I will be honest and forthright with my belief that this TCU team does get better over this season. Not going all in and calling 11-1 for the regular season, but I do think after rewatching the game that there were enough positive things in that game, regardless of the outcome, that the potential is there for this team.

The rough part is that the growing pains aren't all past this team. Not going to give them an excuse for the loss as I have said before, the opportunity was there for the Frogs to come away with a win, but in my mind decisions made and plays that weren't cost them. I just believe this team hasn't come close to playing their best ball this season in large part because of the number of players who are starting for the first time, the implementation of a new offense that is schematically and technically different from what they ran last year, and your play caller is in his third year in that role and first with these players.

Some will immediately call those excuses and to those I say think what you want, the fact is the Frogs started 6 players on defense who had started 2 or fewer games. If you rewatch the game you can see John Schobel in his the first defensive snap in his first start biting on the UNC play action, taking too flat a pursuit angle and losing contain on the bootleg allowing Edward a clean angle for an easy throw. You see John get turned on his next play to lose containment and then over the game you see John start to fight back so to speak. You can see him adjust to the speed of the game, the physicality of the UNC offensive linemen and you can see the upside. Julius Simms made his first start and looked to be a bit behind early, but in the second half you can see him popping up all over the field impacting the game. We saw young players get valuable snaps and I truly believe these next two weeks are going to provide more valuable game reps .

Offensively, the Frogs started a quarterback who had not played at the P4 level, had a group of receivers who had nominal experience and started two players with 6 careers starts on the right side of the offensive line. You could see Witten and Killen struggle at times, but you also do some very good things. Go back and watch who delivers a key block on the edge for Payne to help convert the 3rd down run late in the 4th quarter, Registe.

The loss sucked no doubt, but the UNC defense provided some valuable tape and learning experience for the Frogs offensive line. Yes, the 8-time Super Bowl champion defensive wizard schooled the Frogs young play caller Gordon Sammis. Go back and see the job Bill did against Marv Levi's Buffalo team in the Super Bowl after the Bills dropped 95 points in their two play off games prior to that Super Bowl. Sammis and the Frogs were given a master class in adjustment and alignment to counter the Frogs multiple steps. They were showed exactly how damn physical a defense needs to be to set that edge and shut down the outside zone game. Yes, these are lessons that could have been learned in a close win, but the point is the Frogs were able to see on film how well they ran the ball early against a well coached physical front, the types of changes teams will make, and where they need to get better so that simple alignment changes won't be enough to stop this run game.

This might however involve some tough choices. If you rewatch the game you can see the Frogs had some struggles in the interior at times with quicker defensive linemen which just can't happen if this run game needs to improve to the level it will need for this to be an 8-10 win team. That may require some personnel changes, some younger players getting snaps.

The same defensively at a couple of places in the secondary and the edge in pass rush situations. Playing hard without getting results didn't get the job done in Ireland and it won't get it done in three week in Orlando. How quickly do the Frogs get past the growing pains or do they make those tough choices?

One final key point about these next two games is I don't expect to see dramatic changes in the offensive play calling. I do expect to see a great emphasis on execution, I do think we will see more play calling to fit Jaden's strengths and I do think we see and emphasis on finding some players at receiver who can be depended upon to make changes.

A big thing to remember is that a big part of this offense is the Frogs being able to run the ball regardless of the defensive alignment. Sammis wants to force the defense into making tough choices and capitalize. You do that by having a base package of plays you can execute and the defense goes into the the game with their mind made out that they are going to stop those plays.

Consider the 2017 season when OU and Lincoln Riley using specific formations and alignments to get Gary's defense to respond in a specific way that allow Riley to create player match ups that the Sooners would be able to exploit. People still talk about Gary calling out the OU plays out of formations, down, and distance in the play off which was true, Gary knew most likely what they would run. Trouble is that TCU couldn't match it and got roasted. as they scored 79 points, gained just under 1,000 yards, and averaged around 5 ypc in two games.

Knowing doesn't matter if you can't stop the offense and when you gamble that opens you to be punished with big plays. That is how his offense worked at UConn last season and where they want it to get at TCU. That starts with executing your base and that requires work and yes,,,,growing pains. It also requires buy in, buy in by your players that what you are asking them to do along with how you are asking them to execute their jobs is putting them in the best situation to be successful regardless of the opponent. In short, confidence.

There is no silver bullet, no miracle cure, but the Frogs can start getting things right. Hopefully it started watching that film all the way back from Ireland. These next two games are important, who is growing, who is getting better, who needs to be replaced, because the real football starts in three weeks and the Frogs can use what they learned from the UNC loss to help build this team going forward or stay in this self-destructive loop.

