Posted by ESPN.com’s Graham Watson

When Andy Dalton went home this summer, his dad wanted to watch a couple of TCU football games with him. So they grabbed the BYU and Utah games and began breaking down the film.

	Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE
	Andy Dalton made improving the passing game a priority in the offseason.

“Stupidly, we watched BYU first,” said Dalton, TCU's starting quarterback.

The BYU game was TCU’s best last season. Utah was the team’s worst.

Dalton said it was painful to watch because it was little things that kept the Horned Frogs off the scoreboard -- it was one of two games they scored 10 or fewer points -- and ultimately from their first Mountain West Conference title since 2005.

The game was especially tough for Dalton. A pocket passer out of high school, Dalton has been branded a rushing quarterback because that’s what the TCU offense has dictated. But with several key receiving weapons returning to the team, the Horned Frogs have spent the offseason trying to diversify.

This spring and into the summer, Dalton and his receivers set out to make TCU more of a passing offense despite long being known as a rushing team. Last season, Dalton didn’t have a passing touchdown until the eighth game against BYU. He did have five rushing touchdowns, and a knee injury he suffered against Oklahoma that kept him out of two contests.

“Last year, we seemed to have me running the ball a lot more than I was throwing,” Dalton said. “Heck, because early on I had five rushing touchdowns and no passing touchdowns and that bothered me. Inside, we were winning and that was good, but I’m a quarterback. I don’t want to be running for six touchdowns and not even have a passing touchdown. Then, [backup quarterback] Marcus Jackson comes in and throws two touchdowns before I even throw one.”

Dalton finished the season throwing 2,242 yards and 11 touchdowns and he thinks the offense can be much more productive in 2009. The Horned Frogs, who open the season this weekend against Virginia, bring back leading receiver Jimmy Young, who had 988 yards and five touchdowns last year, as well as second-leading receiver Ryan Christian, and playmakers Jeremy Kerley and Antoine Hicks.

While TCU’s offense was balanced last year, the Horned Frogs hope to add a little more scoring punch and help out the defense, which often carried the team.

“Hopefully, we’ll be more explosive,” Dalton said. “We had a couple games where we only scored 13 points, 10 points, and as an offense that’s not how you want it. I feel like we got a lot of work this spring and we improved a lot in the passing game. That’s one aspect we went into the spring saying we’ve got to improve. We’ve got a lot of talented receivers, so we need to get the ball in their hands and let them go play.”

A better passing game should help Dalton in two ways. Not only will the team have more offense and likely pull out some of those low-scoring games, but Dalton also will have the numbers that he feels like he should be putting up.

TCU coach Gary Patterson said the best asset of most of the quarterbacks during his tenure has been their record. He pointed to former quarterback Jeff Ballard, who was 19-2 as a starter, but like Dalton, didn't have jaw-dropping statistics. Still Ballard is one of the most celebrated quarterbacks in TCU lore.

“I don’t know any quarterback that doesn’t wish that they could throw the ball for a million more yards than they do,” Patterson said. “Winning is the only thing that makes all the rest OK. And I think once you learn that obstacle, it doesn’t matter how many yards you throw for, how many touchdowns, it still comes down to, ‘Did you make the last play? Did you help us win the game?’ Because that’s what people remember.”