Frogs take on Wyoming in conference tilt
Published Nov 4, 2011
The TCU football team will be looking to improve on its perfect Mountain West record when they travel to Wyoming to take on the Cowboys Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The Frogs are coming off a 38-28 win over BYU Friday night at Cowboys Stadium and have won three straight against Wyoming, but if they want to get a win Saturday, they’ll have to do it in unfavorable conditions. The forecast for tomorrow’s game calls for 70 percent chance of snow and temperatures in the mid-20s, according the Laramie Boomerang.
TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson said his team won’t let the below-freezing temperatures affect them.
“Our kids know,” Patterson said. “When it comes to going to altitude, bad weather or cold, usually the teams that are losing talk about it. The teams that are winning don’t. The key for us is to find a way to go win a ballgame against a good football team.”
Instead, the Frogs will be more focused on notching their third straight road win, something Patterson said was a team goal at the beginning of the season.
“It’s week nine,” Patterson said. “I said at the beginning of the season that all our road games had the chance to be our toughest ballgames that we had to play this year. Up to this point, that is exactly the way it has been.”
TCU beat a 2-3 Wyoming team 45-10 last year at Amon G. Carter Stadium. This time around, though, the Frogs may have a tougher test on their hands. The Cowboys are 5-2 on the year and are undefeated in Mountain West action after beating UNLV at home Oct. 15 and sneaking past San Diego State 30-27 on the road last week.
Freshman quarterback Brett Smith stole the show against the Aztecs, completing 25-of-36 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for a pair of scores.
Patterson said because of his strength and youth, Smith doesn’t let the big game pressures get to him as much as some quarterbacks would.
“He’s big and a hard runner,” Patterson said. “He’s very competitive. He’s young, but it doesn’t look like the game really bothers him that much. They are senior-oriented. They have two big defensive ends who can really play on a defense that’s been playing very hard. They have two big running backs who can run the read-option. They’ve made themselves better at wide receiver. It’s the best offense I’ve seen there in three or four years.”