College Football

TCU's past greats love that Frogs are getting the title shot that they never did

Updated Jan. 8, 2023 6:44 p.m. ET

College Football and College Basketball Writer

LOS ANGELES — The flight from New Orleans to Philadelphia coincided with one of the biggest football games in the history of Texas Christian University, so once the Saints' plane landed, everything became a race for Andy Dalton: from tarmac to gate and gate to bus; from bus to hotel and hotel to restaurant, where televisions were tuned to a Fiesta Bowl that pitted Michigan against TCU, the school at which Dalton became a star.

"I think I had everybody in the restaurant cheering for the Frogs," said Dalton, now the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, in an interview with FOX Sports.

An eventual second-round pick in the 2011 NFL draft, Dalton was a four-year starter at TCU during arguably the most prosperous run the program has ever seen under former head coach Gary Patterson. He guided the Horned Frogs to 36 wins and two BCS bowl appearances from 2008-10 and capped his career with a Rose Bowl victory that preserved the school’s first undefeated season since 1938, the last time TCU won a national title.

Seventy-five years later, the Horned Frogs are on the precipice of hoisting the sport’s ultimate prize once more, and all that stands in their way is a dynastic juggernaut from the Southeastern Conference hellbent on grasping its second championship in as many years. This week’s title game between TCU and Georgia affords Dalton and everyone else connected to the 2010 squad a chance to live vicariously through another batch of dreamers picked seventh in the preseason Big 12 poll. The installation of a four-team College Football Playoff has given head coach Sonny Dykes and his players an opportunity their predecessors never had — the chance to compete for the national championship.

And true to form, the Horned Frogs have another redheaded renegade running the show at quarterback: Heisman Trophy runner-up Max Duggan.

"I’ve always supported Max," Dalton said, "and to see the things that he’s been able to do, he’s a tough kid that has just done everything he can to excel (within) the program. He’s been playing such good football this year, and I’m glad that nationally he’s been recognized with so many different awards and all that kind of stuff because he deserves so much."

Dalton’s team was one of three unbeatens across college football in 2010, but Oregon and Auburn advanced to the title game in an era when computer models still decided such things. The Horned Frogs settled for a date with No. 4 Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and upended the Badgers, 21-19, to finish the year second in the BCS standings. Players, coaches and administrators from that era will be among the loudest TCU supporters come Monday night when David attempts to take one step further and bring down Goliath.

Can TCU threaten Georgia in title game?

Here’s what they shared in interviews with FOX Sports:

Brandon Lechtenberg, defensive graduate assistant: "Even though TCU is in a Power 5 conference now, there is still a national bias against them that they can’t compete with the big boys, so to speak. So there was definitely a lot of pride when they were able to step on the field with Michigan and, in some ways, really dominate the first half and then find a way to hang on and win the football game in the second half."

Victor Boschini Jr., chancellor at TCU since 2003: "I’ll say it in one word: surreal. It’s just been incredible. We spent five days with the team in Phoenix and then came home on Sunday night, and we were all exhausted. But it’s amazing."

Dalton: "I’ve talked with several of my college friends and former teammates and all that kind of stuff, and it’s crazy to think that they’re at this point now where they’re competing for the national championship. I mean, for us that was such a long shot back in our time."

Colin Jones, defensive back: "I went and met Coach Dykes in August and just got a feel for what he wanted to do and just the kind of guy he was. And going full circle, fast-forward to last week, I went to the practice the day before the game (against Michigan). And just the energy and just the feel around the program that he’s created, the buzz — obviously when you’re undefeated (in the regular season) and then lose the Big 12 Championship game but still make the playoffs, everybody is gonna be pumped up. But just the vibe around the team, the support, the culture that he's built — one thing that stood out to me, just talking to Mark Cohen, the media relations guy, he said something that really struck me. Sonny Dykes was able to keep what Coach Patterson did really well and then put his touch on it and bring in guys that had success previously. Just the overall job that he’s been able to do and put his stamp on something but not just wipe the slate clean and start over, that takes somebody really confident in themselves and the people that he’s surrounding himself with."

