Frogs ignoring poll snubs, focus on other goals
The football team continues to get noticed nationally and although it’s not enough to crack the polls, the team’s main focus is not being rated in the top-25 but winning all upcoming games.
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

When senior quarterback Sean Stilley was asked last Wednesday if he felt TCU should be ranked in the top-25, following its 37-7 victory over Southern Miss on national television, he did not hesitate.

“For sure,” he said quickly without pausing.

And while players and fans alike shared Stilley’s sentiments, it would not happen.
At least not this week.

The Frogs (7-1, 4-1 Conference USA) continued to gain more votes in their quest to crack the top-25 in either of the two major polls, but came up short.

In the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll the Frogs garnered 70 votes and received 68 votes in The Associated Press poll. The team is 68 and 87 votes out of the No. 25 spot in each poll respectively.

The team has not been ranked since they finished in the coaches and AP polls No. 18 and No. 21 respectively at the end of the 2000-01 season.

While the question of the team belonging there is debatable, the Frogs still have to play their three final games and win them all to give themselves the best shot at the C-USA championship.

Head coach Gary Patterson said the team is not worried about the fact that it was not welcomed to the top-25, because the three games remaining are the team’s main focus.

“If we get beat in any of the next three ballgames, that basically takes us out of any of those kind of things,” Patterson said. “Really all our focus has been on is (taking) it one game (at a time). It’s nice that we’re starting to get noticed for different things, but I think the biggest key for us is to keep focused on the task at hand.”

While the team isn’t keeping focused on the polls, it’s an issue the Frogs do address.

In the John Justin Athletic Center, the team has a pyramid of goals that it has put on a large poster for the players to see whenever they walk by. One of those goals is to finish the season ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation.

“It’s one of the goals on our goalboard, and if that becomes the case, that will be great,” Patterson said. “All we’ve talked about is it doesn’t matter where you are when you start the season, it where you are (at the end).”

The last few weeks has seen the team climb closer to the club of 25, and senior LaMarcus McDonald said after the Southern Miss game that if the team continues to win, it will eventually have to get noticed.

“I hope they put us up there in the top 25, but if not, it’s a week to week thing,” McDonald said. “We just got to come back next week and prove ourselves again. Soon enough someone’s going to hear you knocking, they got to come to the door.”

d.r.gillham@tcu.edu