Texas Christian @ Colorado State preview
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium
Last Meeting ( Oct 17, 2009 ) Colorado State 6, Texas Christian 44
TCU hasn’t been out of the state of Texas yet this season. That changes this week.
No. 5 TCU (4-0) travels to Fort Collins. Colo., to open Mountain West play against Colorado State (1-3).
The Frogs should feel good going into it, too. They have won the past six meetings against the Rams. Last year, TCU rolled to a 44-6 victory at home.
TCU is also coming off a 41-24 victory over rival SMU, although that game has largely been viewed as a disappointment. The Frogs could have made a major statement on national TV, but struggled for most of the game.
But by the end of the weekend, TCU’s victory wasn’t too bad compared to Texas’ loss to UCLA, and the general consensus now is that TCU is the best team in the state.
Against SMU, senior quarterback Andy Dalton had one of his worst performances in recent memory, completing 14 of 26 passes for 174 yards with one touchdown pass and two interceptions. His touchdown pass came at a critical time, though.
After the Mustangs took a lead in the third quarter, Dalton capitalized on a long kickoff return from Jeremy Kerley and found Bart Johnson on an 11-yard touchdown strike to give the Frogs a lead they wouldn’t surrender.
Kerley ended up being the star of the game for TCU, setting a career-high with 234 all-purpose yards. He had 172 yards on kickoff returns, 23 on punt returns, 33 receiving and six rushing.
The ground game came through for the Frogs as well. Freshman running back Waymon James had scoring runs of 4 and 9 yards. Luke Shivers and Matthew Tucker each had touchdown runs.
Defensively, TCU gave up its most points to date. But senior defensive back Tejay Johnson made up for it with a 19-yard interception return for a touchdown to seal the Frogs’ victory. Johnson finished the game with nine pass breakups.
Colorado State, meanwhile, hopes to find some magic to open conference play with a victory. For what it’s worth, the last time the Rams began conference play at home, they defeated UNLV in 2008. More importantly, Colorado State won its first game of the season last week, holding on for a 36-34 victory over Idaho.
Rams freshman quarterback Pete Thomas had 386 passing yards, the most in school history since 2005, and earned his first collegiate victory. Junior running back Raymond Carter had 100 yards both rushing and receiving, the first player to do that since Lawrence McCutcheon in 1970.
Defensively, the Rams will likely be without defensive end Eugene Daniels again as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury, and will need a spirited effort to keep the Frogs’ offense in check.
Finally, Colorado State has lost its last nine games against ranked opponents. But the Rams did pull off an upset of No. 6 Colorado in 2002, prevailing in a 19-14 victory.