Frog Talk / Ask-a-Frog: The "You don't know who you're dealing with" Game

Capt'n S. "Pretty Normal" Nix

Man, lots of hate going around this week. Yesterday we saw a middle age man declare both cyber AND real life physical warfare on a recent college grad VIA HIS FACEBOOK ACCOUNT...AND he's a Frog fan...AND it was all over a charity to help the Frogs. Man, crazy times...I for one am reserving my hate for UNLV- so let's get to it, and for those new friends who've never read a Frog Talk installment, I'm going to apologize for our two guests ahead of time, they are vulgar, sexist, maybe vile, and absolutely offensive.

FKASchultzHater: Dictionary Definition: "Scott Nix'ed": Whenever a person, typically an older man with small man's syndrome, is given power or perceived power, and uses it to demean, control, and insult other people providing himself with some sort of personal gratification that he is not getting anywhere else in his life...

Disciples of GP: Often they overestimate their power, and their charming personality is usually accompanied by a ridiculously uncalled for threat. Reason, quick wit, and the suggestion of a spelling contest can usually unnerve them. Have you ever been "scott nix'ed"?

FKASchultzHater: Yes, 5 weeks ago, it's 8am and I am on the way to work, I get pulled over, I am a little far from the curb, so I move over a couple feet, cop walks up, protruding belly and "power" mustache on display, and claims I might have been evading arrest. I explain I was just trying to get further off the road and "evading arrest" is a bit crazy.......he then accuses me of drinking (8am). He slaps me with a speeding ticket and insurance ticket (expired card of course). He actually asks me "what is in my coffee" after I volunteer a breathalyzer test, he smirks, gives me a "I'm gonna let you go this time" look and 'waddles' back to his car. It took 30 mintues. This was 5 weeks ago....I got "Scott nix'ed". How about you?

Disciples of GP: Airport Security and the TABC seem to have institutionalized that behavior. Of course your reference to the cop power trip is all too familiar, ask Ryan Moats. Do you realize this game is on Halloween...spooky scary...will there be a lot of costumed goblins in the stands?

FKASchultzHater: Not sure, but I know at least 15 students will be dressed as gay cowboys...

Disciples of GP: Yeah, what is up with those guys? Looks like they're trying to create the UT Silver Spurs/Cowboys here at TCU....no thanks, if you want UT traditions grab your frisbee golf disk and Nancy Pelosi coffee mug and take your smug hybrid driving ass down to that Cal Berkeley sleeper cell in Austin. What do you know about this broke back group?

FKASchultzHater: From what I understand they will be holding the first recruitment in the spring "open to everybody, including women" Seriously it looks like they consulted a gay hairdresser for costume design. I bet the pledgeship will consist of some sort of community service point system, where they give you smiley faces on a chart every week. At least they're trying to do something positive for the Frogs...I guess...

Disciples of GP: Yeah...I guess. What girls will UNLV bring to the game? How do I hit on them?

FKASchultzHater: Remember going to the Clubhouse? Probably not, but you can sit outside and smoke cigarettes with the dancers. It was there I learned that sometimes you can just say anything....and the girl can say anything, and true, untrue (dancers: "med students"), and after that night, it doesn't matter.........so, just say anything you want, clever, funny or neither – whatever. Just nothing offensive, cause med students are great.

Disciples of GP: It may be cliché, but how can you not talk Vegas when you talk about UNLV?? I mean how can you possibly spend the crazy days of your college life in a city where- "last night I blew my life savings playing blackjack and had sex with a Nubian street hooker using a shower cap as a carney"- is so commonplace, that the entire city embraces a nationwide "what happens in Vegas..." marketing campaign to encourage that behavior?

FKASchultzHater: I can only handle Vegas for 3 days and then I have "the fear" for a month, I come home broke and morally hungover, if you go to school there, you are living on a level I will never know.

Know Thy Enemy:

Disciples of GP: I'm pretty sure if we got to know UNLV fans we'd hate them. With 28k students, Tumbleweed Tech (as they used to be called until Texas Tech got an injunction) has a long and illustrious football history that began in 1968- since then they have been to 3 bowls (2 of which were the Vegas Bowl).

