Frogs Want To Break Through With BCS-Crashing Season

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ TCU won't be lacking for motivation this season. <br/><br/>Even before the chance to avenge back-to-back losses to Mountain West Conference foes BYU and Utah last year that

Thursday, August 16th 2007, 8:07 pm

By: News On 6

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ TCU won't be lacking for motivation this season.

Even before the chance to avenge back-to-back losses to Mountain West Conference foes BYU and Utah last year that spoiled what was still another 11-win season, the Horned Frogs have a series of emotion-filled games.

There's the opener against Baylor for the second year in a row, this time at home, and a trip to Texas to play the Longhorns for the first time since the final Southwest Conference season in 1995. And the Frogs play SMU for the first time since 2005, when they were upset by the Mustangs a week after winning at Oklahoma.

``For us, you've got small goals, like to be undefeated in Texas,'' coach Gary Patterson said. ``We've got to get ourselves in position to understand we've got to come play and we've got to play early.''

TCU won its first three games last season to extend the longest winning streak in Division I-A to 13, capped by knocking off another Big 12 bowl team in Texas Tech. But the Frogs followed that glorious moment by losing their first two MWC games.

``We need to really focus on Baylor and not worry so much about the rest of the season,'' tailback Aaron Brown said. ``If we focus on Texas or SMU, or Air Force, and worry about all that, then Baylor will run right through us. Then it will be too late, and we'll be looking like we did when we lost to SMU.''

That loss to SMU was the only blemish in 2005, when TCU made its MWC debut by going undefeated in conference play and still had to settle for a bowl game in Houston.

Last year, consecutive losses to BYU and Utah quickly ended any chance TCU had to defend that league title, though the Frogs rebounded to win eight straight games. A 37-7 rout of Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl capped their third 11-win season in four years.

``The past two years, we've had to learn lessons the hard way,'' defensive end Chase Ortiz said. ``This year, we're trying to do the things that it takes to not let that little slip happen, and have an all-the-way-through successful season.''

With All-MWC ends Tommy Blake and Ortiz back with seven other starters on a dominating defense, the Horned Frogs are heavily favored to win another MWC title. They are also considered a possible Bowl Championship Series contender if they survive the opening month.

The Frogs ranked among the top three nationally last season in rushing defense (61 yards per game), total defense (235 yards a game) and scoring defense (12.3 points per game). Only one team other than BYU or Utah scored more than 17 points against them.

Safety Marvin White, the team leader last season with 86 tackles and four interceptions, is gone. But 11 of the top 13 tacklers return.

While the Frogs should be able to stop other teams, they have to determine who will be handing or throwing the ball to Brown _ the team's top returning rusher (801 yards, nine TDs) and receiver (34 catches, 455 yards, one TD). The junior tailback was tabbed the MWC preseason offensive player of the year.

With record-setting quarterback Jeff Ballard gone, either sophomore Marcus Jackson or redshirt freshman Andy Dalton will start.

Jackson got some experience as Ballard's backup and threw two second-half TD passes in the season-opening victory at Baylor. While Dalton didn't play, he was at every game and was solid in preseason drills.

``We'll find out who has the best chemistry that makes everybody else better,'' Patterson said. ``Both of them are very young, so that bodes well for down the road.''

The plan is for Jackson and Dalton to both play in the first game, though Patterson said it won't be a rotation.

Regardless who is at quarterback, the Frogs are aiming high _ and having to prove themselves again.

They have one other source of inspiration from last season: Boise State, which came from the non-BCS Western Athletic Conference to finish 13-0 with a dramatic upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Plenty of people thought the Broncos should have been playing for the BCS championship.

``Boise State kept winning a lot of ball games and finally they got lucky enough, they hit the right cycle, the right place at the right time and it worked for them,'' Patterson said. ``That's what we have to do. The only thing we can control is keep doing it, then someday it happens.''