5 Things That Stood Out

Coach Patterson wasn’t kidding when he added “Take Everything Give Nothing” to his pyramid. TCU only allowed 65 yards in the first game of the 2017 season. Photo by Glen E. Ellman

1. What Say the Omens?

Along with football season comes the return of superstitions. The Football Gods, as Coach Gary Patterson likes to refer to them, apparently have strict expectations on clothing colors and offhand remarks. The tea leaves for 2017 — and beyond — have indicated favorable conditions for the Frogs. So we shall rejoice in Horned Frog Nation: A perfect, breezy, mostly injury-free night capped off by hundreds of fireworks set the stage for immediate success.

2. First Impressions are Everything

The Horned Frog roster might contain a copious amount of upperclassmen, but freshmen stole the show. True freshman Kenedy Snell, for example, scored a touchdown on his first collegiate touch. Snell ran across nearly the entire field – width wise – and dodged five loose Tigers to score TCU’s first points of the 2017 season halfway through the first quarter. Someone should call Ancestry.com because he might be more closely related to a jackrabbit than a horned frog.

KaVontae Turpin’s 39-yard scoring run was the first rushing touchdown of his career. Photo by Glen E. Ellman

3. Can’t Call ’em Shallow

In Coach Patterson’s 12th shutout in 17 seasons, he was able to give his starters a break and show off the team’s depth. With quarterback Kenny Hill keeping Jackson State on its toes for most of the game, two backup quarterbacks — Shawn Robinson and Grayson Muehlstein — were able to step in and clock some time on the gridiron, increasing the final score, and number of TCU Showgirl high kicks, to 63. Couple three good quarterbacks with any of the 14 different players who caught the ball and the stars show many W’s in Frog future.

What better way to celebrate Coach Patterson’s 150th W with TCU than a fireworks show? Photo by Glen E. Ellman

4. What Penalties?

What’s that we hear about offsides and illegal tackles? Oh, just echoes of 2016, when the Frogs were dinged for 88 penalties, an average of 6.8 flags and 61 penalized yards per game. Saturday was an improvement in this category. TCU was flagged only five times for 51 yards. And with tough games (and likely close final scores) looming on the near horizon, we’ll take every extra yard possible.

5. Champions Aplenty

Pregame, Frog fans everywhere were buzzing about who would deliver the famed “Give ‘em Hell, TCU” proclamation on the video board. Perhaps LaDainian Tomlinson, recent inductee into the NFL Hall of Fame? Or the collective 2017 Horned Frog baseball team, fresh off of a fourth-consecutive College World Series appearance? All good choices, but our hats are off to the person who decided Brandon Parrish, member of the 2017 NIT champion TCU basketball team, would deliver the message under the guidance of his world-famous dragon Quavo. So many purple-clad winners to choose from around these parts.

5 Tweets That Told the Tale

They were not bringing this man down.

TCU's zig-zag touchdown is the @CocaCola Instant Replay. pic.twitter.com/ZSF2PI9u33

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 3, 2017

"The true freshmen making their mark on this game all over!" #CarterBoys17 #BeatJSU pic.twitter.com/N7Z92DkU7s

— TCU Football (@TCUFootball) September 3, 2017

Thank you to everyone involved thru the years! Now let's try to get to 151

— Gary Patterson (@FBCoachP) September 3, 2017

Thanks to all the Frogs that helped us kick-off the season! What a fun night! #LoveTheseFrogs! ✌🏻💜🏈-Mrs. P pic.twitter.com/hd0pVcqjgF

— K.Patterson (@kels_patterson) September 4, 2017

Our first #RiffRam of 2017 dropped on Saturday night featuring NIT champ + @TCU grad @bpthatruth! Who will it be next game? #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/8hEqBqhVDp

— TCU Athletics (@TCU_Athletics) September 4, 2017