LISTEN! KillerFrogs Podcast Episode 174:  A Perfect Day Of Football

The Horned Frogs open the season 2-0 after a win in their home opener against Tarleton State 59-17 in what shaped up to be a pretty perfect day of college football.  Joining Ryann, Shannon, Nathan, and Sean this week to talk about this weekend's games is BamaCentral writer and host of the All Things Bama podcast, Mason Smith. 

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1:17:31

The podcast begins with the Alabama – Texas game, the number one game of the week. Foushee says: “It was a Gary Patterson special, but Alabama won by one point. This was the most important game for the Big 12.” He asks Mr. Smith what the fan base was thinking going into Texas? Concern? Ego—for the fact that they’re Alabama? “Well, there was a little bit of ego. I don’t think the players or Coach Saban will admit that. They thought they had the win in the bag, and after what happened on Saturday, I think they’re happy they got out of Dodge with the victory. Because almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong with Alabama. But thankfully for Bryce Young they pulled out the win. I was really impressed with Jahmyr Gibbs. He really showed his skills in the receiving game. And that really made the difference with the offense.” 

Foushee suggests Shannon will recognize “Gary Patterson’s fingerprints all over that Texas defense.” Shannon responds: “It hit me. It’s Gary’s defense. They started a little slow. And when they got it together and I saw Gary just click on and I saw the 4 – 2 – 5, and if you give Gary enough time with somebody he’s going to show up. You’re going to feel his wrath. He’s able to do what he’s been doing over the years and that’s being a defensive guy. He can’t run the ship anymore but defense you saw that, man.” 

Shannon continues: “Did Texas play that well? Or did Alabama just play that bad?” 

Mr. Smith believes it’s “a combination of both. I do believe Texas really improved this year. I think Bijan Robinson is one of the best running backs, if not the best, in the nation. Texas defense succeeded in neutralizing Alabama’s passing game . . . Texas had a great success in the passing game. Where’s one of the weaker positions in the Alabama defense? The defensive back room. The corner back room. They have a lot of new faces . . . So I do believe Texas stepped up but there are things that Alabama really needs to improve on and I think they’ll do that in the coming weeks.” 

Ryann poses the question as to what would happen with the rankings as a result of the game.  Mr. Smith replies: “In the coaches poll, it’s Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State. But in the AP it’s Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State . . . at one point you have to argue a win’s a win. But on the other hand you have two SEC teams. Georgia had two dominating performances, and Alabama had one dominating performance and one win by the skin of their teeth. There are definitely arguments to be made for both positions.” 

Nathan adds this observation: “Texas can play like that with six weeks of game planning. But week in and week out, it’s a different beast. This is like SMU for us. It’s their super bowl. That was their super bowl. They had so long to get prepared, pumped up, a game plan. Every week they’re going to have five days at most to prepare. I don’t think they can keep up.”

The podcast moves to the Frogs/Tarleton game and what it might have to say about the future of TCU’s season. Foushee calls it the type of “game that every TCU fan has been wanting to see at an out of conference game for the last several seasons, but haven’t really had it. The scores don’t tell the whole story. But yesterday’s did. This was a really great win by the Frogs in every facet of the game.” 

He addresses Shannon about the 3-3 defense, saying it’s growing on him. Shannon agrees: “I like it. You have to be fast playing a defense. I was going to give it a couple weeks, but after that performance, what they did last week, it’s not an issue. It allows them to play really fast . . . we’re getting interceptions, takeaways. It’s awesome to see . . . I’m really liking this 3-3 and how we’re playing in it, and we’re fast again, and it’s really a beauty to see.” 

Nathan is asked about coverage. Tarleton had to work for every single yard. “I don’t know what it is, but everybody seems to do something extraordinary against us. It’s really annoying. They (Tarleton) had some really good passing catches in this game. But our defense has been a crutch lately. And I was happy to see how they played.”  

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