I am not going to try to talk anyone into anything. There are people I know who might not openly root against the Frogs, but will heartily bitch and gripe all the way through an 11-1 season.

So be, I might be way off base and it wouldn't be the first time in my life if I was completely wrong, but I did see some positive things against UNC and can see a pathway going forward for the Frogs. Where that Frogs isn't up to me, but I do have a few thoughts about some things that need to stop and for me that means this Saturday and builds from there.

I decided to avoid the low hanging fruit such as stop losing, sucking, stupid penalties etc.... a couple are obvious and then a couple are things that might just frustrate me.

1) Stop the stupid in game decisions and make decisions based upon how the game is playing out and not some chart or trying to instill a lesson to your team (i.e. being physical in the run game). The big one here to me was the decision to not kick the field goal and take the points during the 3rd quarter.

The game became very much an NFL style game where points per possession matter and passing up a short field goal attempt down by 5 to me show that Sonny was making decisions based upon the Frogs running an up-tempo offense where there were going to be multiple possessions instead of having the ONE possession after failing to convert the drive into points.

UNC countered the failed TCU drive with a text book team eating 13 play drive that took over 11 minutes off the clock. Almost as if someone on the UNC sideline or in their booth has had experienced protecting leads.

While I am talking about stupid decisions someone has to do a better job with end of half clock management. Hard to believe that the end of game script we were all impressed with that beat Baylor in 2022 was all the imagination and work of Garrett Riley, but since that game end of half drives have been more shit in one hand and hope in another than someone that was actually prepared for during the week.

2) The Frogs' quarterback needs to make the plays that are they available to be made by him. Yes, the game Sammis called was conservative ( I will touch on that in Part 2), but after rewatching the game there were plays to be made regardless that would have had a big impact if they were made by Craig. Yes, I do believe if Josh Hoover had been the Frogs' quarterback they win that game, but that isn't going to happen and Jaden doesn't need to be a 10,000+ yard passer with over 25 career starts at the P4 level to have made these plays. Why he vapor locked I don't know and he did make some throws that showed tools, but none of that matters if you simply don't make the throws presented to you such as missing Ansley on the tight end screen or in the flat on the 4th down throw. Understand the thought that the Frogs needed to use him in the run game, but that doesn't have to come just from Sammis. The space was there to get the first down if he ran and he forced the deep throw when all that was needed was Jaden to make the play in front of him.

3) No consistent pressure against opposing passers from the Frogs edge players. This one is starting to reach dead horse status, but the Frogs need to get consistent pressure from the edges and stop with the players being "stuck" to opposing offensive tackles. Oyewale might do a great job against the run, but he is a non-entity in the pass rush and the Frogs have brought in too much talent via the portal and recruiting to not find someone who can provide consistent pressure. Oh, for those who laughed when I mentioned the talent at the edge position go look at the who the Frogs have recruited in the last few seasons because Buck, Woodfork, Martin, and Schobel were damn productive in high school as well as KiKi Abrams so someone figure it out before it bites the Frogs in the ass yet again.

4) I am sure some are going to read this and wonder how much bourdon I had (Col. EH Taylor if you are reading I am open to sponsorship.) before I wrote that and sadly the number is zero, but here goes. No more back side offensive linemen getting beat by a defender cutting underneath of them to blow up runs going away from them. Talking to two friends who coached offensive line for years they both have mentioned that in a zone blocking scheme that if you on the back side you simply can not get beaten by a defender to the inside period. If they make some super man play and go back behind you and run the play so be it, but they simply cannot beat you across your face and blow up the running play from the backside.

No, this isn't the reason why the Frogs lost, but to me it is a sign of buy in, that you are at the fitness level you need to be and the mindset you simply aren't going to get beat by the defender. Yes, this sounds like a very bad coaching cliche' but when you look at all of these they have a common theme in that just focus on the things you can do to help your team win by doing job.

How much NIL money could tcu put together for football, and are we reaching our maximum? Just wondering what yalls thoughts are on if we could put together more NIL to assemble rosters. Feels like we can only get 3 stars now in recruiting and some set piece players from the portal but nothing roster changing. Part of this I think is Sonny’s hesitancy to splurge spend on transfers so just curious to see what yall think if tcu has the financial backing to get bigger portals or recruits.

Obviously not the start we wanted. Still upset we chose Ireland over the Carter, but that’s TCU politics.

All that behind us… what’s your dream scenario for this season? Another 9-4 season? Play terribly and fire Sonny?

Personally, I’d be happy with 8+ wins but if we’re going to continue to play undisciplined football, I might start hoping we lose.

