Frogs focused on play, not on hoopla
John Ashley Menzies
Staff Reporter

In a week that has seen the Horned Frogs football team enter the top six in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, people are starting to talk.

So, how is head coach Gary Patterson handling all of the hoopla?

“What hoopla?” Patterson said Tuesday.

It is just another day in the office for the Frogs and Patterson. The Frogs have to take care of business against Cincinnati if they hope to keep their BCS dreams alive, Patterson said.

“Cincinnati beat us last year,” Patterson said. “We’ve got a lot of things in front of us.”

Patterson said Cincinnati has had this game circled since the spring and will be expecting the Bearcats to play well.

“This is Cincy’s coming out party,” Patterson said. “The Big East said they were getting two football teams and didn’t mention Cincinnati, so they will be looking to make a point.”

He said the two teams are comparable on both sides of the ball and that Cincinnati is another big, physical football team.

“We just have to keep finding a way to win,” Patterson said.

Cincinnati’s junior quarterback Gino Guidugli is another talented quarterback that will test TCU again, Patterson said.

Frog fans will remember Guidugli making a 14-yard touchdown run in overtime last year to defeat the Frogs on national TV in the season opener.

“You earn your money in November,” Patterson said. “It takes both sides of the ball and all three phases of the game to win.”

Patterson said the defense lost its confidence over the past two and half games but with 10-days off should play better.

“We’ve only lost two guys on defense, but you wouldn’t know it by the way they’ve played,” he said.

Patterson said it is all mental and that the defense will need to play themselves out of it just like the offense did.

He said Cincinnati will play its best ball game of the season and that the only difference between this year and last is that it is in Texas this time.

As for the hoopla though?

“People are going to have their opinions on us,” Patterson said. “They are either going to like us or they are going to have a reason why they don’t.”

Patterson said the top six ranking in the BCS will bring much more national attention to the Frogs, but said he is excited the nation will get to know about the players and the TCU community. However, he said he will not treat it any different than he has during the Frogs’ rise through the polls.

“TCU has tradition,” Patterson said. “We want to bring it back.”