Frogs look for strong season opener against the Cincinnati Bearcats
The TCU football team faces a bigger than expected opening game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. With the Bearcats coaching staff overhauled, the Frogs are also figuring out what to expect.
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

For the Frogs, the chance to grow before the conference schedule is not an option. It starts right away.

For the second time in three years, TCU will open their season with a conference game, as they travel to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats on Monday afternoon.

In 2000, the team traveled to Nevada and won that opener, 41-10.

Horned Frog head coach Gary Patterson said that playing a game of this magnitude so early is not what the team would prefer.

“You want to get all of your problems out before you start to play conference,” Patterson said. “I think that’s why it’s called a non-conference schedule. One thing that hurts us is that we are only allowed to take 66 on the traveling squad, whereas any home game we can have whatever we want.”

Senior quarterback Sean Stilley said that the game is one they can’t afford to be complacent about.

“It was really easy to get up for Nebraska (last year’s opener),” he said. “But the importance isn’t the same. After the first game we are either going to be at the bottom of the conference charts or at the top. We can’t wait around and see what kind of team we are going to be. We have to go right from the beginning, and hit them in the mouth right away.”

But there is a catch — the team isn’t completely sure what they are looking to hit.

Cincinnati has had an overhaul in the coaching staff, similar to the one in TCU last year. The Bearcats have several new faces in charge, including Rusty Burns at offensive coordinator, who was previously at Wyoming.

It’s hard enough that TCU has to simply go on game film for preparation. Now they are faced with the task of figuring out what to expect under the new philosophies.

Frog defensive coordinator David Bailiff explained that preparing under those circumstances requires a little more study that usual.

“What you have to do for a first game is watch the whole year of Cincinnati video,” Bailiff said. “With the new offensive coordinator, you then have to familiarize yourself with all of Wyoming’s video. Then prepare for everything, because you can’t focus on one thing. With Nebraska, they have been doing the same thing for 20 years. This game plan has to be all-inclusive, and has to include all personal groups.”

Though the Frogs may not be sure of what they are facing in schemes, they are very aware of the talent that the Bearcats possess.

Finishing second to Louisville in Conference USA last year, Cincinnati returns both eight starters on offense and defense. Their offense goes no-huddle, which could pose some threats as the Frogs attempt to make defensive substitutions.

The defense is quick and athletic, and moves to the ball very well, but Stilley said there are areas where they can take advantage of them.

“I think we can run right at them,” Stilley said. “In some cases it will be hard to single block them, but when we lower block them, we’ll go right at them. When you run an option at somebody, it doesn’t matter how physical or fast they can play it. You kind of take them out of the equation without having to block them.”

The Frogs open up on a Monday, and quickly turn around to play Northwestern the following Saturday. The team has been treating this week like it was the beginning of any ordinary game week, and doesn’t expect anyone to lose their focus.

“I don’t even know who Northwestern is right now,” offensive coordinator Mike Schultz said. “There is only (one) thing we are worried about right now, and that is Cincinnati. Everything we are focused on has been geared towards Cincinnati. We took four weeks in the summer and spent two on Cincinnati, and two on Northwestern. We knew that it would be a short week after the first game, but we haven’t even looked at or talked about Northwester for the last four weeks.”

Now it’s a matter of if TCU knows what they are looking at with the Bearcats.