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GoFrogs: No. 11 TCU Tops Texas Tech, 27-3

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
GoFrogs: No. 11 TCU Tops Texas Tech, 27-3

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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - Shawn Robinson became the first true freshman quarterback to start a game for No. 11 TCU in coach Gary Patterson's 17 seasons as head coach.

Even after a 27-3 win over Texas Tech that got the Horned Frogs closer to a spot in the Big 12 championship game, Patterson kept to his policy of not letting freshmen talk to the media after the game.

The victory speaks loud enough for Robinson and the Horned Frogs (9-2, 6-2 Big 12, No. 12 CFP).

''Our goal is for our seniors to have the best season they can have,'' Patterson said. ''They have a chance to win 10, 11 or 12 ballgames, which is really cool.''

Less than a year after winning a Texas Class 6A state high school championship game, Robinson ran for 84 yards and threw a key second-half touchdown in his first career start at TCU. He was filling in for senior Kenny Hill, who didn't even make the trip to Lubbock because of an unspecified injury.

''The worst thing that could have had happened today was he could have had such a terrible outing that you lose your confidence and lose it for three years,'' Patterson said. ''For me, that was the one thing that was not going to happen today. Shawn Robinson was not going to lose his confidence for the next three years.''

While Robinson was only 6-of-17 passing for 85 yards, his 12-yard TD to Jalen Reagor came late in the third quarter as the Frogs (9-2, 6-2 Big 12, No. 12 CFP) took a 17-3 lead.

That score came on the drive after another missed field goal by Texas Tech (5-6, 2-6), which with numerous kickers has made only 8 of 16 attempts this year. Clayton Hayfield badly hooked a 20-yard try , the ball sweeping across the front of the goalposts.

That miss came after the Red Raiders forced a fumble by Robinson and recovered at the TCU 6.

''They put the ball in the end zone here, we're going to loop back from there,'' Texas Tech safety Jah'Shawn Johnson said of the sequence. ''I mean TCU's defense done a great job of doing what they had to do to get off the field and force our kicker to make a field goal, and they put some pressure in his face and he missed it.''

The Red Raiders got their only score on their opening drive of the game, a 21-play, 70-yard effort that ended with Hatfield's 22-yard field goal with 6:08 left in the first quarter. TCU also scored on its opening drive, on KaVontae Turpin's 2-yard TD run on the first play of the second quarter.

''I'm always confident in what we can do offensively,'' Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. ''Today was obviously a very poor performance, but love what I'm seeing on the defensive side and how hard we're playing on that side of the ball.''

THE TAKEAWAY
Texas Tech: There will be plenty of questions about whether former Red Raiders quarterback Kingsbury has coached his last home game for his alma mater. They won their first seven games after Kingsbury became their coach in 2013, but are 22-32 since. After starting this season 4-1, Tech has to win its finale Friday night at Texas or will miss out on a bowl game for the third time in four seasons.

The Red Raiders haven't missed bowls in consecutive seasons since 1991-92.

TCU: The Horned Frogs took the first step toward a possible rematch with No. 3 Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game. TCU's defense dominated, an effort capped by Jeff Gladney's 93-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

NOT THE NORM
Texas Tech senior quarterback Nic Shimonek had a season-low 137 yards passing. His 17 completions were also a season-low. He was 17-of-37 with an interception.

UP NEXT
Texas Tech: The Red Raiders play Friday night at Texas.
TCU: The Horned Frogs are home against Baylor on Friday.

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TCU at Texas Tech Postgame Notes

No. 12 TCU at Texas Tech
Nov. 18, 2017
Lubbock, Texas - Jones AT&T Stadium
Attendance: 51,278
Final: No. 12 TCU 27, Texas Tech 3

