Head coach Gary Patterson has guided TCU to five 10-win seasons — more than any other coach in school history (photo by gofrogs.com).

When the SMU Mustangs and TCU Horned Frogs square off at 7 p.m. Saturday at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth in the teams' annual Battle for the Iron Skillet, the game will feature a pair of teams with a combined record of 5-1. The Ponies are off to a 2-1 start, but the Horned Frogs are 3-0, and ranked No. 11 in the nation by the Associated Press. The Frogs have road victories over a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference team, in Virginia and Clemson, are loaded with preseason all-Mountain West Conference players and have the preseason Offensive Player of the Year (quarterback Andy Dalton), Defensive Player of the Year (defensive end Jerry Hughes) and Special Teams Player of the Year (kicker Ross Evans).

In other words, the Ponies are facing their biggest challenge of the year … by far. The Frogs are coached by Gary Patterson, who has produced five 10-win seasons in the last seven years, three more than any other coach in TCU history. His 76-27 record is the best in school history among coaches who have been on the sideline for at least 100 games, and his .738 winning percentage is the second-best in school history among coaches with at least 20 games on the TCU sidelines.

One reporter who was in attendance at last week’s 14-10 TCU victory at Clemson called the Horned Frogs “boring” … and meant it as a compliment, adding that “you know exactly what they’re going to do, but they do it very well.”

OFFENSE

The Horned Frogs are averaging 33.3 points per game, and number that spiked because of a 56-21 pounding of Texas State in their second game of the season, and 37 of their 71 first downs this season have come on the ground. Not surprisingly, the Frogs are averaging better than 200 rushing yards per game (217.0), but what is a little unusual for TCU is that the Horned Frogs are above the 200-yard mark (208.3) passing yards per game, as well.

Quarterback Andy Dalton has completed more than 70 percent of his passes this season (photo by gofrogs.com).

The TCU offense is led by quarterback Andy Dalton, a 6-3, 215-pound junior who is completing 70.4 percent of his passes (50-of-71) for 625 yards, four passing touchdowns and just one interception.

“He’s just really efficient,” SMU cornerback Derrius Bell said. “He’s about a 70 percent passer, which is really good. He doesn’t make dumb plays. He’s only got one interception all year and (four) touchdown passes, so he takes good care of the ball. He’s not going to do anything to mess up the game, because he believes in their defense and what their defense can do, so he’ll just take care of the game and do what he has to do to manage the game.”

Dalton might be the pilot that steers the offense in Fort Worth, but the power comes from the Frogs’ stout running game, led by senior tailback Joseph Turner, a Doak Walker Award nominee who is leading the team in rushing for the third consecutive season (73.3 yards per game). If his per-game total isn’t that gaudy, his average of 6.9 yards per carry certainly is.

“He’s the real deal,” SMU senior linebacker Chase Kennemer said of Turner. “He’s a big (6-1, 225), strong back, and he has some speed, too. He punishes people, and if you don’t get square in your stance and step to contact, he’ll run you over. He does that all over the film, so we have to key on him and try to contain him. He’s a downhill, between-the-tackles guy. If he sees an opening on the edge, I’m sure he’ll take it, but they like to run downhill, inside.”

Unlike in some past years, the Horned Frogs now boast a trio of dangerous wide receivers, as well, in junior Jimmy Young, junior Jeremy Kerley and sophomore Antoine Hicks, a transfer from Texas. Young led the team with 59 receptions for 988 yards in 2008.

Bruising running back Joseph Turner is averaging 6.9 yards per carry (photo by gofrogs.com).

“Jimmy Young is their big-play receiver — he’s averaging somewhere around 20 yards a catch (actually 21.5), and they’ve got another good one in Jeremy Kerley,” Bell said. “More than anything, you can tell they buy into their system. They like to block — they’re real physical — and we’re going to have to do a really good job getting off their blocks and coming in to make the tackle.”

Of course, every offense is only as good as its offensive line, and TCU’s offensive line is very talented, and very large, averaging nearly 6-foot-4 and 317 pounds per man. Leading the way are a pair of behemoth tackles: 6-4, 320-pound Marshall Newhouse on the left side — who made some preseason All-America lists and was named to the Lombardi Award watch list — and right tackle Marcus Cannon, a 6-5, 350-pounder who earned All-Mountain West Conference honors last year in football and track and field (shot put).

