QB Andy Dalton led three straight Top 10 seasons for the Horned Frogs, culminating with a Rose Bowl & 13-0 season in 2010
14 | QB Andy Dalton (2006-2010)
Another day, another all-time great behind center for the Horned Frogs. Three-time Bowl game MVP, two-time Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year led the Horned Frogs to unprecedented heights on the national stage including three Top Ten two BCS bids, two undefeated regular seasons, two Mountain West Championships, and a Rose Bowl trophy, shattering program passing records.
After redshirting his first year on campus, Dalton earned the starting job in 2007. That first season would prove his least successful, yet he still led the Frogs to a Texas Bowl win, putting up what was at the time the 2nd most passing yards in a single season in program history (2,691), a record he would break twice more in the years ahead. The 2008 campaign would be his worst statistical output, but he still led TCU to a Top 10 season, with the only losses coming on the road at National Runner-Up Oklahoma and at Sugar Bowl winner Utah, with a Poinsettia Bowl win over No. 9 Boise State.
Dalton would take the Horned Frogs up another level in 2009 & 2010 with consecutive Mountain West Championships behind consecutive undefeated regular seasons, passing for 5,613 yards and 50 touchdowns across the two seasons. The final game of his TCU career came in the Rose Bowl vs. No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers where he put up 247 total yards, a passing TD to WR Bart Johnson and a rushing touchdown on a zone read that put All-American defender J.J. Watt in a blender as TCU would win 21-19 to complete the perfect 13-0 season.
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An all-time great TCU quarterback, Dalton has three seasons that rank top ten in passing yardage and he sits second all time in career passing yards and third in career passing touchdowns. Dalton was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals with the 35th overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft where he would start for nine seasons, leading the Bengals to the postseason in five straight seasons after only making the playoffs twice the previous two decades. He was named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie and also in 2014 & 2016. Dalton has since played with the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, and currently is with the Carolina Panthers. He has accumulated 38,511 passing yards with 246 touchdowns, adding 1,477 yards and 22 scores on the ground.