Around 3 p.m. yesterday, TCU's superb sports information director, Mark Cohen, walked me out to Amon Carter Stadium, where the team was having its walk-through. (We'd spent the previous half hour killing time in the office of associate athletic director Scott Kull, who'd made several important points about the school's distinctive mascot. "The horned frog -- actually a spiny lizard -- subsists on a diet of red ants." It had long been believed that this creature was capable, when angered or frightened, of directing a four-foot stream of blood from its eyes. Kull tells me that's not blood, but rather, pre-digested red ants.)

Why the hell would I want to be over at Valley Ranch, listening to Kim Etheredge talk about how she actually didn't fish pills out of the mouth of her highest profile client, T.O., when I can be picking up tidbits like this?

The heat is stifling on the field. Patterson walks out in black pants and a black shirt. "This?" he says, when I mention the discomfort index. "To people around here, this feels like December."

Nearby, a man with a push-broom mustache is subjecting players to a quiz. This is Dick Bumpas, Patterson's defensive coordinator. "Tight Bow Slant, No. 7 -- what do you do?" he asks a player. Apparently the kid gives the right answer, because Bumpas keeps going around the circle.

Something you notice, being down on the field with the Frogs: not a lot of huge guys out here. The truth is, I've seen larger (and more ponderous) D-III teams. Patterson doesn't recruit size, he recruits speed. He runs a devilish 4-2-5 scheme with three safeties and two corners. TCU has five guys along its defensive line who played running back in high school. Everybody can run, everybody is in superb shape. Through last season and the first three games of '06, TCU has given up a total of 31 fourth-quarter points. The Horned Frogs had 40 takeaways in '05, a season that began with their upset of Oklahoma and ended with a win over Iowa State in something called the EV1.net Houston Bowl. This team, currently ranked third in run defense, has boasted the nation's top-ranked defense twice under Patterson.

Simply put, TCU is far and away the best team that is not a member of a BCS conference. The reigning Mountain West champs have won their last four against Big 12 opponents. The most recent of those triumphs was a shocking, 12-3 victory over prolific, heretofore unstoppable Texas Tech. The swarming, blitzing Frogs held the Red Raiders without a touchdown for only the second time in 79 games under Tech head coach Mike Leach, who could not contain his disgust after the game.

"That was the sorriest offensive effort I've ever seen," he proclaimed. "Today, I coached the worst offense in America, which makes me the worst offensive coach in America."

While Leach gave credit to the victors, it was halfhearted praise. ("I think TCU deserves some credit, and I'll be all nice about that, and politically correct," he said.)

Patterson, for his part, blew a gasket. Would it kill opposing coaches to give some of the credit to the players that just shut you down? "People have been underselling our kids for years," he said. "All they ever want to do is talk about the Big 12. We're not the Big 12 but just a Texas team playing with Texas players" -- and beating every Big 12 team that shows up on their schedule.

Then, the money quote:

"I get tired of being treated like the stepchild in this state and in this town. My kids do, too."

Patterson recalls his outburst with a touch of sheepishness, now. But you can tell he's glad he got it off his chest. It's an uphill pull for media attention in the Metroplex. In addition to the ongoing soap opera being directed by Jerry Jones at Valley Ranch, there are Stars, Mavs, Rangers, Astros and Longhorns to contend with. That's part of the reason the team has trouble selling out its 44,000-seat stadium. They're expecting 35,000 for today's BYU game, although some of that crowd may be late in arriving, thanks to local traffic conditions and the unwieldy, TV-dictated 5 p.m. Central time kickoff. As a subtle nudge to get fans to the stadium on time, the athletic department took out an ad in yesterday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram asking readers, with mock seriousness, "Have you caught Frog Fever?" then advising them, "You might need to get out of work early." Below this advisory is a "coach's note" from Patterson allowing the bearer to get out of work early "this Thursday, September 28."

The surest way for Patterson and his crew to cure themselves of the Stepchild Syndrome is to keep winning. (Last year they followed up that monster victory over the Sooners with a letdown loss to lowly SMU.) Should the Frogs win out, they're all but certain to end up in the top 12 of the BCS standings, which would earn them an automatic -- and very, very lucrative -- bid to a BCS bowl. This season, the Fiesta bowl gets last pick of teams. Which means -- nothing personal, TCU -- that's where the Frogs would probably end up.

A likely opponent? The Texas Longhorns.

Can't you just see the headline?

Stepchildren No More.

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