Team Notes
* Shawn Robinson became the first true freshman to start at quarterback in the 17 seasons Gary Patterson has been head coach. The last true freshman to start at quarterback for TCU was Casey Printers Sept. 25, 1999, at Arkansas State, a 24-21 Horned Frogs’ win. Patterson was in his second year as TCU’s defensive coordinator.
* TCU is 9-2 or better after 11 games for the third time in four seasons, eighth time in 11 years and 12 times overall in 17 campaigns under head coach Gary Patterson.
* Over the last four seasons, TCU’s 38-12 overall record and 25-9 conference mark rank second in the Big 12.
* The Horned Frogs posted their nation’s-best sixth game of holding an opponent to single digits in scoring this season.
* TCU ran for 204 yards and is now 87-5 under Patterson when running for at least 200.
* KaVontae Turpin’s 2-yard touchdown run gave TCU points on its opening drive for the seventh time this season. It was the Horned Frogs’ sixth opening series touchdown.
* TCU had a 10-3 halftime lead. The Horned Frogs are 9-0 this season when leading at the break. TCU is 128-14 under Patterson when holding a halftime lead.
* TCU is now 5-1 against teams it lost to last season.
* The Horned Frogs are now 37-12 under Patterson in regular-season games following a loss.
* The Horned Frogs had three sacks to give them at least one in 52 of their last 54 games.
* TCU scored for the 317th consecutive game. It's the nation's second-longest current streak and fourth all-time in NCAA history. The Horned Frogs haven't been blanked since Nov. 16, 1991, at Texas (32-0).
* TCU's team captains were Ben Banogu, John Diarse, Nick Orr, Matt Pryor.
* TCU wore a white jersey with white pants and a purple helmet.

Individual Notes
* True freshman quarterback Shawn Robinson made his first collegiate start. He ran for 84 yards and passed for 85.
* Robinson led a 10-play, 63-yard scoring drive, covering 5:14 on the clock, on TCU’s opening series. He rushed for 68 yards on four carries on the drive.
* KaVontae Turpin’s 2-yard scoring run was his second rushing touchdown of the season and his career.
* Kyle Hicks rushed for 81 yards on 22 carries to put him over 2,000 yards in his career. He now has 2,018.
* Jalen Reagor’s 12-yard third-quarter touchdown catch from Robinson was his team-best fifth scoring grab of the season.
* Ty Summers had sacks on consecutive snaps to give him three on the season and 5 1/2 in his career. He also had a fumble recovery.
* Sammy Douglas had a team-best 10 tackles after entering the game with 10 on the season. He also forced a fumble.
* Mat Boesen had his sixth sack of the season. He has at least one sack in five of the last six games.
* Jeff Gladney registered his second career interception in the fourth quarter. He returned it 93 yards and then made a fumble recovery in the end zone. He added seven tackles.
* Arico Evans totaled a career-high eight tackles.
* Cole Bunce had a 43-yard field goal, the longest of the season by a Horned Frog, on his first collegiate attempt. He later added a 25-yard make.
* Adam Nunez had a career-long 61-yard punt.
* Andrew David had a 56-yard punt on his second collegiate attempt.
 

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
TCU at Texas Tech - Postgame Quotes

TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson
Hard place to play. Had to have some things happen down in the red zone. Got the fumble, stopped them, missed the field goal, and then we got the interception. That's how you win on the road. Offense does enough to get done what they need to get done. So that pretty much sums up this ball game.

Won it with a freshman quarterback that's got a lot to learn, but I thought he did a nice job, got a hold on the football. Defensively we were down some players, so I thought Andrew came in and punted really well. He had a couple booming punts that helped us.

Outside of that, we got Baylor on Friday, so it's an opportunity to get to 10 wins, that's what we're trying to get accomplished. That's what I told them in there, we need to get back, it's an early game, get back, start working on Baylor, get themselves ready because tomorrow's going to be more of a practice as far as knowledge-wise to get ready to go.

Q. Your defense was shorthanded. How did you think you adapted to that and they reacted to that?
Gary Patterson: Well, I mean, it's hard. I thought that we obviously gave up 3, I thought they played hard, did some things. We lost Ray, he went down again. Really, we needed to tackle better. Outside of that, we did some interesting things with our three-man front to try to get enough guys in the box, try to confuse them a little bit until the second half. Really that drive, they went down we got the fumble on the quarterback, outside of that it was -- I thought our kids played hard, which is what, I was worried coming into it, what kind of energy we would have because of last week. So being short guys and some of your leaders. But the kids got fired up, it's 11 o'clock ball game in the morning, so that's always harder, especially on the road. So now we get a chance to finish the season for the seniors on Friday against Baylor.

Q. What did you think of Shawn's decisionmaking overall on zone reads and maybe some of the passes he threw?
Gary Patterson: Good. He's got to understand, the best pass, catchable pass, is the ones they can catch. Doesn't matter how pretty they look and he'll learn all that. Kenny throws the deep ball really well, he really threw it all week really well. The short game's a little bit different. You got to hold onto the football. Because that's what they were trying to do, they were trying to get the ball away, and so for us -- but it's hard to go on the road and win, even when you have a senior quarterback, let alone a guy that it's the first time he's started, so here we go.

