their grandparent’s grandparents (coming) in.”

Senior wide receiver Adrian Madise said the motivation is a conference victory, but Patterson pointed out that they chose TCU as their Homecoming game.

“Coach Patterson brought it to our attention that you schedule a game that you think you can win for Homecoming,” Madise said. “I think that riled the guys up.”

Gunn is one of those players who was “riled up.”

“To put us as their Homecoming, that’s kind of showing some disrespect,” Gunn said. “You have to think about that when you’re practicing.”

Gunn will once again receive the start for injured senior Sean Stilley, although Stilley will travel with the team. Last season’s home contest against Army was the first game Stilley started. He said he told Gunn to expect the Black Knights to play bigger than their size.

“They may not be the biggest or most physical, but they play extra hard,” Stilley said. “They play hard every play until the last minute of the game. They’ll do everything they can to win this game.”

It is likely the Frogs will not have much purple in the stands of Michie Stadium Saturday. However, hostile crowds are nothing new to the team, and it remains undaunted to the task at hand.

“Southern Miss (last year) had a pretty hostile crowd and we did okay,” Madise said. “I think we’re all right away from home.”