This Friday, the Rose Bowl Champion Frogs start their season in Waco, with a new quarterback and a plethora of new starters. The keyword to this season is new, but plenty of former support is back for the Horned Frogs, and this should include the fans.
When Amon G. Carter Stadium is sold out, the crowd can exceed 50,000 fans, but the only way to guarantee the roar of a sold-out stadium is to have a winning football team to watch.
For the past two years, TCU fans have been spoiled; they have been spoiled watching a winning team. Horned Frog fans are known for sticking around for the “good times,” but when times get rough, they run away to better places — just take a look at the low attendance at basketball games.
Times haven’t been rough for the Frog football fans in a few years as the Frogs have the second-highest current winning streak with 13 games, falling behind the reigning national champions Auburn, with 15.
The Frogs also lead the nation with the best regular season winning streak, 25 games, with the only loss coming from the Frogs first BCS bowl appearance. It is the clear idea that not every year can top a perfect 12-0 season with a Rose Bowl victory, and fans need to stick around no matter the outcome.
The potential for a third perfect season in a row will be led without Andy Dalton. This Friday the Frogs will open the season without Dalton for the first time since 2006. Casey Pachall now has to step up as a quarterback, but taking an undefeated team into another perfect season is a hard task for any quarterback, especially a quarterback with Pachall’s experience.
Pachall finished the 2011 regular season for the Frogs against New Mexico. He was 4-for-6 passing and had a 21-yard scoring touchdown for the Frogs, but his success for the Frogs against the Lobos doesn’t foreshadow his future this season. Pachall played in eight games last season and had a completion percentage of 66.7%.
Behind the leadership of head coach Gary Patterson it is hard to expect the team will go down without a fight, and hopefully Pachall has enough fight for the whole season. Students can’t give up on the football program after, dare I say it, the team’s first loss.
Fan support is part of what has driven the football program to be as successful as it is today. The fan support is what has driven a $143 million campaign for the renovation of Amon G. Carter Stadium in addition to new athletic buildings taking over the Fort Worth community.
There is something we need to get straight before the football season starts: we can’t expect the season to look like last year’s perfect season.
Be in the crowd. Stay until the end, and help the Frogs win.
Madison Pelletier is a senior Broadcast journalism major from Keller, Texas.
