TCU senior Casey Pachall has no doubt that hes NFL caliber

TCU hosted its annual Pro Day on Thursday. It's the last chance Horned Frog seniors have at proving they can make it at the next level.

The man most people were there to see was Casey Pachall. The senior quarterback has been through a lot in his tenure at TCU.

He was the heir apparent to Andy Dalton, expected to lead the Frogs into the Big 12 era and beyond. His great start was tarnished with the DUI arrest and rehab stint. Then he had his triumphant return, only to be stalled due to a broken arm against Southeastern Louisiana University. He came back, but wasn't quite himself.

Even though, he's hoping the NFL is his next stop. And he's confident that it will be.

"No doubt in my mind," Pachall said that he can be an NFL quarterback.

He was disappointed by the fact that he wasn't invited to the NFL combine.

"It bothered me temporarily, but I can't think about that," Pachall said. "I can only focus on the opportunities that I've been given."

The latest opportunity he has was the very important Pro Day since he couldn't go to the combine.

"I felt like I did very well today. I had two misfires, but other than that, I felt good," Pachall said of his 72 pass attempts. "It was important, especially after I broke my arm and didn't get as much work as I would have liked this year. Not getting invited to the combine makes it more important because not only did I not get a chance, I have a limited amount of time."

He did look like he was back to normal throwing passes Thursday. He had some good zip on his short passes. Most of the long balls had good touch on them, but a couple may have been slightly undert hrown. His receivers were OK, and I don't know how much of an affect that has on the Pro Days, but the only former TCU WR he had today was Antoine Hicks, class of 2012. The others were friends and high school teammates.

Even though he's had the shaky last two years, he feels that he's right there with the quarterbacks that were invited to the combine.

"I didn't feel behind. I just felt that other guys had a step on me had the advantage because they got to play the whole season," Pahcall said. "Athletically, I didn't feel behind. After watching a little bit of the combine, I think I could have gone there and done my thing around those guys and turned a few heads."

The most frustrating thing for him about missing the combine was not getting the chance to meet with teams.

"Those meetings were the biggest things I missed," Patterson said. "They can get to know you as a person and see your take on things."

He doesn't have any meetings set up with teams yet, but he expects his agent to handle that. He did meet with a couple coaches after the Medal of Honor bowl.

"More than 60 percent is off the field. They aren't going to want to invest a lot of money on you if you can't keep your head on right and stay out of trouble," Pachall said. "That's the big thing with me and my shaky past. That's a big key for them when it comes down to drafting me or signing me. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing. As long as I keep my rap sheet clean, that's how I'm going to do it."

TCU coach Gary Patterson expects Pachall will have a chance somewhere in someway. Wether he gets drafted or not, he's going to get a chance.

"I can't have the attitude that I have to get drafted," Pachall said. "Whatever opportunity i'm given I have to take. All it takes is one opportunity."

Comments on TCU

Pachall made national headlines last week for saying that TCU lacked leadership. He took some time Thursday to address that and say that his context wasn't exactly conveyed correctly.

"In no way as I dissing TCU in any way. I was just challenging them and they know it. There were some things I said that weren't included. They know I wasn't dissing them. They know how I meant for it to come off. Not how everyone in the world saw it."