Video: Baylor Linebacker Trips Over 22 Yard-Line

Enjoy:

College Football Notebook: Week 1 Review

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Here are a few takeaways from the first weekend of college football:

+ Don't get me wrong; I absolutely adore the Mark Herzlich story. So great to see the Boston College linebacker suited up and flying around on Saturday. But do you think his story would get as much attention if he was, say, a Miami wideout?

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No. 10: TCU Horned Frogs

The One Great Season College Football Countdown continues Monday. We'll be counting down the preseason Top 25 teams in 2010. Today's No. 10 is TCU.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Texas Christian's calling card in coach Gary Patterson's nine years there has been its defense, but last year's offense woke up and showed a similar ability to dominate.

And with dual-threat quarterback Andy Dalton leading a unit that returns nine starters, the Horned Frogs seem poised to better their nearly 40-points-per-game average from a year ago.

With a pair of 600-yard rushers returning in 2010, as well as four wideouts who combined for 133 catches and more than 1,900 yards last season, the TCU offense should sing. And it will do so with a very experienced offensive line that could be among the nation's finest. Marcus Cannon and Jake Kirkpatrick are studs up front.

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Gameday Gallery: Utah at TCU

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

BROOKLYN -- Yeah, that's right. I'm in Brooklyn.

After two hours of sleep last night, I got to DFW Airport at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday, and promptly learned the flight I'd booked two days earlier was actually for first thing Monday morning. A couple hundred bucks later, Jane at the U.S. Airways desk had me on a 7 a.m. flight for Hartford.

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MORE GALLERIES: Hot Girls | Celebrities

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I got into Connecticut, where I'll be covering Harvard-Yale this week, at about 2 p.m. and arrived at my apartment in Brooklyn a few hours later. It's the first time I've been home since late August.

Anyway, after some pizza and a nap, I finally got the Gameday Gallery ready for you to enjoy. It was quite a game in Fort Worth, and TCU seems a complete enough team that the Horned Frogs can compete against anybody in a national championship game. They're no longer a cute little defense-only program. They've got speed, power and finesse on offense to complement that nasty defense. I'm certainly a fan. That is a legit football team and I think TCU would give the top three a better game than Cincinnati or Boise State would.

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OK, so here's the Gameday Gallery. Check back Tuesday for an updated Hot Girls Of College Football gallery. Also on tap this week is a recap of my Kirk Herbstreit interview ... that never happened, as well as a friend's description of getting kicked out of Notre Dame Stadium during last week's loss to Navy.

TCU Races Way To Stylish Thrashing Of Utah

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Twenty-four hours after Cincinnati couldn't turn the trick, its third-wheel rival TCU earned some much-needed style points by spanking a ranked conference foe.

Utah Week became Hype Week around Fort Worth over the last few days, and the Horned Frogs were up to the task. They scored early and very often and drilled their Mountain West Conference rivals, 55-28, to improve to 10-0 and 6-0 in the league.

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"If the nation didn't think that this was enough style points, then I don't know what is," coach Gary Patterson told the Associated Press after the game.

On its own home field Friday night, Cincinnati struggled with West Virginia and didn't seal its 24-21 win until the Bearcats recovered an onside kick in the final minute.

After the Utes tied the game, 7-7, TCU scored four straight touchdowns and eventually took a 38-14 lead into halftime.

Utah trotted back out for the second half, but the visitors looked so discouraged in doing so that it nearly seemed a surprise that they did. While the Horned Frogs kept their webbed feet on the gas offensively in the first 30 minutes, they were just as relentless on defense. All-American defensive end Jerry Hughes was in the Utes' backfield about as often as their running backs.

But back to that offense; TCU rolled up 549 yards, including 342 on the ground. Six different players scored touchdowns, including Matthew Tucker, who had the team's first and final scores.

Tank Carder returned an interception 15 yards for a touchdown during the second-quarter onslaught.

Quarterback Andy Dalton threw for 207 yards and a touchdown, and led an offense that converted seven-of-13 third downs.

Up next: Sunday's updated BCS rankings, in which the Horned Frogs will likely stay at No. 4, followed by the Bearcats and then Boise State, which hammered Idaho, 63-25. Cincinnati is the only team of the trio that has a ranked opponent on its remaining schedule (at Pittsburgh, Dec. 5).

More notes from Fort Worth:

+ The drawback to TCU's success: It will be more difficult for the Horned Frogs to get elite non-conference foes on future September schedules. But Texas could certainly spice up its own non-league dockets. Um, Mack Brown, Courage is on Line 1.

+ The Gameday Gallery will be published Sunday afternoon.

+ The Hot Girls Of College Football gallery will be published Monday or Tuesday. You definitely want to check back for that; TCU's spirit squads are easily the prettiest I've seen on the tour this year. And remember, I've been to three USC games times this season.

+ The OGS tour is en route to New Haven, Conn., to see the great Harvard-Yale rivalry next weekend. Extra bonus? I get to sleep in my own bed in Brooklyn for the first time since August.

