Total Domination
Frogs slam SMU in first Ford Stadium showdown

By Matt Stiver
skiff staff

Call the turnaround complete.

When LaDainian Tomlinson, Aaron Schobel, David Bobo and 20 other TCU freshmen walked off Amon Carter Stadium following a 21-18 victory over Southern Methodist in 1997, what has happened this season was probably not even on their radar.

The victory over SMU in 1997 gave the Frogs a 1-10 record; a 62-7 drubbing of the Mustangs Friday capped a 10-1 season.

David Dunai/SKIFF STAFF Sophomore quarterback Casey Printers (above) runs for a 27-yard touchdown in the Horned Frogs’ 62-7 win Friday at Southern Methodist. Printers rushed for a career-high 90 yards and also threw a career-high four touchdown passes.

Senior tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, who became the eighth player in NCAA history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, said the turnaround has been unbelievable.

“I am glad that we were able to pull it together for my senior year,” Tomlinson said. “I still can’t believe all that we have accomplished.”

What the Frogs have accomplished in three seasons includes two co-Western Athletic Conference titles, two consecutive bowl victories and the chance for a third bowl win this year.

Individually, Tomlinson capped one of the finest careers in TCU history. He set career records for yards rushing (5,263), touchdowns (54), attempts (907) and single-season records for yards (2,158), touchdowns (22) and yards a game (196.2). During his two seasons as a starter, Tomlinson has compiled 4,008 yards and 40 touchdowns.

In their only visit to Gerald J. Ford Stadium as conference opponents, the Frogs gave the Mustangs a house-warming present only the TCU fans in attendance could appreciate. The Frogs ran up 558 total yards while limiting the Mustangs to 148. At halftime, the TCU defense had yielded only 34 total yards.

Only the 1932 TCU team, which beat Austin College 68-0, scored more points in a single game. Eight different Frogs scored against the Mustangs’ defense and special teams.

Tomlinson rushed for 174 yards and a touchdown against the Mustangs. His 74-yard touchdown broke the game open.

With TCU leading 10-0, Tomlinson took a handoff from sophomore quarterback Casey Printers and cut back right through the line before shaking three tackles and racing 74 yards into the end zone.

The TCU defense would not let its SMU counterparts catch their breath. The Frogs forced SMU to go three-and-out on its first four drives. The Mustangs sustained only one drive, which led to a 7-yard touchdown pass from second-string quarterback David Page to tight end Josh Hampton, late in the fourth quarter.

By the third quarter, Tomlinson said the effects were becoming obvious.

TCU fans and members of the TCU football team (above right) celebrate the team’s second consecutive co-Western Athletic Conference title on the field at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas.

“We could see they were getting tired,” Tomlinson said. “They weren’t talking as much as they had been. It’s been that way all year long. Our offensive line just wears people down.”

Though SMU kept the game close early, the Mustangs could not overcome Printers’ best collegiate game to date. With the Mustangs moving eight men near the line of scrimmage to slow Tomlinson, Printers blitzed the SMU secondary for 251 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

Printers started a 15-minute stretch in which the Frogs scored 42 unanswered points. Senior wide receiver Tim Maiden caught touchdown passes of 19 and 34 yards during that span.

With 8:33 left before halftime and the Frogs leading 3-0, Printers rolled to his left and found senior wide receiver Cedric James on a 38-yard touchdown play.

TCU’s dominance spanned all three phases of the game. Following SMU’s only touchdown, sophomore LaTarence Dunbar raced 100 yards through the SMU coverage unit to account for the final score.

Matt Stiver
mrstiver@student.tcu.edu

Tomlinson seals second straight NCAA rushing title

By Chad Carey
staff reporter

TCU fans have come to expect a lot from senior tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, and Friday night was no exception.

Tomlinson sealed his second-straight NCAA rushing title and had 174 yards on 26 carries as the No. 13-ranked Horned Frogs pounded the Southern Methodist Mustangs 62-7.

In the process, TCU won a share of its second consecutive Western Athletic Conference title.

Tomlinson, who became only the second player in NCAA history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season and 5,000 rushing yards in a career, got a sputtering Horned Frog offense headed in the right direction in the second quarter when he took a pitch from sophomore quarterback Casey Printers and sprinted 74 yards for a touchdown.

TCU went up 10-0 on Tomlinson’s run, and the Frogs scored on their next six possessions.

“They were good enough to stop me at the beginning of the game, they were talking a lot of noise,” Tomlinson said. “After (the touchdown run) they didn’t say too much more.”

Tomlinson ended his career with 5,263 yards, the sixth-highest total of any running back in NCAA history.

“LaDainian’s run was a big play for us,” TCU head coach Dennis Franchione said. “It got us rolling. It was really a turning point in the game.”