Q. What did you think of the way Sonny handled the offense and called the game for Shawn?
Gary Patterson: I don't know. I haven't been able to have a chance to look at it. I was deep in alligators, to be honest with you. My side of the ball, you know, it's a thrill a minute against Coach Kingsbury. He does a nice job. I understand you look up there and say well, they only had 3 points. But to be honest with you, they drove the football and they outgained us today, so we got work to do, but we got one more ball game. So it gives ourself an opportunity to play one more time. So I'm excited about that for the kids.

Our one goal, when everything gets going crazy, our one goal is to give our seniors the best season they can have. They now have a chance to win 10, 11, 12 ball games, which is really cool. This senior group has been through a couple seasons, 2013 and when they were first coming in freshmen, and then last year we were 6-7. So for them to have this kind of season and grit it out and do the things we have done, I'm proud of the way they have done things. So especially when you lose a guy like Darius Anderson. Offensively we got to hold onto the football, but those are all things you learn. I thought Snell came in, we wish he would have caught the one long ball, but I thought it was a great catch by Reagor, but he was out of bounds. Outside of that you just keep growing them up. That's what you're trying to do, just keep growing them up.

So in answer to your question on coach, it's always a fine line when you have a young one. If you get too aggressive, turn the ball over, you get yourself in trouble. If you're not aggressive enough, which is what they were doing in the fourth quarter, they just played man coverage and just crowded the box. Then you got to grit it out, because they're coming from everywhere. So those -- then he gave them, one time he kept, Shawn kept, he kept the read, got us down to the five-yard line, which a couple times he did that. Maybe he'll learn on the first one in the first quarter to not wear the hand warmers and then he would have scored a touchdown, because that's how they grabbed him from behind, was the string on the hand warmer. So maybe he'll learn that maybe it's not that important.

Q. After that first drive, did you make different adjustments or was it just execution after that?
Gary Patterson: Well, on the first drive we were in a four-man front and I switched to the three-man front. But I don't, I mean, we have ran both of them before, so. But the biggest thing is because they spread things out, given the quarterback, the three-man front's not -- it looks like it doesn't have as many people in the box, but you get as many people, but you got a lot more coverage people on the wide outs, especially the way we changed coverages. So the kids did a great job of that today.

Early in the first quarter, a couple of our, what we call strong safeties, didn't get lined up very well. If you don't get lined up very well when they're going fast, you're going to lose leverage, and we lost leverage and we lost a couple passes, so I settled them down with the four-man front. Then once I got them lined up on the sidelines, then they did a better job starting later on, so.

Q. Were you pleased overall with the pass defense, other than that 35-yard one?
Gary Patterson: Yeah, I think so. I'll see when I get a chance to watch the film. You don't get a chance to be much of a spectator, to be honest with you.

Q. This week did you have a sit down with Shawn or any extra words for him?
Gary Patterson: No. I'm one of those -- Sonny's dealt with him, I didn't want to add any pressure. He asked me going down the tunnel start of the second half anything I can do to help him? Just throw to the guy that's open. I'm smart enough to know that you can't be everything, so I'm defense and special teams. And then the only thing I told him was, before the ball game on Friday, I just told Sonny, I said, just need to let him know that it doesn't matter good or bad how this game turns out. He doesn't have to be Superman, just stay within himself and play and no matter what it's not going to be his fault. Because the worst thing that could have happened today is he could have had just a terrible outing, and he fumbled the one time, he could have had a terrible outing and then you lose your confidence and you lose him for the next three years. And for me, that was the one thing that was not going it happen today, was Shawn Robinsonwas not going to lose his confidence where he couldn't play for the next three years. So no matter how this turned out I was going to protect him as far as what I was going to say, how we were going to handle him, and what we were going to do.

So, again, it's always better when you have been here a long time and you can make decisions you know that you can -- you've been here before. Tye Gunn was like this, Andy Dalton was like this when they started as freshmen. When they were red shirt freshmen. All of them. For a defensive guy we have grown up a lot of quarterbacks. They have all had different coordinators. If you think about it Andy Daltonhad a different coordinator and Kenny Hill has a different coordinator, Tye Gunn had a different coordinator. But they all seemed to grow up all within the system of how we handled them and how we did things.

