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By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Tommy Blake went to TCU expecting to run for touchdowns, not chase quarterbacks.
Chase Ortiz also made a position switch, then watched from the sideline for two seasons before moving up to the third team on the preseason depth chart last year.
With impressive transitions, Blake and Ortiz are now an imposing set of 6-foot-3 defensive ends for the No. 16 Horned Frogs (3-0).
"They set an example for everybody else in terms of the speed of the game, how hard you can go, how hard you can play," defensive coordinator Dick Bumpas said. "It forces all the other people around them to play hard and try to match them."
Blake and Ortiz were first-team All-Mountain West Conference picks as sophomores last season, their first on the field together.
They also ranked 1-2 in the league in quarterback sacks.
They're still setting the tone for the Frogs, whose 13-game winning streak is the longest in Division I-A. In a 12-3 victory last weekend, TCU held one of the nation's best passing teams without a touchdown only two years after a 10-TD assault by Texas Tech in a 70-35 loss.
But Blake and Ortiz had different plans when they arrived three years ago.
Blake was an all-state tailback in high school, a 2,000-yard rusher with 25 TDs who wanted to do the same thing for TCU. There weren't even any conversations about changing positions until the coaches switched him to defensive that first fall.
"I ran the ball my whole life, since pee wee football, and I'm used to just running away from people or through people," Blake said. "I used to like scoring touchdowns. Now it's more let me stop the touchdown and let me get the quarterback. It's an adrenaline rush."
Bumpas called it a natural move for Blake, describing him as "big and strong, can run and has a higher top-end at a defensive position than running back."
Ortiz was a high school tight end and linebacker who expected to play that defensive spot. Even though his switch wasn't as drastic, it took Ortiz longer to adjust to lining up with his hand on the ground as a defensive end.
Both redshirted in 2003, using that time to learn their new positions.
Blake bulked up 20 pounds to 250 and played in every game the next season, when he had five sacks and was selected to the Conference USA all-freshman team. But Ortiz didn't make it on the depth chart and never played a game in 2004.
"It was definitely frustrating. Now looking back, I don't know why it took me so long," Ortiz said. "It was tough watching other people play. It got me to do what I needed to do to play."
That extra season on the sideline allowed Ortiz to gain needed weight and work on techniques such as using his hands to get off blocks. A third-teamer when practice began, he quickly showed the coaches he had figured out his new position.
Ortiz earned a starting role and led the MWC in sacks with nine, two more than Blake. The 255-pound left end also had 14 tackles for losses.
"Something about those two-a-days, stuff just started clicking," Ortiz said. "I started getting the hang of things."
With Blake and Ortiz rushing from opposite sides, often meeting at the quarterback, the Frogs had another 11-win season. TCU made its MWC debut beating all eight league opponents, with only two scoring more than 20 points.
Roommates on the road who spend hours talking about upcoming games and the position both are still trying to perfect, the converted ends have developed quite a kinship.
"Chase motivates me because he's another defensive end that's pretty good," Blake said.
"The little success that we've had at defensive end together, that definitely brought us closer together," Ortiz said. "Each of us wants each other to be successful. We're both going as fast as we can out there."
For the second year in a row, TCU opened the season with a road
victory against a Big 12 team, 17-7 at Baylor. Both ends caused turnovers deep in Frogs territory when they still trailed after halftime -- Blake stripped the quarterback and recovered the fumble before Ortiz got his first career interception on a deflected pass.
Both had sacks and forced fumbles against Texas Tech, held to only 242 total yards while its quarterback got sacked six times.
"Some of it is natural instinct. Both do an exceptional job of anticipating now of what they're about to get and what to do," Bumpas said. "But they both have a lot of room for improvement, and I expect them to continue to get better and better each game."
For opposing quarterbacks, that means another full season of Blake and Ortiz after this one.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-09-20-06 1455MDT
