Friday, October 12, 2001

Frogs hope off week won’t have bad effect
By Kelly Morris
Skiff Staff

The Frogs hope Saturday’s outcome against Tulane will not be the same as it was the last time they had a 13-day layoff.

The last time the Frogs had such downtime, they were upset in overtime 27-24 by Northwestern State (La.), a Division I-AA team, in its first home game of the season Sept. 22.

Head coach Gary Patterson said he is not sure if the layoff was the sole cause for the loss.

“With the Northwestern State game, you don’t know why that whole thing happened: whether we weren’t ready or how our players handled the off week,” Patterson said.

“Usually I would say if your rhythm was off, it would affect you offensively, but I thought in that game we played better offensively than we did defensively.”

After playing six games in a little over a month, the Frogs will now play the final six games of their season less than three months.

Because of that, Patterson said the team will have shorter practices.

“Usually you’re going to get around 72 practices not counting bowl practices,” Patterson said. “Right now we’re on a course without going to a bowl game practicing somewhere between 90 to 95 times. Because of the amount of practices we’ve had, you will probably start to see our practices after the Army week shortened.”

But Patterson said the problem can’t be solved by simply having less practices.

“The problem you have is you can’t just take off five days and think that your team will be able to play.”

Sophomore tailback Corey Connally said the Frogs will use the off-weeks to improve.

“The off week allowed us to clean up some things and get better,” Connally said.

“There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to an off week.”

The Frogs will have many off-weeks the rest of the season. After the games against Tulane and Army, TCU will have 10 days off before its game against both East Carolina and against UAB.

Patterson said the time off can be a concern with a younger football team.

“I don’t think I would be as worried if this was an older football team,” Patterson said.

“Because we’re dealing with a younger football team, this last week we were really demanding on the little things for the simple reason for us not to lose what we had gained and accomplished up to that point so far this season. We’ll use it as a positive, but I think we have to be very smart about that.”

While the Frogs last layoff came with a loss, Connally said it has its benefits as they play a Tulane team that is still looking for its first conference win of the season.

“After losing to Northwestern State (La.), we have definitely learned to not take Tulane for granted.”

Kelly Morris
k.l.morris@student.tcu.edu