Hey Cyclones! Frog fan here. Flying up Friday for my first-ever visit to Ames.
First things first–––flight lands in Des Moines between 11 and Noon, renting a car, and heading straight to Ames. Tell me where I should pre-game. Also, based on the Frogs' road performances, please advise on where to drink my sorrows away, just in case.
TCU is a mess this year. We only had 5 defensive starters returning to begin with (4 on the line, 1 in the secondary), lost one of those 5 before the season (line) and another in game 3 (the only returner in the secondary). Of the 3 remaining returning defensive starters, 1 missed fall camp and the first 3 games and is just now getting back into shape, and another missed games 3-5 and looked real rusty in Manhattan. On top of that, the first two new starting linebackers have been lost (1 quit after game 1, the other injured in game 2) and one of our new starting safeties was injured early and is out for the season. On the offensive side, we've only lost 2 returning starter WRs for the season, and one that had missed several weeks came back last week. So, the team you see Saturday will have 1 starter from last year's defense and 8 from last year's offense. A far cry from the 5/9 we expected, and considering we've lost 3 "new" defensive starters, our defense resembles RG3's knees since going to Washington.
So, the plane with a giant red cross landing in Ames on Friday is TCU's team plane. Please send everyone back in one piece. Please.
On to the game. Snyder exploited every weakness TCU had in the first half. I'm worried about your stud freshman RB after watching K-State take 4 yards at will on the ground (and I'm dumbfounded as to why Snyder had his 8th string QB throw the ball in the third quarter). TCU's game plan will be what it was against K-State: have the offense score quickly and early and hope the TCU defense gets early stops to force Iowa State to try and play catch-up through the air. TCU didn't execute that game plan in the first half in Manhattan and fell behind 18 points. Then they executed that gameplan in the second half and K-State let us catch them, which you can't do against TCU's offense.
The game goes one of two ways: if TCU gets a couple early stops and goes up a couple TDs, game over pretty early (Tech-Iowa St type score). If Iowa State sustains early drives for touchdowns, it'll be a dog fight into the second half (TCU-K-State type score).
If you make me pick the score, I'm going the optimistic route (though I'm on the fence). So, Frogs 52, Cyclones 34 (late TD makes it look like a bigger W that it really was).
Good luck Saturday -- looking forward to this one!