By the time signing day arrives, there are no more surprises. But there is a signing day secret. At Allen High School's signing day, 30 student-athletes posed for pictures with a pen in hand, hovering over a blank piece of paper. Their real letters of intent had already been signed and faxed. Up until a couple weeks ago, the commitment from Eagles quarterback Matt Brown was going to Arizona. But Brown changed his mind and chose TCU after the Wildcats' offensive coordinator took another job. "When your offensive coordinator leaves, to a quarterback, that's really really really important," said Brown. "When he decided to leave, it was just one of those hard things, and TCU's coaching staff is one of those set-in-stone kind of deals, and I really like that, and their coaching staff has turned down a lot of jobs to stay there at TCU." Brown was one of 18 recruits to sign with TCU, although most of the others had decided even before the Fiesta Bowl to come to Fort Worth. Getting one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks this late in the game was a bonus for head coach Gary Patterson. "To have Matt available and know what he's been able to do as a quarterback in his high school career was a big positive for us," Patterson said. Brown's career included a 30-and-4 record as Allen's starting quarterback. He joins another winning program at TCU. "Being in high school, you want to win a state championship," said Brown. "Going to college, you want to win a national championship, and that's my thing, and the way I am: it's either win or nothing, and TCU has the same kind of mentality and I like that." "Winning's important, and to win at a high level takes a lot of work -- you just don't do that easily," said Patterson. "To have a guy that already believes in that kind of philosophy obviously helps you a lot if you don't have to change that." Not including Brown, who wasn't on TCU's radar until he de-committed from Arizona a couple weeks ago, Patterson's recruiting class wasn't much influenced by the Horned Frogs' BCS bowl game appearance. That's because this year's seniors already knew where they were going before the Fiesta Bowl. Next year is when TCU should reap the recruiting benefits from playing in a BCS game.
