Team preview: TCU

The Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook previews the 2007 TCU Horned Frogs, exclusively on Insider.

Originally Published: July 19, 2007
Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook
Editor's Note: ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at all 119 Division I-A teams. To order the complete 2007 edition of Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook, visit www.blueribbonyearbook.com or call 1-866-805-BALL (2255).

(All information as of June 20, 2007)

COACH AND PROGRAM

Over the last nine years TCU has emerged as one of the nation's best and most consistent programs, going to eight bowl games, and the Horned Frogs have done so by refusing to acknowledge they are as good as the numbers suggest.

"We always take the approach that we are the underdog," head coach Gary Patterson said. "When you do that your kids come out battling, and this season will be no different."

Patterson and his players may believe they are underdogs, but there is little evidence to support that claim. The revival of the Horned Frogs' proud program was started by Dennis Franchione in 1998, but it is Patterson, who took over in 2001, that has made the run more than a temporary uptick. TCU has reached a point where success is expected, not just hoped for.

Since the turn of the century, TCU is 64-21, the 11th best Football Bowl Subdivision record in the nation. Under Patterson's watch, the Horned Frogs have won at least 10 games in four of the last five seasons, have beaten their last four Big 12 opponents and are 12-6 against teams from conferences with Bowl Championship Series bids.


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