TCU linebackers Dawson, Mallet exceed expectations
.JPG "Marcus Mallet, left, had big games against Baylor and Oklahoma this season. Paul Dawson, right, led the Big 12 in tackles with 128.")
TCU coach Gary Patterson wasn’t sold on his two linebackers in August.
Paul Dawson and Marcus Mallet each had started seven games the year before. They were both fast enough. They could hit hard enough.
But could they play instinctively enough at the position that covers the most ground in the defense — and potentially produces the most plays?
“It’s one of those situations where every day, you’re thinking, ‘How are you going to replace them?’” Patterson said. “And then you find out the next year, ‘How do you replace them?’ ”
That’s because Dawson and Mallet not only made Patterson’s training-camp questions go away, they became the most productive linebacker pair in the coach’s time at TCU.
Dawson’s Big 12-leading 128 tackles and Mallett’s 90 gave the Horned Frogs 218 out of the position, to go along with their combined 6 1/2 sacks, four fumble recoveries and five interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns.
“We’ve got five to seven guys playing in the NFL, and this was the best combo that we’ve ever had as [far as] production,” Patterson said. “You’d have to say we were very surprised by what happened.”
They probably wouldn’t blame Patterson for being surprised. Dawson was a receiver at Dallas Skyline who moved to linebacker in junior college for more action. Mallet had made plays, but left the starting lineup in the second half of the season as a junior.
“We thought it was going to be a so-so position,” Patterson said.
Instead, it became one of the standout positions. Mallet, a senior from the East Texas town of Cleveland, said he and Dawson simply started playing and thinking like one player instead of two.
“The bond that we have on the field, it starts at practice,” Mallet said. “Knowing how that person beside you is going to play. It helps speed up your game. We feed off each other in practice, and by the time it’s game time, once we recognize plays, we’re able to go because we know what each other is going to do and how each other plays. That just helps a lot.”
In September, Dawson said he needed all of last season to learn the defense, although he still had registered a team-high 91 tackles, including 17 in his first start.
His confidence in the defense showed this year. He returned the interception for a touchdown that beat Oklahoma, he had 18 tackles against Baylor, and he opened the Thanksgiving night game against Texas with tackles on the first three plays. He earned three first-team All-America honors, including from The Associated Press.
“I knew the potential was there. I knew athletically he was capable of doing it,” defensive coordinator Dick Bumpas said. “Now it was just a matter of, ‘Would he become a student of the game enough to do so?’ And he did.”
Something clicked for Mallet, also. His interception return for a touchdown against Baylor had given the Horned Frogs their 21-point lead with 11 minutes to go. He had eight solo tackles in that game, made a solo fourth-down stop to help win the Oklahoma game and had 3.5 tackles for loss against Texas.
“We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into,” Mallet said, remembering his and Dawson’s first years in the 4-2-5 (four linemen, two linebackers, five safeties) defense for Patterson. “We really didn’t know the defense. We were in the same boat. We kind of knew the defense, but we didn’t own the defense. This year, I feel like I own the defense, and him, too.”
Knowing what he knows now, Patterson is not surprised Dawson and Mallet emerged as they did.
“They’ve played four or five years, and when you have a program that builds players, that’ll happen when they get to their fifth year, when they really haven’t played a lot but all of a sudden they’re the guy,” Patterson said. “Both of them had pick-sixes. Both of them had fumble recoveries, made a lot of tackles. Both of them won the Oklahoma game.
“They both have done some unbelievable things in this season.”
Carlos Mendez, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published December 28, 2014 at 5:00 PM with the headline "TCU linebackers Dawson, Mallet exceed expectations."