DFW actually has some 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon relationships with these desert people. For instance, Walker Texas Ranger "Jimmy" Trivette teaches at UNLV, Leon Lett jst earned his degree (a ringing endorsement for any academic institution), Shawn Marion played there, and so did local pro golfer Chad Campbell, but who is your favorite UNLV personality in these categories?

-Football: Randall Cunningham or "Ickey" Woods

-Music Industry: Suge Knight (played football) or Flo Rida

-Basketball: Jerry "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian or Larry "Grandmama" Johnson

-Person to drink with: Adam Scott or Jimmy Kimmel

FKASchultzHater: "Ickey Shuffle", Death Row Records, Shark, and of course Kimmel- and I hope no one reading this would choose Scott over Kimmel....Hey, isn't the UNLV mascot a confederate rebel? How do they get away with that?

Disciples of GP: 'Hey Reb!', their mascot, was originally a black and white anthropomorphized wolf in a Confederate gray uniform named Beauregard. This was chosen as a jab at the mascot of in-state rival University of NV, Reno, which had a similar mascot but in a Union uniform. This is all rather ironic b/c the state of Nevada didn't even exist during the Civil War (it was part of what was regarded as "Utah Territory"). Anyways, Beauregard stayed until the 1970s, when a group of black athletes pointed out that it was racist. The athletic department toyed w/ rebranding to a sexual pun and calling the team the Minutemen, but ultimately decided on a Colonial-like Rebel..."Hey Reb!". The lesson: "Rebel" is ok as long as it's Colonial and not Civil War. Interestingly, this new "Colonial" Rebel still has a grey hat...and his colors are red...which if I recall my "Colonial" history correctly...weren't the British the redcoats, not the Colonialist Rebels??? If I'm not mistaken, this new 'Colonial' Rebel is still Beauregard, but 100% human instead of part wolf and part human....so maybe the lesson is racist wolf-human mascots are not ok...I'm not sure...

FKASchultzHater: Let's play a game- You might be a Scott Nix if.......

-You yelled at a baby making too much noise at a restaurant that's not your own

-You give overly strong and uncomfortable handshakes to everybody masking your inner weakness

-In little league baseball, you paid the refs to call strikes while your son was pitching

-When people think of you, they think of this guy

Game 8 Preview: UNLV Rebels

Even the Gambler can't pull for the home team in this one.

In the wake of yesterday’s little skirmish between ourselves and the KFCs, some of you may have forgotten that, hey, we have a game this weekend! By normal standards this isn’t a huge game, but when you’re the 6^th ranked team in the country, I suppose every game becomes the biggest game of the season, and UNLV, despite their record, shouldn’t be taken lightly. Sure, we’ve won every single game against them since joining the MWC, and yes, we’ve beaten them by a lot of touchdowns in those games – including the 51-3 pasting of 2005, otherwise known as the time Jeff Ballard tea bagged an entire division 1 football team. Still, as lyle has pointed out, these are the times when highly ranked teams have to be the most careful because even a bad team can catch fire in a bottle.

Before I get into it though, I definitely want to give a big thanks to everyone who has contributed to the spitblood Purple People Seaters fundraiser. Despite all of yesterday’s muckraking – or, perhaps, as a result of it – you guys really have come through for a great cause and we thank you. $1000 after the first day blew my mind, and I figured everyone had donated that day and the contributions would level out, but we doubled that the next day and it looks like $5000 before the New Mexico game is a bit short sighted. A very special thanks goes out to Mr. Scott Nix who, thanks to his elitist, immature and fascist ways, is directly responsible for driving a record number of visitors to our site yesterday, and, although I can’t be for certain, I’d have to imagine some of those newcomers were also in on the donations. I think I mentioned it in the comments, but just wanted to be sure everyone knows that Killerfrogs does a morning dump of their own which includes articles from the Skiff. I’ll give you two guesses about whether or not they included the Skiff article praising us or not, and I’ll spot you the first one if your guess was “yes.” The fact is, at the heart of it all, they know we’re doing a great thing and it’s pretty sad that they’re too proud to acknowledge it. If the definition of being a “punk” and “trash” is going out and raising money to help our team and underprivilidged kids, then perhaps there is hope for young Latarian Milton and his hoodrat friends. Anyway, I’m not running my mouth/fingers behind a computer, I just wanted to bring that to light. On with the preview.

