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WACO, Texas -- Baylor is off to a far better start than last season against TCU when it was 21-3 after one quarter. In tonight's season-opener, the Bears have scored more points in the first 15 minutes than in that entire beatdown a year ago in Fort Worth.

Baylor stunned the revamped Frogs defense in on their first possession, scoring on a pass from Kendall Wright off a lateral from quarterback Robert Griffin to Terrance Williams for 40 yards for a 7-0 lead. Wright also had a 35-yard touchdown catch from Griffin that temporarily gave Baylor the lead back, 14-13.

But the Bears were awful on special teams and twice allowed Greg McCoy to return kickoffs deep into Baylor territory. The first resulted in a Casey Pachall 9-yard touchdown, but the PAT was blocked. Pachall, the sophomore signal caller taking over for Andy Dalton, had a 38-yard completion to Josh Boyce to the 4, setting up a Matthew Tucker TD run.

The second resulted in a 44-yard field goal after a solid defensive stand, but it did give TCU the lead, 16-14.

OK, folks. College football is finally here and that means our weekly crystal ball series. We'll pick some key games here on ESPNDallas.com and then we want you to pick the games in the comment section and we'll be sure to note those who picked the most games right each Friday. So let's get going:

TCU at Baylor, 7 p.m. Friday, ESPN: TCU has a new quarterback, a revamped offensive line and even some questions on defense. That's what happens when so many players are seniors on an undefeated team. Baylor has had this game circled since losing last year and they've got the Frogs at home. I think this will be a fantastic game, but the TCU defense will find a way to make a big stop late and Casey Pachall will do enough for the Frogs to slip out of Waco with a 7-point win. Prediction: TCU 24, Baylor 17

Louisiana-Lafayette at OSU, 6 p.m., Saturday: The Cowboys come into the season with a top-10 preseason ranking and will look to continue to put up points in their high-octane offense. That shouldn't be a problem against the Ragin' Cajuns. The Cowboys have Arizona coming to Stillwater less than a week later, too. Prediction: OSU 45, Louisiana-Lafayette 20

Oklahoma vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m., FX, Saturday: The top-ranked Sooners should score a bunch of points against Tulsa, but may give up some too. I'll be interested to see Landry Jones, who should be a Heisman Trophy contender this season. He'll have a good game. Prediction: OU 52, Tulsa 21

Texas vs. Rice, 6 p.m., Longhorn Network, Saturday: The Longhorns want to start to put last year behind them and will do so debuting on their new network. Texas takes care of business. Prediction: Texas 38, Rice 14

Texas A&M vs. SMU, 6:30 p.m., Sunday: Warning to the Aggies: Don't overlook June Jones and the Mustangs. SMU continues to improve as Jones gets more recruiting classes and his players get more experience within in his system. Kyle Padron is maturing as a quarterback and will be a challenge for the Aggie defense. SMU isn't quite ready to beat A&M in College Station, but they'll keep this close. Prediction: Texas A&M 31, SMU 24

Other big games:

LSU vs. Oregon, Cowboys Stadium, 7 p.m., ABC, Saturday: What a matchup in Arlington. Oregon returns most of the starters that appeared in the BCS Championship Game in January and LSU, while dealing with the distractions of the past week, still has plenty of talent. The winner sends a signal for inclusion in the national championship picture. The LSU defense will face a challenge in stopping Oregon, but I think they'll be able to get it done in crunch time. Prediction: LSU 24, Oregon 20

Boise State at Georgia, 7 p.m., ESPN, Saturday: There's lots of talk about Kellen Moore, and not much about the receivers that he no longer has at his disposal. Georgia is motivated and will have their passionate fan base ready. But Boise State has had a lot of time to get ready for this game and Chris Petersen knows how to prepare a team for a game like this. I'll take the Broncos...barely. Prediction: Boise State 31, Georgia 28

TCU head coach Gary Patterson talks about Friday night's kickoff against the Baylor Bears, being voted the top coach in the country, and more.

 

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ESPN College GameDay's Chris Fowler dishes on the season opener between LSU and Oregon at Cowboys Stadium.

 

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ESPN's Desmond Howard joins Coop and Nate to discuss the opening weekend of college football, the LSU-Oregon game and more.

 

The last time the Baylor Bears saw the TCU Horned Frogs a year ago in Forth Worth the game was over so swiftly and decisively that Bears speedster quarterback Robert Griffin III barely got out of neutral before everything else was inconsequential.