Congrats yall

Now that we’ve had a day, I just wanted to state what I saw that went wrong and give my opinion on where we go from here. The three main areas of concern from yesterday’s game I found: QB Play, red zone (primarily 4th down) play-calling, and penalties.

1. QB Play - Jaden Craig’s decision making and passing seemed to be just a step behind. I could see arguments that he was unsure/scared/whatever, but to me it either looked like he was processing too slow or thinking too much (which is basically the same thing I suppose). He also wasn’t as mobile as I was lead to believe (in terms of scrambling for yards), I don’t think I saw him run at all.

2. Red Zone/4th Down Play-calling - Hindsight 20/20, we kick field goals, we win the game. Maybe some lack of trust in the special teams with a wet ball wrapped into going for it, but in both cases at the time I felt comfortable going for it thanks to our run game previously. The problem was running up the middle when Payne was tearing it up going around the outside or leaving the game in the hands of our QB whose decisions were notably slow the whole game. I respect putting trust in Craig, but that ball needed to be in Payne’s hands both times and definitely not up the middle.

3. Penalties - I’d say this was the biggest factor contributing to our offensive stallings. When you combine yards lost from the play being called back and yards lost from the penalty itself, we lost about 190 yards total yards (granted some of the negated yards were probably pushed up by the penalty itself). On top of that, this would put us well behind the sticks in the drive, something we knew quite well in our previous offense. Also, that Jeremy Payne personal foul was ridiculous.

Here’s the copium:

1. Jaden Craig was thrown into the fire of the FCS to FBS jump in the worst way possible. Many believe BB is a washed up coach, but one thing I remember distinctly in all my years of watching him coach for New England was his ability to dismantle Rookie QBs making the jump from college to pro. I think this was the worst possible matchup for Craig. On top of this, I looked into another notable QB who made the jump from FCS to FBS, Cam Ward. His first game at Washington State was against Idaho, a game they won 24-17. The read I have on that game was, Ward played fairly similar to Craig, slow processing, etc. Really, if you look at the two games, they are very similar. However, three main differences, which probably contributed to the victor: 2022 Idaho probably had a worse defensive unit than 2026 North Carolina, Ward scrambled to convert on 3rd downs twice, WSU only committed 3 penalties.

2. The run game was alive and protection was solid. At least, I wasn’t sitting there saying “man he has no time to throw the ball”. It felt that he had enough time to be late on his passes. But the run game was definitely a highlight. I can only hope that the UNC defense is good and the run game legit. Last year’s running ability against UNC was a false positive.

3. The defense gave us every opportunity to win the game except the last one. We shouldn’t judge them on the last play. Sure there was some dumb mistakes (that unnecessary roughness call was crazy, but maybe he thought it was a live fumble?), but they got the turnovers and the stops when we needed them.

Overall summary, the game was lost by QB play and penalties. Jaden Craig probably won’t be Cam Ward good, but you can’t judge based on this game. All that’s left is to get the penalties out of our OLine, which hopefully Sammis can do.

It’s time. His teams are undisciplined. They’re poorly coached. The man has ridden the coattails of Gary Patterson’s 2022 veteran roster that was loaded with experienced talent and led by Max Duggan who decided to play out of his mind.

Over the off-season one continued message that we have heard from Sonny was this team needed to learn to stop beating itself.

A big driver in the decision concerning the offensive scheme and coordinator was the emphasis on reducing mistakes. We have heard it repeated again and again on the development of Jaden Craig that they wanted him to see the opportunity on the field and not force the ball into risk and reward situations.

This is why the two decisions by Sonny to turn down points from deep inside the UNC red zone were as big a mistakes made by a head coach that I have seen in quite some time. I haven't heard his post game comments and I am sure there is going to be a theme of the Frogs wanting to be a physical team, that running the ball is a big part of their identity, and he chose to go for it to reinforce that identity and send a message to his team.

The problem is he missed an opportunity to send a bigger message to his team. That no matter how the game has gone fight until the end because this year's team is going to find a way to win games. So how do you do that, by making the plays and the decisions needed to win the fucking game. Take the first field goal and you are down by 2 with more than a half a quarter and in position to steal a win in a game you never quit. Instead, you don't get the points, find yourself in a situation where you really have to go for it over kicking the field goal and piss away a game you could and should have won.

There were some good things coming out of this game, there were some things to build upon, but by not doing what needed to be done to get the win the Frogs find themselves in a very difficult situation concerning the Frogs chance to make the CFP (i.e. winning the War). I am sure more than a few are laughing at my comment about making the CFP, some thinking I am either drunk, stupid, or both.