Eddie Williamson, assistant head coach/offensive line: "I’m first of all impressed with the character of the team from the standpoint of they fought out of some situations that some teams would have given in to. I think that says a lot for Coach Dykes and his staff. I think they’ve done a tremendous job of selling a philosophy, a new philosophy to the program. I thought coming in for Sonny, it would be a difficult situation to follow somebody like Gary Patterson, who had been so successful. Usually, you want to be the man after the man that follows somebody like what Gary had done here. But Sonny and his staff were able to come in and sell their philosophy to the kids, the kids bought into it, and it created some of the wins for them. That, to me, was the most impressive thing.

"After I retired, I went over and watched SMU practice because one of my former players was coaching the offensive line for Coach Dykes (before he got hired at TCU). I was quite impressed with the way he ran the program at SMU from the standpoint of fundamentals were still taught. Sometimes that doesn’t happen in this day and age where everybody is trying to play fast ball. But fundamentals were taught, and their players were aggressive and tough there, and I think he brought that to TCU. They stayed with the fundamentals. Coach Patterson was coaching fundamentals. And I believe that continued and has just been built on, and that’s the way it should be. That’s the way you’d hope it would be."

Lechtenberg: "We were a very talented football team (in 2010), and that always helps, and I think you’re seeing that with the guys they have today, too. That staff was very good at finding talented players under rocks and kind of speculating that somebody who might be an average running back would be a really good defensive end or a really good safety and make those changes from high school kids that they recruited. That staff was really, really good about looking at players in the recruiting process a different way and changing positions as they got into college and putting them into positions where they were ultimately, maybe, a two- or three-star recruit and they ended up being an All-American or a potential draft pick of an NFL-type player at a different position.

"We had a bunch of guys that were high school quarterbacks that converted to safeties. That was probably one of the top things that they did was take high school quarterbacks where a lot of elite athletes are put at that position that maybe don’t have the skill set to be a college quarterback — but (still) have the skill set to be a college linebacker or a college DB. And then I think they always liked the mental side they had playing quarterback in high school.

"That was one thing that I think goes under the radar. We weren’t just an overachieving football team. We were a highly talented football team.

Jarrett Anderson, co-offensive coordinator/running backs: "The previous year we were undefeated for the regular season, so it was kind of a build-up because we had lost in the Fiesta Bowl. And then a lot of those kids returned, so there was a lot of high expectations. A little bit different than this year’s group."

Dalton: "There was just a ton of excitement around TCU football in general. I think going back and looking at my four years of playing, I think we only lost one home game the whole time. So the Frog fans got to be part of a lot of winning during that time."

Jones: "The buzz was awesome, but it was almost like it was expected a little bit, you know? We had a lot of really good teams. And being a mid-major in the Mountain West, if you lost one game you were done. So we had to really build season after season to get to where we got to and a little bit of luck with Nevada knocking off Boise State to get into the Rose Bowl."

Lechtenberg: "I broke down Wisconsin, who we ended up playing in the Rose Bowl, I broke down Oregon and I broke down Auburn because we were preparing for any one of those three opponents that we might play. I think still being an outsider, so to speak, outside the major conferences, there was a likelihood that we wouldn’t get in. And because of that, we were preparing for any one of those three opponents."

Williamson: "That was the year Auburn won the national championship, and we were voted No. 2. There was no playoff. Would our players have wanted to line up against Auburn and play? I guarantee you they would have. The great thing I saw out of that for our alumni was that whether it would have happened or not happened, they believed TCU was the best team in the country. They argued that from the standpoint that they were undefeated.

"We went as far as we could go. At the time we played Wisconsin, they were supposedly the hot team in the country, the best one, and it was a good, good football game. We had to make some great plays at the end of the game to win it, and our kids rose to that occasion and did it. It’s always special when you go through a whole season and you don’t lose. But this will be special if TCU is able to beat Georgia on Monday night. It will just be tremendous for the university, for Fort Worth, and I’m pulling for them to say the least."

Dalton: "I feel like it would have been fun to get a chance to play in (the national championship against Auburn) and see what would have happened. It’s hard to complain because if you get a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, that’s something that somebody in the Mountain West never would have been able to do during that time. To end the year undefeated, we’re not going to be the self-proclaimed national champs like some schools out there, but we feel like we had a really good team."