Andy Dalton diced the Bears for 11 consecutive completions to start the game and touchdowns on TCU's first five drives. By halftime the Frogs had racked up 558 yards and led hopeful, yet woefully overwhelmed Baylor, 35-3.

The teams meet again Friday night to open an intriguing 2011 season for both. This time the game will be played in Waco. This time the Bears return the experienced QB in Griffin as the 14th-ranked Frogs break in Dalton's replacement, sophomore Casey Pachall.

So what did the Bears take away from last season's 45-10 spanking?

"I guess you can't take a lot away from it because we didn’t leave much there," Baylor coach Art Briles said during Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference. "We haven’t really discussed it that much."

Maybe not, but TCU coach Gary Patterson certainly doesn't buy that Bears have forgotten that September pummeling. Why else, Patterson noted, would the Bears, eager contenders in the Big 12 South, supposedly sign "Beat TCU" on posters during a meet-and-greet with fans?

"We know this, when a team plays with hatred, which is what they are going to be, then you have a caged animal," Patterson said. "You’re going to have to go in and take the ballgame. They signed every one of their posters down there, “Beat TCU” at Meet the Bears Days. We get online. We see what’s being said and I hear everything that’s below the line. You don’t hear anything from us because we’ve been where we’ve been and we understand we have to be the best football team we can be."

You also don't hear anything because for more than two weeks Patterson has had his practices locked down to outsiders and his players' mouths under lock and key as far as the media is concerned. The lone voice emanating from TCU practices for most of this long, hot month has been that of the head coach.

That's Patterson's M.O. before playing in-state opponents. He doesn't want to give his players an opportunity to fire up a foe with words. But, it's also because Patterson isn't exactly sure what he'll see from a team with plenty of new starters that don't get as much attention as the one under center.

As for Briles' bunch, he's certainly hoping that after rebounding to finish 7-6 and end a 16-year bowl drought last season that his team will more prepared to handle TCU this time around.

"Quite honestly, I think our mentality will be better possibly than what it was a year ago," he said. "Last year, certainly we were in a stage of wondering where we were as a football team. I think we grew a little bit as a team as the year went on as most teams do. But this year, I think starting out we’re farther along than what we were a year ago at this time."

The TCU Horned Frogs' great success has brought it many lofty distinctions. Rose Bowl champions. Membership into the Big East. National recognition as a football program and institution and numerous accolades for coach Gary Patterson.

Fans will have to decide if this next one is for better or worse: TCU has become the Oregon of the Southwest.

TCU's success has made it a darling of Phil Knight and Nike, which has included the Frogs in a group of just a handful of high-profile teams the last two seasons in wearing Nike's specially designed "Pro Combat" uniform. They first debuted it at Amon Carter Stadium against Utah in 2009 and again flashed new uniforms at the Fiesta Bowl. A new one came on the scene last season to complement the Frogs' regular uniforms.

Well, back in April, TCU unveiled a new wardrobe for the 2011 season. These new duds include a redesigned purple helmet that has that scaly look to it and thick, black middle stripe, but the big difference is the helmet no longer includes that tough-looking Horned Frog under the TCU. Not sure why they had to ax the Frog.

But, anyway, according to TCU media relations guru Mark Cohen, TCU hasn't donated the Frog helmets to the local Pop Warner league just yet, nor have they cleaned out their lockers of the last two Pro Combat uniforms or their more traditional former purple-black-white uniforms.

So, that's a lot of pants, jerseys and helmets. According to Cohen, the Horned Frogs will have 27 uniform variations to choose from for their 12 regular-season games. Don't put it past Nike to design another uniform for a potential bowl game, especially if it's on the prime time BCS stage again.

Like the old uniforms, the new ones include black, purple and white pants and jerseys to be mixed and matched. Don't forget the Pro Combat uniforms. Add the Combat helmets and that even more helmets to choose from. At least, as is not the case with Oregon, all of TCU's uniform choices don't wildly deviate from their basic color scheme.

Not sure which is more complicated, Patterson's playbook or TCU's uniform catalog. Also not sure who will be in charge of selecting which pants, jersey and helmet to wear on any given Saturday.

Let's just hope that those florescent socks Oregon flashed in the national championship game aren't one of those 27 variations.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson has yet to publicly name his starting quarterback even though touted sophomore Casey Pachall continues to run with the first team and, as the backup last season, has has always been the expected successor to Andy Dalton.