Offense – Every year it seems like we hear that UNLV is going to be the team that breaks up the MWC triumvirate, and every year it seems like they hit a bump in the road/schedule and fade into oblivion. I have no doubt that Omar Clayton is a solid QB; we just haven’t seen it yet. They do have Ryan Wolfe, though, and there’s no denying that he can play and he may end his career as the most prolific wide receiver to ever play in our conference. The problem with that situation, though, is that Wolfe has to have a quarterback throw the ball to him in order to make plays, and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of time our defense gives Omar Clayton to get passes off. For the year, UNLV sits pretty middle of the pack on offense, averaging 382 total yards and 27 points a game, good for 57^th and 59^th respectively. They do have a decent passing game as they average 272 yards, 29^th overall, but their run game leaves a lot to be desired – 120 yards, 94^th nationally. Statistically, they’re a poor man’s BYU, and that doesn’t bode well for anyone. Omar Clayton has 1663 yards and 10 TDs on the season, but has thrown 9 INTs. Wolfe has 61 receptions for 657 yards and 2 TDs. That’s good for a 10.8 yard average per catch, which ain’t too shabby. Running back Channing Trotter leads the team in rushing with 422 yards on the year and 7 TDs. If you do the math, that’s about 53 yards per game, which probably won’t cut it against this defense.

Since we do it every week, I’m going to give a quick rundown of what we do, as it hasn’t changed all that much. TCU is 22^nd in overall offense, 69^th in passing offense – the Dalton haters use that stat as lube – 13^th in rushing and 16^th in points scored. Do we win in all the head to head aspects? Yes. Are there any real wild cards to consider? Actually, yes, and they’re pretty big.

Number one – Omar Clayton revenge factor. Omar Clayton’s career has been plagued by injuries, but last year the Rebels were having a pretty decent season and headed towards bowl eligibility when the Frogs came in town and left with a win… and Clayton’s ACL. I can’t remember who put the hit on him, but I do know that it ended his season. Depending on what kind of player he is - and I like to think he’s not as skittish as Max Hall, but who knows - this fact will either drive him to come out and show us up, or will keep him spooked and scrambling all night. I don’t know that he has the skills to make things interesting, but it’s amazing what inherent inspiration can do for a player.

Number two – complacency. I know, I know, GP is a fantastic motivator and doesn’t overlook anyone, but with a potentially tough test coming up in San Diego next weekend, not to mention the weekend following, this is the Frog’s last chance to really let one get by them. We’ve been plagued by slow starts all year until last week, and this would be an easy game for us to fall back into that trap. Even if it happens, do I think we have the offense to overcome it? Well, duh. Still, something to look out for just in case our defense does the unthinkable and takes a few early drives off.

Edge – Frogs.

Defense – Typically in these things, I try and make a case, no matter how small, for the other team in comparison to the Frogs. Sometimes it’s easy – such as the BYU game – but other times, it’s hard – such as the Texas State or SMU games. I gave these guys the benefit of the doubt offensively, but I simply can’t do the same here. Nevermind that our defense is solid; these guys don’t even come close. It’s almost quitting time, so let’s just go head to head here. Points D: TCU – 12.7, UNLV – 32.9. Total D: TCU – 246.6, UNLV – 433.8. Rush D: TCU – 85.29, UNLV – 190.13. Pass D: TCU - 161.29, UNLV – 243.63. So… yeah. They have a pretty solid linebacker in Jason Beauchamp… and that’s about it. I mean, they’re easily the worst defense in the conference, and very, very close to scraping bottom in all of division I. I really don’t feel like I need to justify this call.

Edge – Frogs.

Special Teams – Hey! They got us in something! The punting average numbers are pretty diverging as TCU averages 36.3 yards per punt, which is just about dead last nationally. UNLV is actually close to the top in this, with 42.6. They even have fewer punts than we do, which is strange given their offense isn’t particularly daunting.

Kicking, Ross Evans has admittedly been better than we give him credit for, although I don’t see how you can miss PATs like he does. For the year, he’s 7/8 on FGs, but 28/30 on PATs. He hit all 5 of them last week, though, and it looks like he’ll have even more opportunities this week, so let’s hope he makes the most of them. On the season for the Rebels, Kyle Watson has hit only 8/11 field goals, but has made all 26 of his PATs. I’m going with the push here.