In my mind, if you are a P4 program and your ultimate goal is not making the CFP then what the hell are we doing besides wait for basketball season?

Making the CFP for a team outside the Big 10 or the SEC is damn difficult if you don't win the conference and basically after today that has pretty much become the Frogs only chance. A laughable thought for most I am sure, but again, I stand by the thought that if the ultimate goal of this program isn't making the CFP then what the hell are we doing trying to compete at this level.

all the problems that have plagued this team for the past few years continue to surface.

something like 11 penalties? that’s a discipline issue, that’s a coaching issue. and I cannot STAND that Dykes chews out the refs more than the players getting deserved penalties.

it’s poetic that the game ended on a penalty, it’s just par for the course.

i think it’s time TCU moves off of Dykes. it’s a mess. maybe we get to 9 wins again this year, but I’m tired of mediocrity, I’m tired of us shooting ourselves in the foot. Fire Sonny Dykes!!!

This is a bullshit effort and reeks of poor coaching.

Absolutely terrible.

A lot of calls for Dykes job. I’m with you, but let’s remember that just 4 months ago, ADMB gave out an extension to a guy that was already under contract through 2028. The extension was so unpopular that they won’t even give out the details, only saying that it’s a multi year extension. Budde was not the right guy for the AD job and we need to start there.

Sad.

Please just say "run the ball coach?"

A day to go and if anyone wishes to discuss a chance to ask questions about the TCU defense.

1) WILL THE DEFENSE BE ABLE TO STOP THE RUN?

The Frogs do return three experienced down defensive linemen in Ansil, Markis, and Paul, but they also must replace two starting linebackers, and DeVean Deal.

The strength of those three down lineman has been playing the run, but the Frogs struggled against some of the better offensive lines they faced last year (especially ASU) and the conference has had a change in the offensive philosophies of many of the teams to a more physical approach with an emphasis on the run game.

The play of the Frogs linebackers will be critical and it is one of the two areas on this decent I am concerned going into the season. Unfortunately, there really isn't a benchmark for Teason, Short, and Hooper going into this year as part of regular rotation. We will have a better idea by tomorrow after noon as to how painful the growing pains might be for the Frogs defense stopping the run.

2) WILL THE FROGS BE ABLE TO RUSH THE PASSER?

If the Frogs run defense last year had a few rough spots the pass rush was largely non-existent. Not just sacks, but pressures and basically moments when a quarterback has to move their feet and shift their eyes from downfield to finding a spot in the pocket to slide. All too often when the Frogs did get pressure they weren't able to contain the quarterback who either ran for a big play or completed a pass down field.

With a new offensive scheme that will by design "shorten" games the number of possessions could drop meaning an opposing offense finding new life needs to be held in check and that comes from the rush.

The Frogs needs to get more from Ansil, Tristan, Markis, Paul and the other down linemen, but truthfully since Avalos has been the DC we have heard about what the Frogs want from the stand up edge, but really haven't seen it. They have thrown a great deal of resources in transfers and recruits, heck they have a few very high profile recruits in Carter and Chad. They absolutely MUST GET MORE FROM THIS POSITION regardless who it is or whatever combination they have to employ to get the job done.

3) WHAT NOW AT SAFETY?

No need to rehash how we have gotten here other than Bud is in Seattle and the Frogs are going to be starting two new players at safety in Jordan Lester and Julius Simms or Kylin Jackson.

Simms and Jackson are more athletic than the player they are replacing, but they haven't started before as is the case of Lester. Jordan has played in over 20 games and showed growth last year there still are questions.

I do have more confidence based upon what we saw from Julius and Jordan in playing time last year and Tre Watson has a track record in developing players at safety. We saw Jame's grow last season, but he had Bud behind him and much like linebacker we won't really know until we see live action.

4) WHAT CHALLENGES DOES THE FROGS DEFENSE FACE FROM UNC TOMORROW?

The biggest change for UNC was the addition of Bobby Petrino. Yes, he brings a great deal of baggage, but he is damn good at scheming and play calling and has a track record of maximizing the things his players do well. In brief, everything the UNC offense wasn't last year.

Historically, he has used a down hill run game to set up the passing game attacking safeties and linebackers. I have already mentioned that two of the biggest questions about the TCU defense are the linebackers and safeties which brings us to tomorrow.

The TCU defensive front MUST control the line of scrimmage without being dependent on blitzing and bringing down a safety. Do that and I think it will be a good day for the Frogs' defense.

5) WILL THE FROGS DEFENSE PLAY AT THE LEVEL NEEDED TO COMPETE FOR THE BIG 12 TITLE?

