Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson
FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU quarterback Andy Dalton will start Thursday night against No. 9 BYU. Dalton has not played since suffering a right knee injury against Oklahoma on Sept. 27, but he has practiced.
In the four games prior to his injury and part of the Oklahoma game, Dalton completed 79 of 139 passes for 818 yards but did not throw a touchdown pass. Dalton did most of his scoring on the ground. He's rushed for 216 yards and five touchdowns.
Dual-threat quarterbacks have not been kind to BYU. Northern Iowa quarterback Pat Grace rushed for 72 yards on the Cougars and Washington's Jake Locker rushed for 62 yards and two touchdowns. The only dual-threat quarterback the Cougars have faced since the first two games of the year is Utah State's Diondre Borel, who rushed for 40 yards, his third-highest total of the season at the time.
Before Dalton suffered his knee injury against Oklahoma, he had rushed for at least one touchdown in every game. But there's no telling how well he'll be able to run in his first start back.
Backup quarterback Marcus Jackson has started the past two games and actually leads the team in rushing with 352 yards and three touchdowns.
Although TCU doesn't look like a offensive power judging by quarterback production, the Horned Frogs are averaging 403 yards per game and are 26th in the country with 33.71 points per game.
Watson joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four seasons covering the Missouri Tigers and the Big 12 Conference for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also covered college football recruiting for the Dallas Morning News.
