Football schedule needs shot at big name teams
Coming season looks to be a step up from previous small-time opponents

Throughout last week, rumors were afoot that the TCU Horned Frog football team might have a shot at playing defending National Champions Oklahoma in next season’s Hispanic Fund Football Classic, a nationally televised preseason game that can attract a good amount of exposure.

Alas, though, the honor of joining the Sooners in that game eventually went to the gridiron grunts from North Carolina, and thus TCU’s finalized 2001 schedule, released Thursday, remains conspicuously deficient of anything resembling a marquee opponent. Wasn’t that the problem last season?

Well, I guess some things never change. Though there’s plenty to like about next season’s slate, I can’t help but feel that whatever success the team achieves will still stand speechless in the face of that oh-so-annoying question: “Yeah, but who did they play?”

Still, let’s focus on the positive for a change. As I said, there’s a lot to look forward to when we get ready for the Gary Patterson era, so here’s the breakdown:

Sept. 1 the Frogs travel north for a battle with mighty North Texas. Hmm … OK, so maybe they’re not so mighty. OK, OK, so they went 3-8 last year … let’s see a half-full glass and say that it’s always nice to start the season off with a win. One week later, the Iron Skillet. Do you think that the Mustangs still remember the drubbing they received in last year’s game? Don’t worry, I’m sure their band still has a few tricks up its sleeve. I see this game as a chance for TCU to show Southern Methodist exactly why the Frogs were asked to make the jump to Conference USA, and why SMU was left to captain the rapidly sinking Western Athletic Conference.

At any rate, while it’s never advisable to look past any game, it’s expected that the Frogs will be taking a 2-0 record back to Amon Carter Stadium to meet the Thundering Herd of Marshall in the first home game of the year, Sept. 15. Last year, we were the “Marshall of 2000,” having an impressive record while playing no significantly competitive teams, much like the Herd two years ago. So, in this match up of apparently talented, yet relatively untested squads, it’s difficult to say who will come out on top.

Marshall may even come the closest to being that elusive “marquee opponent,” but not quite, though they did win a bowl game last year.

Regardless of what happens against Marshall, the Frogs are back to their old scheduling ways the next week when Northwestern State comes to town. Northwestern who? Northwestern State. Oh, where is that again? Washington? Oregon? Somewhere in the Northwest? No, it’s actually in Louisiana, so let’s hope they’re better at football than they are at reading a compass.

Last year Northwestern started Southland Conference play at 3-0 before losing its last four games of the year. Something tells me this game is not going to increase the Frogs’ prestige in the Bowl Championship Series rankings.

After what was not an intimidating non-conference schedule in the WAC, we’ve all been waiting for C-USA. The Promised Land. Zion with a TV contract. What can we expect?

It’s difficult to say, but it’s probably not a bad thing that our first three conference games are against Houston, Tulaneand Army, teams which finished among the bottom four in the league last year.

Starting Oct. 30, we should really start to see some benefit from being part of the C-USA. When East Carolina comes to Fort Worth in a rematch of 1999’s Mobile Alabama Bowl, ESPN is coming with them and will televise the game nationally.

The Pirates are also a pretty decent crew now, having trounced Texas Tech in last year’s a galleryfurniture.com Bowl. After a game against Alabama-Birmingham and a week off, the Frogs welcome Louisville, another bowl team from last year and the defending C-USA champion in what could be a crucial game in deciding next season’s conference champion.

The final game of the year, also on national television, will be the one legitimate grudge match on the conference docket as the Frogs look to avenge a bitter 2000 GMAC Alabama Mobile Bowl loss at Southern Miss.

So, despite lacking a big name opponent like the Sooners, it’s clear that next year’s schedule is a step up from last season and hopefully, indicative of a trend that will continue.

Last year there was nothing that would irk a Frog fan more than the prospect of a potential undefeated season going without reward at bowl time simply because of schedule strength. Even with their one loss last season to San Jose State, it seemed that the Frogs deserved more than the Mobile Bowl.

I have full faith in Patterson’s ability to continue to build a solid TCU football program, and I hope that sometime soon the critics out there will have no reason to question the on-field successes of the Frogs. Bulking up the quality of the schedule is a step in that direction.

Daniel Bramlette is a senior radio-TV-film major from Ogden, Utah.
He can be reached at (dcbramlette@yahoo.com).