Returning, do I speak his name???? Kerley didn’t have a lot of opportunities to field punts or kicks last weekend, but he still averages 16.8 yards per punt return with the two TDs and 27 yards per kick return. Greg McCoy averages 33 yards per kick return, which is awesome. Ryan Wolfe returns punts for the Rebels, but hasn’t made the most of them, averaging only 6.7 yards per return. It should be mentioned that Rebel punt returners have only returned 6 punts, which suggests that their opponents are mostly scoring on them rather than punting the ball away. Returning kicks, Deante Purvis looks like the man, as he averages 24 yards per return with one TD. Umm… yeah, think you know how I’m voting.

Edge – Frogs.

Overall - I know I shouldn’t be overconfident, but I’d be lying if I said the hardest part was picking a winner of this game instead of saying that hardest part is picking how much the Frogs are going to win by. Comparitively speaking, UNLV got smashed 59-21 by BYU at home. So, if you look at it that way, you’d have to say we’re going to win something like 90-10 – but, we saw how trying to draw those comparisons worked out for Tetch against aggy last weekend, so let’s shy away. On the year, UNLV has only given up 11 sacks, but we have totaled 26 as a team, so something has to give. These guys are going to try and pass the ball on us because, honestly, they won’t be able to run it as they haven’t run it on anyone all year. It’s hard to compare this game to last week because Omar Clayton isn’t a big, lumbering robot QB like Max Hall and will tuck the ball and run if necessary. This is something we will need to keep an eye on and I think we’d be well suited keeping a linebacker in as a spy on obvious passing downs so they don’t beat us with scrambles or screens. Everything is going to hinge on how well our secondary handles Ryan Wolfe, but seeing as how we completely shut down a solid passing attack last week, I don’t see them doing anything too extravagant.

When the Frogs are on offense, though, is where the difference will be made. The spread is 35 points for a reason – our offense should have a record day against this soft defense. Unless we have a brain fart or are simply content to milk a mediocre lead, there’s no reason why we can’t score 60.

I’ll give UNLV the benefit of the doubt and say they may score a few points… once we pull the starters. Frogs roll BIG in this one.

The Pick – Frogs 49, Rebels 10.

Looks like there could be a rumble in Lot 3 tomorrow – I suggest you be around to see how it plays out. Go Frogs!

Spitblood Predictions: UNLV

You know who you are. Don't worry, I'm not going to rat you out, but I do know that one of you stole a sports almanac from the year 2015 and is planning to sneak back to the past to give it to a younger version of yourself, thereby enabling you to build a massive fortune through gambling. I just thought that maybe before you do so, and end up opening your own casino and marrying Marty's mom, you could throw us all a bone and tell us about tomorrow's game against UNLV?

Just let us know the final score, and who's going to stand out on offense, defense and special teams. And since attendance is always an issue with TCU, let us know what the crowd is going to be like, too.

Vote for Jerry Hughes for the Lowe's Senior Class Award.

Jerry Hughes accepting the Bank of America 2009 Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Award as a Local Hero of Tarrant County

"The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award is presented each year to the outstanding senior NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year across nine different sports. The acronym “CLASS” stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School™.

The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award celebrates the loyalty of seniors that honor a four-year commitment to their university. The Senior CLASS Award™ recognizes these student-athletes for great achievement during competition and in their community while staying in school.

Award winners are determined by a selection process that includes, NCAA Division I college coaches in each respective sport, national media, and fans. The voting process determines the winner in addition to a Senior CLASS All-America Team.

Public fan voting via text messaging and on the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award web site takes place each year during the month leading up to the NCAA Championship."

Vote Here or you can text your vote to 74567

Have GP's words fallen on deaf ears?

Earlier this week, Coach Patterson put the call out to fans to fill up Amon G. Carter Stadium for the three remaining home games...but have fans heeded his word?

Sure, there was the outpouring of support for Spitblood's drive to raise money for Purple People Seaters. $2,200 in two days is pretty good for a "two-bit" website such as our own. There was also a word-of-mouth initiative that thousands of Frog fans have gotten on board with on Facebook, urging fans to "Get your ass in the stands". Additionally, there is just a general, un-quantifiable (that's a word, right?) buzz about the remaining games amongst die-hards and casual fans alike that gives you the feeling that the atmosphere surrounding the last three home games is going to be different.

