Frogs set to begin conference schedule
9/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 10, 2007
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FORT WORTH--After a pair of emotional in-state games against former Southwest Conference rivals Baylor and Texas, the TCU football team has a short week as it travels to Air Force for a nationally-televised Thursday night contest.
TCU is 5-1 in short-week games in Gary Patterson's seven seasons as head coach.
In its last official short-week game (Sept. 9, 2006), TCU followed a Sunday season-opening 17-7 victory at Baylor with a 46-13 win over UC Davis.
Even though it played a pair of Thursday games last year, both contests were not short weeks. The Frogs' first Thursday contest in 2006, a home date with BYU, came after an open week. TCU then played the following Thursday at Utah.
The Frogs' last short-week Thursday game came in 2005. After a loss at SMU (Saturday, Sept. 10), TCU rebounded with a Thursday 23-20 overtime win over Utah to snap the Utes' 18-game winning streak. It was TCU's first-ever Mountain West Conference game.
The Frogs are beginning their third season in the MWC. TCU is 14-2 in its opening two years of league action.
Gary Patterson is 2-0 as a head coach versus Air Force. As an assistant coach, Patterson was 1-1 against the Falcons. He was the Frogs' defensive coordinator in 1998 when TCU won 35-34 in Fort Worth. Patterson was Navy's secondary coach in 1995 when Air Force posted a 30-20 victory.
As a head coach, Gary Patterson has a 9-0 record against the service academies (6-0 versus Army, 2-0 against Air Force and 1-0 versus Navy).
KEY NOTES
TCU had a nine-game winning streak, fourth-longest in the nation, snapped last week at Texas. It was just the Frogs' fourth loss in their last 27 games.
In the first half of its last 10 contests, TCU has outscored its opponents 216-13.
With Gary Patterson as head coach, TCU is 37-0 when allowing 17 points or less. Overall, the Frogs have won 52 consecutive games when holding the opponent to 17-or-fewer points. The streak began after a 17-7 loss at Northwestern on Sept. 11, 1999.
THE SERIES
TCU holds a 4-1-1 lead over Air Force in a series that began with a scoreless tie in the 1959 Cotton Bowl.
Since beginning Mountain West Conference play, TCU is 2-0 versus Air Force. The Frogs won 48-10 in Colorado Springs in 2005 and 38-14 in last year's regular-season finale in Fort Worth.
Dating back to 1989, TCU has a four-game winning streak over Air Force.
The Frogs are 3-0 versus Air Force in Fort Worth, 1-1 in Colorado Springs and 0-0-1 at neutral sites (Dallas).
