The Matchup -
Set to close out its 1996 home season,
the Horned Frogs (4-5, 2-3) entertain their longtime rival
and WAC foe - Rice (5-4, 4-2)- in a 2:05pm (CST) kickoff Saturday in TCU's
Amon Carter Stadium.
Horned Frogs' Last Outing
Trailing 3-0 (at the half) at Tulsa, the Horned Fmgs exploded for 31 second-half points and 348 yards during the final 30 minutes for the 31-24 WAC victory. Sophomore tailback Basil Mitchell, en route to a 215-yard rushing performance, provided the capper with 1:45 left when he streaked 74 yards for the winning touchdown. Mitchell, in fact, had TD runs of 22, three and 74 yards during the final 16:24 of the game. He accounted for 248 yards of tandem offense in the second half alone. Defensively, TCU received stellar outings from junior end Matt Harper, and free safety Chris Staten, linebacker Scott Taft, all juniors, and strong safety Reggie Hunt, a freshman. Harper finished with seven tackles including a pair of quarterback sacks, and three quarterback pressures. Staten chalked up 13 tackles including a sack, while Taft had 15 stops, an interception and two tackles for losses, and Hunt provided possibly the biggest defensive play of the game when he fiercely dislodged Tulsa receiver Wes Caswell from the ball at the TCU 10-yard line, resulting in the Taft interception.
THE HEAD COACHES
Pat Sullivan is in his fifth campaign as TCU's head coach. Sullivan enters the Rice contest with a career coaching mark of 23-30-1. Rice's Ken Hatfield - 12-18-1 - is in his third season as the head coach there. He enters the TCU game with a career coaching record of 125-80-4.
PAT SULLIVAN SAYS -
(About the win over Tulsa) "It was exciting. It was a dramatic finish, but
more than that, any victory, any way, at this point of the season is
exciting.
(About the Horned Frogs) "The most pleasing aspect of our play
against Tulsa was that I thought we had our best continuity since the
first game of the year (at Oklahoma). Our players just kept hanging on
and bouncing back. I was also impressed with the way we moved the
football in the second half."
(About Rice) "We are fully aware of what they (Rice) are capable of
doing if they are allowed to control the football and dictate the
tempo of the ballgame. Ohoiously, that, along with tackling mistakes, is
what we have to avoid this Saturday.
EARLY-WEEK LOOK AT TCU INJURIES -
For the third straight week TCU lost a player for the remainder of the
season to injury. Tight end Mike Brown (right mcl/ac) was injured early in
the Tulsa contest, joining fullback Chad Renfro, who underwent surgery
two weeks ago to repair his fractured right wrist, and safety Joseph
Phipps, who had surgical repair of his left shoulder last week. Also,
cornerback Barry Browning (sore lower back) likely will remain sidelined
for the rest of the season.
FROG SENIORS BOWING OUT:
Sixteen TCU footballers, representing the team's
senior class, will be making their final playing appearances in Amon G.
Carter Stadium on: Saturday. They are cornerback Cedric Allen from Dallas
(Bishop Dunne), tight end Chad Avery from Midlothian; running back Sterling
Boyd from Denison, linebacker Tony Brown from Lamesa, offensive guard
Brandy Crow from Jenks, Oklahoma, defensive tackle Michael Janak
from
Corpus Christi (Tulosa Midway), nose-tackle Bernard Oldham from Midland
(Lee), deep snapper Ashby Porter from Fort Bend (Dulles),
fullback Chad
Renfro from Alvarado, offensive guard Fabian Stegall from Nacogdoches,
linebacker Geoff Stephens from Fort Bend (Dulles); defensive end Billy
Thompson from Atlanta, Georgia; center Ryan Tucker from Midland (Lee),
wide receiver - John Washington from Longview, cornerback Godfrey White
from Dallas and fullback Koi Woods from Boling.
Offense -
TCU's MITCHELL IS PICKINC UP STEAM ... AND YARDS! -
Sophomore Basil
Mitchell became only the seventh Horned Frog running back ever to rush for
over 200 yards in a game when he tacked up his 215-yard effort against
Tulsa last Saturday ... all but three of them in the second half! That
impressive effort lifted Mitchell to an average of 123.0 yards per game
over his last five outings and to 813 yards on the season (already 12th
best in school annals with two games remaining). The week before, Mitchell
and redshirt freshman John Williame each rushed for over 100 yards vs.
UNLV, becoming the first TCU backfield pair to accomplish that feat in the
same game since Tony Jeffery and Tony Darthard both topped the 100yard
plateau vs. Rice in 1987. And, during the final 16:26 of the Tulsa game,
Mitchell also put on a sterling scoring display rushing for his first,
second and third scores of the season on runs of 22, three and 74 yards.
Almost overlooked were his three pass receptions for another 68 yards
(he has a team-high 31 catches on the year). Mitchell's 74-yard scamper
became the longest rushing play of the season at TCU, eclipsing the 69
(vs. UNLV) and 59-yard (Kansas) dashes ofWilliams earlier. TCU's young duo
have combined for a per-carry average of 4.4 yards through nine games.
MORE ON THE OFFENSE - Hoping that it is a more WAClike indication, TCU offense has churned out 960 yards and 73 points in its last two ballgames. That's an average of 480 yards per outing. Broken down - with sophomore Jeff Dover largely at the controls - the Frogs have rushed for 587 yards and passed for 371 yards in that span, averaging 7.0 yards per play.