But after I went to the website for the TCU Ticket Office this morning and ran a check to see what the best seats available in every section of the stadium were, I was pretty disappointed. Sections D & E are the only sections in the entire stadium that are sold out, and most sections have a depressing amount of open space still available. When I compared the results of my search to what had been the results of a similar search made the day before the Colorado State game (by an "ACrooFrog", found in a thread over on The Eastern Bloc), I found that the figures are nearly identical. The attendance for that CSU game? Just over 31,000.

So what are we to read into the situation? Have GP's words really just fallen upon deaf ears? Is it just completely impossible to get a decent crowd at a TCU football game? I find that really hard to believe, because like I said earlier, there does seem to be a general buzz about this team. A quick look at the best seats available for the still-weeks-away Utah game would indicate that game is well on it's way to selling out.

But what about the UNLV game? In the Star-Telegram article in which GP made his plea, a TCU representative stated that they were expecting a crowd "of about 35,000". You would think that Patterson's words, combined with the word-of-mouth effort of mass-emails and facebook peer pressure would be worth at least 4,000-5,000 fans on top of that, right? But the ticket sales being very comparable to the CSU game certainly do not bode well. Perhaps there will be a good solid number of people who buy their tickets as they get to the stadium tomorrow. I certainly hope that's the case, but however many fans end up in Amon G. Carter to watch the Frogs take on UNLV tomorrow, they need to be ready & willing to make it sound like there are more.

Odds from Vegas

Full Story Here from Kansas City.com


An interesting poll came across the desk earlier this week. Not the lists of the BCS, Harris Interactive, USA Today coaches or The Associated Press. Not any of the computer polls.

This one originates in Las Vegas, is established by oddsmakers and has Oklahoma tied for fifth in the nation with TCU.

What this means is the folks to set the betting lines would make Oklahoma a favorite on a neutral field against all but four teams — Florida, Texas, Alabama and Southern California. It doesn’t care that the Sooners are 4-3 and absent from several other polls.


The article was written for Oklahoma obviously, but since they are tied at 5th the same could be said about TCU.


Complete Poll Here

SpitBlood and Purple People Seaters in The Skiff

In just two short days the great readers and contributors of SpitBloodTCU have raised over $2,000 for underprivileged kids in the Fort Worth area and made strides towards filling Amon Carter for our Frogs.

These efforts have not gone unnoticed as documented by today's Skiff article, Group takes donations to raise game attendance. The article praises our efforts and features a great quote from our leader that really highlights the intentions behind our endeavor:

"If we can fill the seats (and) it costs $25 and you're making a kid's day, it has motivated a lot of people to help out," (THEFINCH) said. "It's helping two causes, but first and foremost we're helping out underprivileged kids around the Metroplex."

Hopefully this will only help bring in more donations. We've done, I think, better than expected so far, let's keep the momentum rolling.

Spit Blood!

Purple People Seaters Update

Thanks to all of those who contributed yesterday in Spitblood's efforts to help out underprivileged youth and also get people in the stands for the remaining home games. We had an amazing day, and I can't thank you enough for your generosity.

Our total after two days is a remarkable $2,200
The tracker is on the sidebar, notice the pyramid, just like Patterson would like it.

See the original post here if you are unfamiliar with the Purple People Seaters program.

You can make a donation by clicking on the donate button on the right sidebar.

Thanks to a certain someone's meltdown on that other site, and a blast to the TCU Alumni Group on LinkedIN, donations were rolling in yesterday.

Happy Friday, are you feeling generous?

Morning Dump

Group takes donations to raise game attendance TCU Daily Skiff

TCU's Hughes also a star off the field Star-Telegram

Pyramid shows TCU no sure bet yet as BCS buster AP

TCU not sure BCS buster yet AP

Back on track Clayton gets another shot at TCU Las Vegas Sun

Maybe we've all been wrong about the Mtn. Deseret News

Seahawks lose Tatupu for season Sports Network

Quincy Butler is up next as Rams corner St. Louis Dispatch