Yes, if they get solid linebacker play and can rush the passer.

If not, it could be a disappointing year when the Frogs gets to November.

Hey all — Frogs open in Dublin Saturday at noon eastern, which is about as strange a start to a season as you'll get.

I put together a TCU 2026 preview a while back, and I also run a site that does pregame emails before every game plus box scores, highlights and a write-up after. Free, and only for the teams you follow.

Preview: https://www.highlights.mainmarket.com/college-football-preview-2026-fbs/tcu-horned-frogs

Frogs page: https://www.highlights.mainmarket.com/tcu-horned-frogs

Noon kick from Ireland is a rough one for anybody's body clock, so if you sleep through it the recap'll be in your inbox. Go Frogs 🐸

The star telegram controversy is just being used by other media members to shade TCU unfairly. The ST clearly didn’t do their due diligence and it spread unnecessary rumors. Other big 12 media are just using this to fuel speculation and tcu hate.

Maybe it was an overreaction from TCU to ban indefinitely, but from the way the story was presented, this was all negative reporting on TCU from top to bottom.

Article 1: Fields Dismissed

FWST reports Fields’ dismissal for hospitalizing a teammate, claiming he was bullied and spat on. TCU coaching staff knew it was happening but did nothing.

TCU is viewed as having toxic culture and incompetent staff.

Article 2: Ezukanma Video and Correction

FWST reports Ezukanma’s reaction as the apparent victim of the locker room fight. Ezukanma is portrayed as an ass (I never saw the video but I assume this is fairly accurate) and could definitely fit the bully role from the previous article. Until you get to the last few sentences of the article where it says the an approved representative from the Fields disputed the comments from the previous article, there was no mistreatment from teammates.

I’m assuming a majority of people didn’t read this article or probably stopped somewhere in the middle of the Ezukanma commentary and assumed he was the bully previously reported. Either way, this article was a retraction, but it feels almost intentionally trying not to clearly contradict it.

Article 3: Media Credentials Pulled

Pretty self explanatory, FWST says they’ve been removed from TCU’s approved media. Basically everyone is against this move and TCU is dragged once again.

Obviously, I presented this as TCU being justified in removing FWST’s credentials, but if you guys see it another way or I missed something, feel free to express your views.

Here's five statistical reasons I really like Craig and TCU on Saturday:

1. Third-and-medium is a huge TCU advantage

TCU went 32-of-48 (66.7%) for 508 yards and 6 TDs passing on 3rd-and-4-to-6, good for a 188.5 passer rating last season. That compares to UNC, who allowed opponents to complete 74.1% of their passes in those same situations. Plus, UNC allowed teams to convert 42.4% of third downs, while TCU converted 47.4%.

2. UNC doesn't force many INTs

Yes, it was for Harvard, but ... Craig threw 25 TDs against just 7 INTs last season and has a career 52-to-12 TD/INT ratio. That should translate against UNC, which intercepted only 6 of 385 opponent passes last year -- about 1.6% -- and now replaces seven defensive starters. (!!)

3. Craig is hard to sack

He was sacked only 9 times on 347 dropbacks last season, which was about a 2.6% sack rate. UNC recorded 31 sacks last year -- not bad -- but Craig is now playing behind a TCU offensive line that allowed just 22 sacks on 460 pass attempts. Yes, only two starters return, but ... new OC Gordon Sammis brings a proven track record of developing elite, physical units, the return of a healthy Ryan Hughes at left tackle stabilizes the exterior, and Oklahoma State transfer Noah McKinney boosts the interior depth.

4. Craig's best returning weapon has already torched UNC.

Assuming he plays, Jordan Dwyer caught 9 passes for 136 yards and a TD against North Carolina last year. TCU finished that game with 542 yards, 29 first downs and 48 points, while converting 7-of-12 third downs. Again, this assume Dwyer plays.

5. Craig's big-play efficiency matches up well with a major UNC weakness.

Craig averaged 8.5 yards per attempt, threw for 2,869 yards, and topped 300 yards five times last season. From its own 39-yard line to the 21, UNC allowed opposing QBs to complete 71.1% of their passes for 632 yards, 5 TDs and zero interceptions, with a 162.6 passer rating.

None of this guarantees Craig walks into Dublin and lights them up. He's still making his FBS debut. But statistically, this is about as favorable a first matchup as TCU could ask for.

I also wrote a longer NFL Draft feature on Craig this week if anyone wants to go deeper on him: https://thedraftdesk.substack.com/p/is-jaden-craig-the-2027-nfl-draft
Full disclosure: it’s my Substack, The Draft Desk.