Nothing has changed on that front despite some strategical bluster from Patterson here and there throughout camp. (Read more about the pressure on Pachall as he takes over the No. 14 Frogs on the heels of a 13-0 season). Unless he's felled by injury over the next 10 days, Pachall, the 6-foot-4 dual-threat QB from Brownwood, will take the first snap on Friday night (Sept. 2) in Waco against the Baylor Bears.

But on Tuesday, another 100-degree day of closed practices and a policy of no player interviews, Patterson divulged that he plans to use two QBs against the Bears. It's not a QB controversy, at least not until the backup makes it one.

"I think you’ll see both in the ballgame," Patterson said of Pachall and redshirt freshman Matt Brown, another hotly recruited dual-threat
QB out of the North Dallas suburb of Allen. "That’s not unusual. We used to do that every third series, the No. 2 quarterback came in and took a series."

Patterson said Dalton's dominance the last few seasons kept the backup planted on the bench. Pachall was mostly limited to mop-up duty in eight appearances last season.

But, what if Pachall has things rolling early against the Bears? Does Brown still step in for a series?

"I don’t know," Patterson said. "I mean, I put Sean Stilley in his first year (2001) on the 10-yard line on the third series and he threw an out for a completion and a first down. Casey Printers was playing well. You’ve got to get them in where they understand it’s not just at the end [of the game]."

TCU coach Gary Patterson weighs in on the Horned Frogs' upcoming move to the Big East, recruiting, Casey Pachall and more.

 

ESPN bloggers, including Andrea Adelson, preview Texas Christian's season.

The USA Today Coaches Poll has just been revealed and to no surprise the Oklahoma Sooners are ranked No. 1.

Alabama, Oregon, LSU and Florida State round out the top five. That's good news for Jerry Jones since Cowboys Stadium will feature the Sept. 3 ABC primetime matchup pitting No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 4 LSU.

Oklahoma State starts the season at No. 8 and Texas A&M certainly has plenty to be excited about at No. 9, its highest preseason ranking since 1999. The Aggies return to Cowboys Stadium once again against No. 14 Arkansas on Oct. 1. A&M opens the season on Sunday, Sept. 4 at home against June Jones' SMU Mustangs, a favorite to win Conference USA.

Perhaps a bit of a surprise is the tumble of TCU to No. 15 -- one spot ahead of Ohio State. The Rose Bowl champion Horned Frogs capped last season's 13-0 record with a win over Wisconsin in Pasadena and finished No. 2 in the nation behind national champion Auburn. But, the graduation of quarterback Andy Dalton and some other key starters on both sides of the ball apparently has coaches across the land a bit skeptical that TCU can quickly reboot in its final season in the non-BCS Mountain West Conference. TCU joins the Big East Conference in 2012.

According to the TCU athletic department, the Frogs' streak of being ranked in 42 consecutive polls is the longest in school history and fourth-longest currently in the nation.

Boise State, TCU's new MWC counterpart, starts the season where it ended last season at No. 7. The Frogs play at Boise on Nov. 12, a game originally scheduled to be played at Fort Worth, but moved by the MWC because of TCU's exit.

Texas, one of two teams to crack the top 25 that finished with a losing record last season (Georgia), opens at No. 24. The Bulldogs are No. 22.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- At last week's Big 12 media days in Dallas, Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said the Red Raiders dropped the Sept.10 game at TCU because the new round-robin scheduling in the Big 12 forced one less non-conference game than originally scheduled.

Then he ventured into territory that didn't sit particularly well with Red Raider Nation:

"Obviously for us, we’re going to be a very young team coming in [to this season],” Tuberville said. “That’s really probably not the type of team we want to play right now.”

On Wednesday, TCU, which will likely start a sophomore at quarterback after four years of Andy Dalton consistency, reported to camp. Coach Gary Patterson, who wasn't thrilled with Tech's late scratch shortly after the Frogs won the Rose Bowl, was asked about Tuberville's unexpected compliment.

"Tommy was just being nice," Patterson said. "Tommy's a good football coach. He's got a great pedigree. He's just doing what a good coach does. I saw he got hammered by his fans a little bit, but the bottom line to it, to me, he was just being nice to us."

Tuberville also said he would like to play TCU annually. The teams have played three times since 2003, but the last two -- 2010 and 2011 -- were both canceled.

Patterson's response to scheduling the Raiders?

"Well, maybe," the 11th-year TCU coach said. "I mean, right now I have Oklahoma next year, then I've got LSU home-and-home in '13 and '14, so I mean it's not like we're backing off anything here any time soon. But, you know, the only thing you say with that is, well, I have a young team this year, too. You don't see me getting out of any ballgames."