Andy Dalton attempts a pass against the Wisconsin Badgers during the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2011 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Lechtenberg: "I felt pretty good about the season. There were pretty joyous moments and a lot of excitement when it was over. I’ve never been a national champion, so I can’t tell you what that feels like, but going undefeated and winning a Rose Bowl was a pretty cool feeling. I did feel like from evaluating, I thought both us and Wisconsin were better than the two teams that did play for the national title that year after breaking them down. And I know we both put more guys in the NFL than those two squads did."

Anderson: "At that time, the Rose Bowl was such a prestigious event that it kind of satisfied the appetite. As coaches, you always want to win a national championship. But the appetite was satisfied with being able to accomplish the Rose Bowl win."

Jones: "You look back at 2006 when I first got there and the group of guys that we had and just how far the program has come. Whether it be the stadium that we played in, the crowd that was at the games and the slow transition that Coach Patterson started even before I got there, to where (now) he’s handed off the torch to Coach Dykes and it’s continued to build. It’s just an incredible, incredible journey. It would be unbelievable, almost surreal, to win the national championship. But what they’ve accomplished this season is just so incredible in its own right. Just so proud of those guys."

Dalton: "You go back to TCU now, and I feel like it’s a different place from when I was there 12 years ago, 13 years ago. You can just see it. After our last game, they tore down the stadium and rebuilt the new stadium. Now all the facilities are different. There’s new buildings all over campus. There’s definitely a lot of buzz. And I think just the exposure TCU got, it attracted a lot of people from out of state to want to go to TCU."

Williamson: "People have said here that the Rose Bowl win just had a tremendous impact. The school, applications to the school, gifts to the school — all of those kinds of things. It’s put TCU on national recognition level, and I think this game will do the same thing and help in the same way. I think it’s going to be good for the university from an academic standpoint, for an application standpoint. And I think it obviously will help in terms of just plain old athletic recruiting because people see success here and they want to be a part of a successful program. And if they can get them on campus here now, I’m going to tell you, this school is as beautiful a place and has as good of facilities as anybody in the country. And that started with the Rose Bowl win."

Boschini: "Oh my gosh, it’s inextricably connected. It’s crazy. (The football program) is the front door of the university. And what it’s allowed us to do is attract more people to that door. Then they come in and they see, ‘Oh, wow, there’s a medical school here. There’s this amazing undergraduate program.’ It just helps."

Lechtenberg: "I would hope they can sustain it. I think one thing that is proven in college football is it’s really, really hard to sustain that type of success, just based on a lot of factors. But I think they’ve got the infrastructure, the setup and I think it’s very realistic that they can be consistently in that conversation. And the reality is that if they had a four-team playoff (during Patterson’s tenure), we would have been in it a couple times. And with a 12-team playoff, over the last 15 years TCU would have been in a 12-team playoff several years."

Dalton: "This is a great year for all of this to be happening, especially with how the Big 12 conference is going to look in the next couple years with (Oklahoma and Texas) leaving. I think we’re kind of setting ourselves to have the potential to be the top dog in the conference. I feel like there’s so much positive stuff happening with TCU right now. I mean, if we can win this game on Monday, it would just really take the program to the next level."

TCU's offense vs. Georgia's defense

Jones: "I think you’ve seen it with the recruiting class they’ve brought in this year. And Coach Patterson had his unique way, like myself, targeting athletes that played running back in high school. Just a lot of targeting athletes when we didn’t have the ability to go out and get the four- and five-star caliber talent. And now I think that’s changing a little bit with Coach Dykes and just the success he’s had. And honestly, just the fun energy. He’s letting those players really enjoy playing college football and doing it in a very unique way to where the culture is making a lot of people wanna come there. And now you see them win and just the sky is the limit for Horned Frog nation."

Williamson: "I have a tremendous respect for Coach Dykes. I think he is one, a good human being; two, a good player coach; and three, a good fundamental football coach. I think he has the ability to judge talent and recruit talent. So I wouldn’t be surprised if their program continues in this direction. … I think the TCU program is on good footing and heading in the right direction and will stay there, and I hope Sonny will stay in Fort Worth. The community loves him. I think his players love him. And I think he’s been good for TCU. I hope he retires here."

Boschini: "I’ll tell you what I texted to our coach (Sonny Dykes). I said, ‘Whether we win or lose this next game, we already won just by getting there.’ And I really, genuinely mean that. Just the exposure, the people talking about it, it’s just incredible. And so I do think we’re going to win the game, but either way, we’ve already won in my opinion."

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.

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