Despite the fact that Tomlinson was getting the job done on the ground, the Horned Frog offense was led statistically by Printers.

Printers completed 13 of 19 passes for 251 yards, threw for four touchdown passes and ran for a score. On the night, Printers accounted for 342 yards of total offense.

With the victory over SMU, Printers is 18-3 as TCU’s starting quarterback. Printers was also named WAC Offensive Player of the Week for his effort against the Mustangs.

“Casey probably played one of his best games,” Franchione said.

TCU’s 55-point margin of victory against the Mustangs was the largest in the 82 years the schools have been playing each other.

TCU will now begin to prepare for its bowl game against Southern Mississippi. The Frogs will face the Golden Eagles in the GMAC Mobile Alabama Bowl on Dec. 20.

Chad Carey
chadcarey@mindspring.com

By Kelly Morris
skiff staff

Although the TCU women’s basketball team was down by just 11 points at the intermission of Monday night’s game against No. 2 Tennessee, head coach Jeff Mittie said shooting 10 of 34 from the field in the second half coupled with the team’s inability to sustain its early intensity and control of the offensive rebounds led the Frogs to their first loss of the season, 83-61.

“I’m very proud of how we came out and battled well at the beginning of the game, but I’m not satisfied with getting beat,” Mittie said. “We were unable to finish our plays and sustain our play (over the course of the game). You can’t give up 13 offensive rebounds in the first half and win a basketball game.”

With 14:49 left in the first half, the Frogs were tied with Tennessee at 11. The Frogs were clinging to a four-point lead with 7:49 remaining in the first half.

In the first-ever meeting between the two teams, TCU played in front of a sellout crowd of 7,262 fans at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. This attendance broke the previous all-time record set in 1983 in a men’s basketball game against Houston. Prior to this game, the attendance record for a women’s basketball game was 4,380.

The Frogs shot 34 percent from the field in the first half while Tennessee shot 39 percent. The Frogs also committed 10 turnovers in the first half, which resulted in 11 points for the Lady Volunteers.

Junior guard Tricia Payne led the Frogs in scoring with 13 points. Freshman forward Tiffany Evans and senior forward Janice Thomas led the team in rebounding with nine rebounds each.

Tennessee’s leading scorer was sophomore guard April McDivitt with 14 points. She knocked down four of five shots from three-point range.

Despite the loss, Porter said the experience of playing Tennessee was rewarding.

“After playing this game, we’re already a better team,” Porter said. “We were a better team before we stepped on the court because of how we prepared mentally and physically this week. Playing a team like Tennessee makes you play and work harder, and we’re going to try to take that into every game and practice.”

Tennessee women’s head basketball coach Pat Summitt said the Frogs will have success this season if they continue to play like they played Monday.

“If TCU plays everyone on their schedule like they played us and maintain the level of intensity like they did against us, they will have a very successful year,” Summitt said. “I thought they had more energy than us in the first half, and we didn’t match their intensity early. Our basketball team got impatient on the offensive end, but we managed to hang on and get some baskets.”

The Frogs’ (1-1) next game is at 7 p.m. Wednesday against North Texas at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

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

Lady Frogs posed a formidable opponent for No. 2 Lady Vols

by Danny Horne
sports editor

It wasn’t a game TCU was supposed to win. It really wasn’t a game TCU was supposed to compete well in.

But for the first 15 minutes of the first half Monday, the TCU women’s basketball team looked and played more like the No. 2-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers than did the Lady Volunteers. TCU looked primed for what would have been the biggest upset TCU has ever seen and one of the biggest upsets women’s college basketball has seen.

Never before has the TCU women’s basketball program played a bigger game. Never before has Daniel-Meyer Coliseum seen such a game as evidenced by the 7,262 fans that filled the seats, breaking the previous record crowd of 7,260 from a 1983 men’s game against then-No. 1 Houston.

In the standings, it’s just a loss to the nation’s second-ranked team. But in the locker room for the Frogs, it’s the adrenaline rush that should carry them through the season.

When asked if the Frogs could sustain such a level of intensity for the rest of the season, junior guard Tricia Payne said there’s no doubt about it.

“(The atmosphere) was just amazing,” Payne said pausing before she repeated herself. “It was just amazing. I think we can and should put forth that type of effort even if the stadium isn’t sold out every night.”

Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt said the TCU women’s basketball program was definitely headed in the right direction.

“We clearly didn’t match their intensity early,” Summit said. “(TCU was) definitely hyped up. If they play everyone on their schedule the way they played us, they are going to have a very successful year.”