Whether TCU and Tech ever renew a football rivalry on the field will be seen, but the one going on off the field isn't half bad.

The TCU Horned Frogs have their first real glimpse at life in the Big East Conference starting next season.

Frogs sports information director Mark Cohen has the Frogs' home and away league slate for 2012. Let's just say, go east, Frogs and pack the thermals.

2012 Big East home games
Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, West Virginia

2012 Big East road games
Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse

Up on the hill, the upper deck of Amon G. Carter Stadium is now visible over the tree tops as renovations to modernize the old stadium continue just as the Rose Bowl champion TCU Horned Frogs are set to report to camp Tuesday.

The $143 million face-lift won't be finished for the 2011 season, but the Frogs will still call it home. However, to manage certain aspects of game day, TCU has moved two home night games to daytime kickoff: the Sept. 24 game against Portland State has been moved from 6 p.m. to 1 p.m., and the Sept. 30 Friday night game against SMU is now at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1.

The Frogs, 13-0 last season, will have their first practice on Wednesday with temperatures expected to near 110 degrees, likely forcing coach Gary Patterson -- perhaps reluctantly -- to move at least some of the early work indoors.

The Frogs begin a season without quarterback Andy Dalton under center for the first time since 2006. They open on Friday night, Sept. 2 at Baylor on ESPN.

TCU will have a new look when the 2011 football season begins. It's an updated look of sorts for the Frogs, as you can see by the photo.

They'll have two different options for dark jerseys -- the purple top with black pants or the black top with purple pants. The traditional all white TCU uniform on the road (one of my favorites) looks similar, except there's some black added.

One big change is that the Frog is no longer on the helmet. It's purple (and has lizard -- or Horned Frog -- skin around it) with the TCU. The old one had a little frog below the TCU, which I liked. But this does give the entire uniform a cleaner look. There is a black stripe on the top of the helmet as well.

You may remember the uniform flap the Frogs had before the Rose Bowl. There was talk of wearing a new Nike Combat uniform that didn't include enough purple. TCU made a change, but that uniform didn't completely match. This incorporates the purple and looks good from top to bottom.

What do you think?

The Davey O'Brien Foundation announced its watch list Friday featuring the nation's top 38 collegiate quarterbacks.

Baylor's Robert Griffin and Oklahoma's Landry Jones -- both 2010 semifinalist -- return to the list. Also appearing are SMU's Kyle Padron, Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill and Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden.

Appearing on the watch list is not a requirement to win the Davey O'Brien Award. Quarterbacks from all 120 Division I FBS schools are eligible until the field is narrowed to 16 candidates on Oct. 24. The three finalists will be announced Nov. 21, and the winner Dec. 8.

Two of the last three winners of the award have come from the Big 12 South. Texas' Colt McCoy was honored in 2009, and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford won the year before. Auburn's Cam Newton was the 2010 winner.

The 35th Davey O'Brien Awards dinner will be Feb. 20, 2012, in Fort Worth.

Former Ole Miss and Arizona State head coach Rob Evans has joined the TCU men's basketball staff as an assistant.

Evans, 64, has 42 years of collegiate coaching experience. As a head coach, six of his 14 teams have earned postseason tournament bids.

"Anytime you have a chance to add a national coach of the year to your staff, it is a great opportunity," TCU head coach Jim Christian said. "Rob also has strong ties to the state of Texas, so he is just a great overall fit for TCU basketball."

Evans arrives at TCU from Arkansas, where he spent four seasons as an assistant to John Pelphrey. Included among the highlights of his four-year tenure with the Razorbacks are trips to the finals of the SEC tournament and the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

"I am excited for the opportunity to coach at TCU," Evans said. "I have followed the TCU program for several years, especially since the arrival of Jim Christian. I can't wait to begin working with Jim and his staff."

Evans directed Ole Miss from 1993-98 and led the Rebels to back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids. He was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1997.

He guided Arizona State from 1999-2006 and led the program to postseason appearances in three of his last five years.

The native of Hobbs, N.M., was an assistant to Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State in 1991 and 1992 after spending 15 years at Texas Tech (1976-90). He started his coaching career by spending seven seasons under Lou Henson at his alma mater New Mexico State (1969-75), a stint which included a trip to the Final Four in 1970.

A multi-sport star, Evans was drafted out of high school by the Colt 45s, who eventually became the Houston Astros. Following college, he signed as a free agent with the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association and with the Oakland Raiders as a receiver.