+ Goodnight.

TCU Video: Red-Heads And Superman Underwear

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jerry Hughes is everybody's All-American. The TCU defensive end led the nation in sacks as a junior last  year and is again among the leaders this season. He's the best defensive player on one of the best defenses in the country, and is expected to be a first-round pick in next year's NFL draft.

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DISCUSSION: What Would Your GameDay Sign Read?

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And he might be a little more creative than he thinks. At TCU's weekly media luncheon on Tuesday, Hughes talked a little bit about all the hype surrounding the No. 4 Horned Frogs' huge game Saturday against Utah. Nike is outfitting TCU in brand-new uniforms, ESPN's College GameDay is here and there looks to be an amount of media hype more appropriate for a game a few hours to the south in Austin.

Anyway, as GameDay is known for its signs -- "Charlie ate my other stadium", "Corso has a baby's arm", "Stoops drives a minivan" -- Hughes was asked what kind of sign he would bring if he wasn't planning on tormenting the Utes Saturday and was able to participate in the on-campus shenanigans that morning.

In the video below, Hughes said he'd give a shout-out to ginger-topped TCU quarterback Andy Dalton, who counters in the second video below Hughes that he'd return the props:

TCU Coach: Horned Frogs = Cinderella

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Gary Patterson is just like every other coach I've seen on the OGS tour all season. He keeps his laser focused only on his team's  upcoming game and won't be baited into talking about opponents other than the next one.

But he did allow himself -- albeit briefly -- to take a humorous look at how he hopes the remainder of the regular season will play out for his No. 4 Horned Frogs.

Reaching into his repertoire of metaphors, Patterson went all Cinderella on a room full of reporters Tuesday, saying his TCU squad would hope to just get an invitation to the ball if it wins its final three games. The ball, or the BCS National Championship game, is a dance to which his Horned Frogs will not necessarily have a date even if they finish 12-0.

Enjoy the video from today's press conference immediately below, and in the second clip below that, Patterson reviews the new helmet that TCU will be rockin' in Saturday's pivotal MWC tilt against visiting Utah, thanks to the fine folks at Nike.

Tuesday Notebook: Eugene, BCS and Sam Bradford

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

EUGENE, Oregon -- I made it.

After waking up Monday in Cincinnati, driving to Dayton, flying to Washington, D.C., flying to Phoenix, flying to Portland and crashing at a hotel there late last night, I drove down picturesque Interstate 5 this afternoon and arrived at my hotel at about 5 p.m. Pacific time.

I can tell the Canon 50D is going to be busier this week than my liver was last week. Great to see old friends in the Queen City, sure, but equally certain is how badly I need a break from all that fun, and signs point to such relief here in this sleepy pocket of the very scenic Pacific Northwest where I know exactly nobody.

Efforts to secure a credential for Saturday's USC at Oregon game have been shut down, but the investigation into a reasonably priced single ticket is pending. Not only will this game likely decide the PAC 10 champion, but it's Halloween and the fans at Autzen Stadium are notorious party people, so keep your eyes open for some good imagery this weekend.

Until then, it looks like I'll get some post-practice interviews Wednesday, but before I get that far, here are some other tidbits to consider this week:

+ Many are talking about how a USC win makes it a serious BCS National Championship game contender, but you know what? I'll say the same about the Trojans' opponent Saturday. Oregon is No. 10 in the BCS rankings, and beating Pete Carroll's highly ranked USC gang would shoot those Ducks squarely into the mix, and very deservedly so.

+ Wouldn't it be funny to see Oregon leapfrog ahead of Boise State in the BCS standings?

+ Iowa, Cincinnati, Boise State and TCU are the second-tier contenders for a spot in the BCS title game. Those entirely in control of their destiny include Florida, Alabama, Texas and most likely LSU and possibly USC. I think Florida or Alabama might actually need to lose twice for one of those second-tier squads to jump ahead. That means that heading into the last month of the season, no fewer than seven and maybe as many as nine losses are needed among the elite names currently among the Top 10 for, say, Iowa or Cincinnati to earn a trip to Pasadena. Such a feat would be just as dramatic than what happened down the stretch in 2007. But don't expect that scenario to materialize. I still think it's going to be Florida and Texas, though I'd prefer to watch Florida and USC.

+ Please stop with the second-guessing of Sam Bradford. Too often we hear the TV pretties talk about the importance of staying in school to get that education, if not to at least enjoy the college experience. Bradford did exactly that, and now Todd McShay, who I typically like, leads the pack of those repeatedly broadcasting the disappointing truths about millions of dollars lost. Tyler Hansbrough came back twice when experts thought he was ready for the next level, and the only reason people don't rip him is because he didn't get hurt. Don't go hindsight and blast a kid barely out of his teens for wanting more school. Bradford knows his decision to stay will cost him in the long run, but he'll still be a good NFL quarterback.