Meet the Future Frogs: Kolby Griffin

Leading up to National Signing Day, we'll take a look at the Frogs' incoming class- one by one- in the order in which they pledged to TCU:

Kolby Griffin became the first member of TCU's recruiting class of 2011 nearly a year ago, when he gave his pledge to the Horned Frogs on February 15th. The 5'11" 176lb cornerback garnered all kinds of All-District and All-State honors during his career at St. Pius X High School in Houston, where he led the Panthers to back-to-back district titles the past two yeasr- resulting in a myriad of scholarship offers from teams across the region.

Rivals.com has Kolby as a 3-star recruit, and ranks him as the #49 cornerback in the nation and has him at #92 in their postseason Texas Top 100. Their TCU affiliate, purplemenace.com, had Kolby keep an online diary of his senior season. If you'd read it, you'd know that this kid has his head squarely on his shoulders and is exactly the kind of future team leader that GP & staff need to be recruiting on a regular basis.

Big Spenders!!

I am one of those people that like to read the comments made on ESPN articles and after reading through the story about GPs contract extension, one commenter through out a pretty interesting statistic in regards to the total expenses that football programs across the country incur. Below is the Top 30 Football Programs that spent the most money during the 2009-2010 academic school year, according to the Department of Education's Equity in Athletics Report.

1	Ohio State University-Main Campus	$31,763,036.00
2	The University of Alabama	$31,118,134.00
3	University of Notre Dame	$29,490,788.00
4	Auburn University Main Campus	$27,911,713.00
5	Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College	$25,566,520.00
6	The University of Texas at Austin	$25,112,331.00
7	University of Florida	$24,457,557.00
8	University of South Carolina-Columbia	$22,794,211.00
9	University of Wisconsin-Madison	$22,041,491.00
10	University of Arkansas	$22,005,104.00
11	University of Southern California	$20,820,468.00
12	Texas Christian University	$20,609,361.00
13	University of Oklahoma Norman Campus	$20,150,769.00
14	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	$19,780,939.00
15	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	$19,494,263.00
16	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	$19,207,560.00
17	University of California-Berkeley	$18,519,523.00
18	University of Iowa	$18,468,732.00
19	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	$18,328,233.00
20	University of Georgia	$18,308,654.00
21	University of Oregon	$18,071,012.00
22	Arizona State University	$17,977,987.00
23	Boston College	$17,973,705.00
24	University of Miami	$17,863,218.00
25	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	$17,843,849.00
26	Michigan State University	$17,468,458.00
27	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	$17,441,032.00
28	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	$17,433,699.00
29	The University of Tennessee	$17,357,345.00
30	Stanford University	$17,236,945.00

Surprisingly, we spend a lot more money on our football team than most BCS conference schools do that have a far greater amount of students and alumni than TCU does. Yes, alot of the expenses incurred probably arise from traveling, but just to see us this high on this list is very exciting and should show football fans that we are not the "little guy" or "little sister of the poor". Below is also another important recruiting tool that came from the same report using the Top 30 universities in football spending.

	University	Male	Female	Total	Ratio
1	Texas Christian University	2955	4348	7303	0.679622815
2	University of Georgia	10355	14196	24551	0.729430826
3	University of Florida	13858	17275	31133	0.802199711
4	University of South Carolina-Columbia	8660	10221	18881	0.847275218
5	University of California-Berkeley	11668	13128	24796	0.888787325
6	Michigan State University	15709	17529	33238	0.896172058
7	The University of Alabama	10232	11320	21552	0.903886926
8	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	13212	14424	27636	0.915973378
9	The University of Texas at Austin	16882	18225	35107	0.926310014
10	University of Wisconsin-Madison	13095	14050	27145	0.93202847
11	Boston College	4587	4914	9501	0.933455433
12	University of Miami	4500	4768	9268	0.943791946
13	Arizona State University	22187	23303	45490	0.95210917
14	University of Iowa	8963	9356	18319	0.95799487
15	LSU	10471	10905	21376	0.960201742
16	PITT	8230	8460	16690	0.972813239
17	Washington	13849	14203	28052	0.975075688
18	OU	8468	8663	17131	0.977490477
19	University of Oregon	8392	8550	16942	0.981520468
20	University of Southern California	7921	8063	15984	0.982388689
21	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	12812	12449	25261	1.029158969
22	Auburn University Main Campus	9372	9013	18385	1.039831355
23	The University of Tennessee	10084	9602	19686	1.050197875
24	Stanford University	3372	3192	6564	1.056390977
25	University of Arkansas	6974	6560	13534	1.063109756
26	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	14216	13321	27537	1.067187148
27	Ohio State University-Main Campus	20219	17410	37629	1.161344055
28	University of Notre Dame	4490	3861	8351	1.162911163
29	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	9583	8154	17737	1.17525141
30	Penn St.	20213	16864	37077	1.19858871

So, if you are a recruit looking to be taken well care of on the field as well as off the field, then maybe you should reconsider going to Penn St. or Nebraska and come to the Fort where your chances of getting laid every night are much greater. And if you need something else to support the claim that TCU has some very fine looking women (and for the most part, disease free), then check out this article in Men's Health Magazine from a few years back.

** For complete reports, click here: http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/

"National Championship Game" tonight

We're now over a week removed from the Frogs' 21-19 victory over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, and as ecstatic as we all are over it, let's be completely honest- we wish TCU was playing in Glendale tonight.

Not that I'm downplaying what happened in Pasadena- it was an unbelievably epic win for the TCU program and will be something everyone involved with the school will be proud of forever. But I mean, come on, we're not Pac 10 or Big Ten people who are going to fool ourselves into believing that the Rose Bowl > The National Title, are we?

I know that Coach Patterson has decided to be PC about the whole deal and not complain about TCU being left out of tonight's game, and I'm not going to do that, either. But don't think for a minute that GP doesn't KNOW that his team deserves just as much as Oregon or Auburn to be playing for the crystal football out in the desert.

And I'm not one to say I'm boycotting the game, because really, I'm actually quite excited to see how the Tigers and Ducks match up against eachother. Cam Newton (despite his OJ-like "innocence") and LaMichael James (despite his last-minute spurning of TCU) are two of the most exciting players to grace a college football field since Vince Young.

So who to cheer for- the team that ESPN will surely be making a 30 for 30 about in the next few years (Auburn) or the team that has been built on ridiculous facilities and even more-ridiculous uniforms (Oregon)? I'm not rooting for either. I hope the final score is something along the lines of 35-31, with plenty of turnovers and missed tackles so bad they're shown over & over again on TV. Then pray that the media that vote in the AP poll (I fully realize how big a stretch this is, by the way) decides they can't let a defense that bad be national champions and the Frogs somehow end up with a share of the title. How do you see tonight going down?

Morning Dump

Football:
TCU won 'the Fort Worth way' mayor says Star-Telegram

TCU's perfection trumped by an imperfect system Star-Telegram

TCU and Little Sisters of the Poor: They're winners in my book Star-Telegram

What wears on the Horned Frogs San Antonio Express-News

On the eve of BCS championship, a call for the NCAA to reform college football Washington Post

Recruiting:
Herschel Sims update: Is his commitment solid? Tulsa World