That type of effort put the Lady Frogs in front 22-18 with just under nine minutes remaining before the intermission. The Lady Vols were finally awakened and went on a 25-10 run before halftime, taking a 43-32 lead.

The fact remains that TCU was not supposed to play with Tennessee. Granted, the final score was 83-61, but TCU put forth the character it takes to win and build tradition.

With 2:28 remaining in the game and Tennessee leading 76-55, freshman guard Ebony Shaw chased down Tennessee guard Kyra Elzy forcing two free throws instead of allowing the easy layup. In the grand scheme of the things, it’s nothing, but for women’s basketball at TCU, it shows how far the program has come.

Rebounding and turnovers were what put TCU in a hole toward the end of the first half. In the final nine minutes of the half, the Frogs were outrebounded 15-5. Tennessee outscored TCU 12-2 in second-chance points in the first half.

Tennessee was able to score 11 points off 10 TCU turnovers in the first half. TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said those two aspects, rebounding especially, were the Frogs’ main problems.

“We can’t give up 13 offensive rebounds in the first half,” Mittie said. “We didn’t sustain (our level of play) for long enough. We have to do a better job of that. We have to finish plays and take care of the ball.”

Despite being outrebounded 55-42, TCU had one bright spot on the boards in freshman forward Tiffany Evans. She pulled down nine rebounds and scored seven points.

Again, just one game — the second game — in the season and career for Evans, but a game she and every other member of the Frogs will carry with them for the rest of the season and probably the rest of their careers.

Sports editor Danny Horne is a senior broadcast journalism major from Carrollton.
He can be reached at (bravestcu3116@mindspring.com)

By Adam Jungeblut
skiff staff

The TCU men’s basketball team traveled to Hawaii this weekend with high hopes but returned with low hearts.

The Frogs played in the Hawaii Pacific University Thanksgiving Basketball Classic, which featured Georgetown, Minnesota, Duquesne, College of Charleston, Central Florida, Siena and Hawaii Pacific.

Led by senior forward Ryan Carroll and junior guard Greedy Daniels, the Frog players said they expected to fair well in the tournament.

In the opening round, TCU blew past Siena with a 111-91 victory. The Frogs scored 69 points in the first half and led by 32 at the intermission. They hit 21 of 23 free throws and shot 54 percent for the game.

aniels led the Horned Frogs in scoring with 24 points. He also contributed five assists and tied a school record with seven steals. Carroll poured in 19 points, senior forward Myron Anthony added 17 points, and senior center Derrick Davenport recorded his second double-double of the season.

Head coach Billy Tubbs said Daniels was probably the standout performer for the weekend.

“(Daniels) was the spark for our team during this tournament,” Tubbs said. “He played very sound basketball, but that didn’t surprise me at all. It’s gotten to be what we expect.”

In the semifinal round of the tournament, the Golden Gophers of Minnesota defeated the Frogs 107-99, despite a 21-point second-half performance by Daniels. In the first half alone, there were nine ties and four lead changes.

“We started off very well with initiating our game plan, but we couldn’t close the deal in the end,” Tubbs said. “This was due primarily to our defense down the stretch.”

Minnesota forward Dusty Rychart had his way inside, scoring 32 points, after Davenport picked up early fouls and had to sit out the majority of the game. Toward the end of the game, the Frogs took the lead on an 18-9 run, but the Gophers countered with a 16-7 run and regained the lead on two free throws by Terrance Simmons after a technical foul was called against Tubbs.

The Golden Gophers hit eight free throws in the final 32 seconds to put the game away.

In the third-place game, the Frogs squared off against the College of Charleston, which had just come off of a loss to Georgetown.

College of Charleston defeated the Horned Frogs 76-71 in a slow-paced game. Jody Lumkin led all scorers with 24 points and Davenport led the Frogs with 14.

The Cougars led by 13 at the break and eventually stretched their second-half lead to 18. A free throw by Carroll cut the lead to five, but College of Charleston made 7 of 8 free throws in the last 1:18 to seal the victory.

The Cougars held the Frogs to only 37 percent shooting and their second sub-100 point game this season. The Frogs only made 3 of 20 three pointers attempted in the game.

“I was very pleased with our play in the first game against Siena,” Tubbs said. “However, I am very upset about our games against Minnesota and College of Charleston.”

Tubbs said if there was one area the team could focus on, it would be its defense toward the end of the game. He said the team starts off very well, but often has a tendency to slack off late in the game.

ebounding was also an area Tubbs stressed needed to improve.

“I have not lost any confidence in this team and look forward to enjoying a successful season,” Tubbs said.
The next home game for the Horned Frogs (5-2) is Dec. 6 against Virginia Commonwealth at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Adam Jungeblut
a.g.jungeblut@student.tcu.edu

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