Early word from Camp GP this week was that Andy Dalton's late-4th quarter knee injury against Oklahoma wasn't serious and that he'd be good to go on Saturday against San Diego State. Word now is that our favorite ginger-headed QB did not practice Wednesday and that his status for Saturday is "unknown". If unavailable, the Frogs would turn to Junior Marcus Jackson.
The good news is that, under Patterson's regime, TCU's backups have faired well when replacing an injured starter- Sean Stilley, Tye Gunn, Sean Stilley again, Tye Gunn again, Brandon Hassell, Tye Gunn again, Brandon Hassell again, Kyle Kummer (I bet you didn't remember he started against Army in '04), Jeff Ballard and even Jackson himself in a comeback win at Baylor to open the 2006 season.
On the season, Jackson has appeared in 4 of the team's 5 games and is 9-of-17 passing for 91 yards with 2 TD's and 1 INT. He is also the Frogs' 4th-leading rusher with 16 carries for 167 yards...79 of which came on his touchdown run against SMU.
We've all seen MJ play and I think we can all agree that he's perfectly capable of taking over and leading the Frogs to victory in nearly (if not all) games that Dalton could. What could become an issue, though, is our QB depth behind him. Freshman Yogi Gallegos is the only other scholarship quarterback on the roster, and by all accounts the coaching staff wants to avoid having to burn his redshirt unless absolutely necessary. Should we need to turn to a 3rd-string quarterback, don't be surprised if you see Jeremy Kerley- an oustanding high school QB at Hutto- behind center.