DEFENSE

Patterson’s calling card is his defense, which runs out of a 4-2-5 base alignment, and this year’s version is no exception. The Frogs are allowing just 15.0 points per game through three games, and have allowed 39 first downs, including just 11 on the ground.

The headliner is left defensive end Jerry Hughes, who was named to virtually every preseason All-America team. SMU sophomore right tackle J.T. Brooks draws the assignment of blocking the TCU star this year, and said what makes Hughes so dangerous is his explosiveness and elite quickness at the snap of the ball.

“He’s one of the best D-ends in the country, as quick an end as you’ll see,” Brooks said. “He plays with great technique — everything he does, he does it exactly how he’s coached to do it. He gets off the ball extremely quickly. They pretty much turn him loose to rush the passer all the time, and he uses his hands well when guys get on him.”

But while Hughes is the marquee name on the Frogs’ defensive line, Brooks said he far from the only threat on the line of scrimmage.

Defensive end Jerry Hughes made virtually every All-America team before the 2009 season (photo by gofrogs.com).

“Their other D-end (Wayne Daniels) is pretty good, too,” Brooks said. “I know he’s in Hughes’ shadow, but he really does a good job, too. There’s honestly not much of a dropoff from Hughes to him. He’s not quite as quick, but what he does, he does really well.

“Their interior guys (6-2, 303-pound defensive tackle Cory Grant and 6-1, 295-pound nose tackle Kelly Griffin) are pretty big guys. They’re not the ones making the plays most of the time. They kind of let the D-ends fly upfield and make the plays, and they’ll sometimes have to clean up. But they’re a good group — they’re really powerful and play their gaps extremely well. They’ll stay in their gaps at all cost.”

Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell said that in addition to their pass rushing and strength up front, what sets the TCU defensive linemen apart from many of their counterparts at other schools is their pursuit.

“Mainly, it’s just how sound they play,” Mitchell said when asked what makes the TCU defensive line so dangerous. “It’s not really a certain guy — they play as a group, and all seven of those guys are going to be at the ball on every play. One thing they do really well is, you can break a play for 15 yards, and it’s the D-ends and the D-tackles that are catching back up to the running back. They’re not the kind of guys that are going to say ‘he ran past me — I’m done.’ They’re going to go out there and try to catch you.”

Linebackers Daryl Washington and Tank Carder rank first and second, respectively, in tackles with 28 and 18, respectively (Hughes is tied with Carder for second with 18).

“When you have D-ends who fly up the field on pass rush, you have to have linebackers who can come up and make plays on the run, and that’s what they do,” Brooks said. “They’re very good at getting downhill to the back, and they’re very quick to the line of scrimmage, because they’re expected to make those plays.”

Wide receiver Aldrick Robinson said while the TCU secondary has just two interceptions thus far in 2009 — one each by free safety Tejay Johnson and backup cornerback Jason Teague — the aggressive nature of the Frogs’ defensive backs just might well be the fastest group of defensive backs the Mustangs will face all season, but Mitchell said that speed could turn out to be an advantage for the Mustangs.

“We still think we can go out there and do our plays,” Mitchell said. “We feel like we can take the deep ball and we can take the short ball and try and beat them. They’re fast, so they really trust themselves, and sometimes that can be a bad thing, because they feel like they can come up and squat on our receivers, and that’s not really going to work against our guys, because they’re fast. They’ve done it in their first three games, and they’ve been successful at it.

“The thing about them is they don’t make mistakes. If they run a Cover 2, they’re going to be where they’re supposed to be; if they run a Cover 3, they’re going to be where they’re supposed to be.”

KEYS TO THE GAME

The Frogs have been quoted all week as saying they haven’t forgotten 2005, when they shocked Oklahoma but then got bounced of Gerald J. Ford Stadium — and the national spotlight — with a 21-10 loss at SMU. Despite TCU’s lofty national ranking, it’s highly unlikely the Frogs will be taking SMU lightly.

• Win the turnover battle — TCU is 38-1 over the last five seasons when winning or tying the battle of turnovers.

• Contain the TCU running game — it won’t be shut down completely, but the Ponies will benefit enormously if they can force the Horned Frogs into taking to the air and becoming one-dimensional, the Ponies’ chances improve considerably.

• Get SMU’s running game going — if the Ponies can muster up a running game against the TCU defense, the Frogs’ front seven won't be able to simply rush the passer on every play.