So what people don't understand is it's how you approach it as a team concept, not allowing them to have to be the guy who has to win ball games for you. I think that's the one thing that we try not to do with our quarterbacks, is we don't try to put them in harm's way. Unless you got one that like Trevone, where you have a guy that then he had a different -- in fact, he had, in his three years he had three different quarterback coaches. So, Sonny was his last two. So the biggest thing is to make sure we didn't put him in harm's way. Short and sweet end of the story there.
 

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
POST-GAME QUOTES CONT. ...

Q. How proud were you of the defensive effort today?

Gary Patterson: Well, I probably don't give them enough -- as much credit as they do, but here's what I've -- I guess the reason I don't do that is because I just expect them to do that. It's probably a shortcoming of mine, that I just expect that's the way we're going to play. When we play good that's what we do. So I guess I should probably jump up and down a little bit more about it, but it's one of those things where if you want to be good on defense, you just do those kind of things.

So I think Ty started off, they cut back and he had a big stop, so made it second and goal at the six. So then you stop, so then you're third, and then we were able to bring in the three-man rush and then they ran the ball anyway, and so then it's fourth down at like two or three and then he's got to make a decision whether -- and those are hard decisions. I know I heard the boos, but the bottom line to it is those are hard decisions, because you've already gone three downs and you've only got three yards. So now you're saying on fourth down, what are you going to go do? Well, and they missed the field goal, so.

That's vastly improved, especially defensively, that's a vastly improved Texas Tech football team on defense. Offensively, I mean it's -- they had some guys out, but you just, they moved the football and we tried to contain them as well as we could, because they're very dangerous, especially the way he calls it. I mean he does a really nice job with all that. He probably is one of the guys that's hardest for me to defend of anybody that we have had. The stuff we do with the three down has helped us. But as a general rule we don't slow them down very much when we're in our four-down front, just because of the way he attacks us.

So, we had -- last two we had to come up with this new idea, really, we kind of stole a little bit from West Virginia and we morphed it into something else. And so we're glad we got to nine wins. And we got an opportunity to get to 10 wins, which I think is really cool that this group has got an opportunity to do that.

Q. How big was it having some stability in the kicking game?
Gary Patterson: I thought Andrew came in and punted the ball. Besides the kick out of bounds, I thought the knucklehead did a great job. Kicked field goals the way we needed to. And those guys, I just tried to stay away from them this week, because I'm so perfection-oriented when it comes to all that stuff, so I just let Coach Sharp handle them, him and Eric, and we just go about our business.

But I tell you, Andrew has been really booming the ball in practice, it's been great. And then Nunez has been great in the red zone, so really it was a great combination for us. And for us to leave Montrel at home, Trevone was here, but he didn't play. Leave Nico at home. I mean you got guys, that's a lot of people. Then Ray was on the sidelines. I mean it's, that speaks volume, because Markell is going to be one of our starters next year and for him to play the whole day, for him to get that done.

Q. Do you have thoughts about that long field goal early that you tried?
Gary Patterson: No. They told me that they had practiced from that side and they told me what yardage that we could do, they could kick it and it would be okay. In fact, I was mad at somebody because I wasn't even -- I didn't talk to them, I didn't look at them, I didn't do anything. I said, let's kick the field goal, just hurry on out there, and let's get this done.

Q. Any chance Kenny or anybody else can play next week?
Gary Patterson: I don't know. Right now we're just going to try to get back from Lubbock. Get back, I've already got my laptop ready, whatever time it is, 3. Get on our flight, get home. We should be able to start watching some of the ball game. What time do they start? 2:30? So by the time we get home that ball game will be about done and I'll order in, get ready to go.

Q. Can I go with you?
Gary Patterson: You're more than happy to come sit in that film room if you want to. I'm going to tell you something right now, you're more than happy to do that. My dog -- or at home you can come over and watch it while I watch it on my laptop. My dogs lay in the dog beds and they will lick you a couple times and then get up and nuzzle, because they want you to go to bed at 1 o'clock in the morning and you're still working.
 

Limp Lizard

Full Member
Maybe he'll learn on the first one in the first quarter to not wear the hand warmers and then he would have scored a touchdown, because that's how they grabbed him from behind, was the string on the hand warmer.
. Interesting. I need to watch that carefully and see if the TV picture is good enough.
 
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