Freshmen Horned Frogs shined, the quarterback controversy went unsolved, and Gary Patterson spent over half of the game mingling with fans in the crowd at the TCU spring football game Friday night at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
It was a relaxed atmosphere at the event, as a DJ pumped music through speakers near the field during the game and families and students mixed together in the stands. A solid crowd turned out to watch the game; most of the lower bowl on the side that normally holds the student section was filled.
The offense, wearing purple and consisting of four squads helmed by each of the quarterbacks on the roster, managed just 13 points against the defense, who wore white and returned an errant pass for a touchdown of their own.
Still, Patterson said postgame that he’s not putting too much stock into anything he saw tonight — not that he saw much of the game at all, as he was taking pictures with the Horned Frog faithful in the stands.
“I’ll get a chance to watch tomorrow and see what goes on,” Patterson said. “This is what it’s all about, to give back to the fans.”
“I didn’t watch that close. I spent probably 40 minutes on both sidelines telling everybody thank you.”
Kenny Hill and Foster Sawyer worked with the first and second-strings, respectively. Hill made several accurate throws that were dropped by his receivers, which Patterson noted was a problem.
“As a whole team, we’ve gotta catch the vertical ball better,” Patterson said. “It’s what we gotta do between now and August.”
Sawyer had some strong completions down the field, but was intercepted for a pick-six by sophomore defensive end Tipa Galeia, who made an acrobatic catch that drew cheers from the crowd.
Patterson said nothing on the quarterback front changed as a result of the night’s performances.
“Tonight, Kenny started because it was his turn to start with the ones,” Patterson said. “But we’ll go into fall camp with two guys working to be the starting quarterback.”
Grayson Muehlstein, who started with the third-string squad, provided the game’s lone touchdown on a pass to Taj Williams, a highly-touted junior college transfer. Jonathan Song added two mid-range field goals to complete the scoring for the offense.
The best performances of the night arguably both came from freshmen. Redshirted newcomer Jeff Gladney played lockdown defense on wide receiver Deante Gray for much of the night, jamming his man at the line of scrimmage and causing several balls to fly over their intended targets.
“Both him and Tony [James] did some good things out here,” Patterson said, “but they’ve got a long way to go to play on a consistent basis against the people we have to play against.”
Running back Sewo Olonilua also stood out among the crowd. After fumbling on a carry, he bounced back and took his next touch 33 yards to set up Muehlstein’s touchdown pass.
“He was good against the [third string],” Patterson said, “but against the [first and second string] he was just okay.”
This game was Horned Frog fans’ last chance to see TCU in uniform before the season begins in September against South Dakota State.
