Daily Skiff

Media Credit: Chance Welch TCU head coach Gary Patterson shows off the new Nike Horned Frog helmet to journalists at the press conference Tuesday. [Click to enlarge]

Frog head coach Gary Patterson put country singer Taylor Swift to shame talking about Cinderella fairy tale stories Tuesday at his weekly press conference.

Patterson addressed the excitement around this weekend's game and why the nation is latching on to this year's Frog team.

"Everybody likes a Cinderella story, but we're just trying to get to the ball," Patterson said. "To get the ball, you gotta get dressed, you've got to get into the pumpkin and it's got to turn into a carriage. Then you have the stepmom and she doesn't want you to go and then you may not even be able to know how to dance."

That ball, of course, is the party put on each January by the BCS, which the Frogs hope to crash. Utah was in the same position last year after they beat the Frogs and Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham made sure the nation knew how far his Utes had come. Patterson, however, believes the Frogs' play speaks louder than any of his words.

"A couple weeks ago I said we needed to go play and we played well and we've gone up spots," Patterson said. "We've got to go play. If we in the next few weeks can go win a conference championship then I think we'll have an opportunity to do what we need to do."

If Patterson's Frog tale is true, the Frogs are ready to be dressed for the ball in the brand new uniforms they were given. Patterson said he was proud of the effort Nike put forth making the new uniforms.

"It's something to tell a story about TCU," he said. "This is not about Utah. This is about telling the story of TCU."

At the end of the conference, Patterson displayed the new helmet and gave his take on it.

"I think it's a pretty good looking helmet," Patterson said. "We'll find out, we'll all like it if we win, if we don't win, we won't like it as much."

But in every good fairy tale, there is a love story, and Patterson wants to make sure the Fort Worth community is ready to go to the dance as well.

"My goal is to not break Fort Worth's heart," he said. "I want people to understand we haven't been doing this just for us, we've been doing it since the very beginning. There's been up years since 1938 then ten years of not being very good. What I want people to do is believe in it and be a part of it and cherish the experience, not just be we won a ball game. This is one of those situations that you get a chance to remember the rest of your life."

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