During the 12-year (and counting) tenure of head coach Gary Patterson of the football team at Texas Christian University, he\u2019s always made sure his squad brings it\u2019s A-game when the nation\u2019s elite competitors were in town. That sort of caged-animal, \u201cnever say die\u201d attitude is what precipitates TCU\u2019s move from the Mountain West to the Big 12 this season. This is a tough program that relishes the chance to play the Oklahomas and Texases of the world. <\/p>\n
Big 12 2012-13 Football Previews: TCU Horned Frogs<\/strong> Hopefully it\u2019s not a case of \u201cbe careful what you wish for,\u201d as TCU will be squaring off against those blue-chip programs every year now. If history is any indication, Patterson has his teams playing above their heads; they come from the mid-major Mountain West and were a missed FG in the Big 12 title game away from playing in the National Championship in 2009 (they ended up in the Fiesta Bowl, and followed that up with a Rose Bowl appearance in 2010). We\u2019ll see what the team is really made of in its new conference.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to not be at least reasonably confident when you have a guy like QB Casey Pachall under center. Pachall may be even better than record-setting pivot Andy Dalton, who is currently starting for the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL. He finished just shy of 3,000 yards passing on the season with 25 TDs last year, and that is with one of the deepest RB corps in the nation. He goes at 6\u201d5, 216-lbs and possesses next-level athletic ability. He should continue to flourish as a junior.<\/p>\n Like I said, the RBs are deeper than you would ever need them. Even if there were an injury to the top guy, the unit would still have depth. So much so, in fact, that last year\u2019s leading rusher (then-sophomore Waymon James) will likely be third on the depth chart in \u201912. The carries will be shared by James and seniors Ed Wesley, Matthew Tucker and UCLA transfer Aundre Dean. The top three leading receivers return, but look out for redshirt freshman LaDarius Brown, who is 6\u201d4, 220-lbs, but also has sub-4.5 speed. Brown has unbelievable physical tools and should contribute before long. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Even with a lot of attrition to graduating, the defense might be stronger in 2012. Defensive end Stansly Maponga is a beast who had nine sacks in \u201911 and should improve still. Defensive end\/DT \u2018tweener David Johnson is also an animal, and joins Maponga in what should be a formidable defensive line for the Horned Frogs. Outside \u2018backer Kenny Cain is a tackling machine, as is sophomore safety Jonathan Anderson.<\/p>\n 2012-13 TCU Football Prediction: 8-5<\/p>\n TCU\u2019s 2012 schedule is difficult, but it is very bottom-heavy. It\u2019s quite possible that the Horned Frogs could start out the season 7-0; Baylor or the ACC\u2019s Virginia Cavaliers probably pose the starkest threat in those games, and neither team is particularly strong this year. After that, though, it\u2019s an absolute gauntlet. With road games at Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Texas to go with home contests with Kansas State and Oklahoma, that\u2019s when the real flavor of the Big 12 will settle with Patterson and his kids.<\/p>\n I could see the Frogs grabbing six or seven victories from their first seven contests, but then only wresting one or two wins away from the big boys in their remaining games. It will be damn-near impossible to duplicate 2011\u2019s fantastic 11-2 finish.<\/p>\n 9\/8\/12\t TBD\tGRAMB 2012-13 Football Previews (Big 12) \u2013 TCU During the 12-year (and counting) tenure of head coach Gary Patterson of the football team at Texas Christian University, he\u2019s always made sure his squad brings it\u2019s A-game when the nation\u2019s elite competitors were in town. That sort of caged-animal, \u201cnever say die\u201d attitude is what precipitates TCU\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":29610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[39626,324,327,769,17437,56130,2584,6178,15172,56166,56167],"class_list":["post-54237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-39626","tag-college-football-odds","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-ncaa-football-picks","tag-ncaa-odds","tag-ncaa-predictions","tag-tcu","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-tcu-horned-frogs-odds","tag-tcu-horned-frogs-predictions","tag-tcu-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54248,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54237\/revisions\/54248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCoach: <\/strong>Gary Patterson
\n2011 Record: <\/strong>11-2
\nTCU Gambling Odds from Sportsbook.com to win BCS: 75-1 <\/strong><\/p>\n2012 TCU Schedule<\/h3>\n
\n9\/15\/12\t TBD\t @KANS
\n9\/22\/12\t TBD\tVIRG
\n9\/29\/12\t TBD\t @SMU
\n10\/6\/12\t TBD\tIOWST
\n10\/13\/12\t TBD\t @BAY
\n10\/20\/12\t TBD\tTXTCH
\n10\/27\/12\t TBD\t @OKLST
\n11\/3\/12\t TBD\t @WVIRG
\n11\/10\/12\t TBD\tKANST
\n11\/24\/12\t TBD\t @TEXAS
\n12\/1\/12\t TBD\tOKLA<\/p>\nGRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"