Defense
Big hits, takeaways, quarterback sacks and key stops. Again, the same
handful of Horned Frog defensive names - end Matt Harper, linebackers
Jay Davern and Scott Taft, cornerback Cedric Allen, plus
safeties Chris
Staten and Reggie Hunt - were principals in Horned Frogs 31-24 win over
Tulsa. The Frogs' limited Tulsa to a 3-of-12 conversion rate on third down
attemps, authored four quarterback sacks (two by Harper), had a pair of
interceptions (one by Taft), a blocked field goal (by Harper) and enjoyed
a season high eight big hits (two each by Staten, R. Hunt and freshman
Terrance Cook). On the year, the aggressive Staten also has a pair of
interceptions to share team-high honors with Alien, while Davern sports a
fumble recovery and two QB sacks in '96 and Harper has offered a little bit
of everything team highs in sacks (5.5) and tackles for losses (seven),
six passes batted down (second only to Alien's eight PBUs), two fumble
recoveries and even an interception. A latecomer to that select TCU group
has been freshman safety Reggie Hunt - two sacks, two tackles for losses
and a fumble recovery.
FROGS GLAD TO SEE RECEIVING PAIR BACK HEALTHY -
After battling nagging
injuries mostly of the hamstring variety - through much of the campaign,
TCU's veteran receiving pair of Jason Tucker and
John Washington appear to
be back on track. Over the past three games, they have combined for 27
receptions for 380 yards and two touchdowns, more along the lines of the
eye-popping pass-catching numbers they posted in 1995. In the process,
Washington, a senior, has moved into TCU's No. 6 all-time receiving spot
with his 122 career grabs (for 1,536 yards). He also tacked on his 31st
straight start in the Tulsa game. Tucker, a junior, joined the Horned
Frogs' 1,000-yard receiving lodge a week ago and up his career numbers
to 1,072 yards (on 61 career grabs). En route he has authored three 100
yard plus receiving afternoons. Additionally, Tucker has averaged 19.2
yards per grab in '96 and is tied with tailback Basil Mitchell, with three
touchdown catches this season.
K. WILLIAMS PERFORMS A RARITY
Redshirt freshman Kyle Williams joined an
elite group of Horned Frog footballers last Saturday when he played a
dozen downs at defensive end, before moving over to the other side of
the line of scrimmage to handle a few snaps at tight end. Young Williams
became the first Frog to play both ways in a game since Scott Ankrom,
Tracy Simien and Mitchell Benson did likewise in the mid 1980s. Normally,
a tight end, Williams has unselfishly moved to defense to help the ailing
Horned Frogs there, but was hastily summoned back to spell starter Travis
Wilson after backup tight end Mike Brown was lost fir the season with a
knee injury.
TCU DEEP SNAPPER IS LIRE THAT ENERGIZER BUNNY -
TCU's premier deep
snapper - senior Ashby Porter - is hovering around that unheard-of success
rate of 99 percent. With his 80 spiraled offerings through eight Horned
Frog contests in 1996, Porter has pushed his career deep snaps to 383.
Of that number, only four of which Porter and TCU coaches figure failed to
merit a passing grade...thus No. 52 is batting 99.0 percent in his career.
Porter also has managed six tackles and a forced fumble as one of the
most act
R HUNT, BATTEAUX CARRYING BANNER FOR TCU'S FROSH IN '96 -
Though somewhat
unnoticed at first, Horned Frog first-year freshman, Reggie Hunt (Denison),
has already logged four starts in his initial campaign including. Young
Hunt accounted for 13 stops in his last two weeks to go along with a trio
of passes broken up. Hunt, who also returns kickoffs for the Frogs, has
been involved in 37tackles through nine games, plus he has authored two
&B sacks, and three other tackles behind the line. Patrick Batteaux
(Fort Bend Elkins), one of the three other first-year fmsh enjoying
playing time with TCU in '96, has chipped in with five receptions for
51 yards as a backup wide receiver.
WEEKLY TELEVISION FOOTBALL SHOW FOR TCU -
The 1996 TCU Football Television Show, featuring Horned Frog head coach
Pat Sullivan, will debut Wednesday, September 11. The program, available
throughout the Southwest on the Prime Sports Productions (locally channel
1), airs on Wednesday afternoons at 5:00 p.m. Central Time.
THIRTEEN STATIONS TO JOIN FLAGSHIP KCLE ON THE HORNED FROG NETWORK
Thirteen stations will join flagship station KCLE (1120 am) of Cleburne on
the Horned Frog Football Network this fall:
KVLF (1240 am) of Alpine
KPUR (1440 am) of Amarillo
KFON (1490 am) of Austin
KCLE ( 92.1 fm) of Cleburne
KDFX (1190 am) of Dallas
KAHZ (1360 am) of Fort Worth
KTCU (88.7 fm) of Fort Worth
KTXQ (950 am) of Lubbock
KRIL (1410 am) of Odessa
KBOP (103.7 fm) of Pleasonton/San Antonio
KBOP (1380 am) of Pleasonton/San Antonio
KTBB (600 am) of Tyler
KBBW (1010 am) of Waco