Editor’s note: Third in a series previewing each team in the Big 12.
If you can ignore what happened in the Big 12 championship game and totally erase the College Football Playoff championship game from your memory, not much went wrong for TCU in Sonny Dykes’ first season in Fort Worth, Texas.
What will the Horned Frogs and the veteran coach do for an encore?
“You know, nobody wants the honeymoon to be the best part of the marriage. We’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen here.” — TCU coach Sonny Dykes
That’s the question hovering over the program that went 9-0 in Big 12 play before falling 31-28 in overtime to Kansas State in the conference championship game. The Frogs then upset No. 2 Michigan 51-45 in a CFP semifinal, only to get crushed 65-7 by No. 1 Georgia in the final in Los Angeles.
Talk about a roller coaster of emotions for Frogs fans as the calendar turned from 2022 to 2023.
“You know, nobody wants the honeymoon to be the best part of the marriage,” Dykes told reporters after a spring practice in early April. “We’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen here.”
That might be more difficult than being competitive against the Bulldogs, who made TCU look like a cellar-dweller rather than the crew that went 12-0 before getting upset by KSU in Arlington, Texas.
If Dykes gets TCU within sniffing distance of the CFP this year, he should be named coach of the decade, perhaps the century.
TCU returns just 11 starters, and eight of those returners at the top of the depth chart play defense. Clearly, TCU’s offense faces a big overhaul, and not just because gritty quarterback Max Duggan has moved on to the NFL, getting picked with the No. 239 overall selection last April by the Los Angeles Chargers.
Speaking of the draft, eight Horned Frogs were picked in Kansas City to tie a program record.
Prognosticators have noticed that the cupboard is a bit bare. TCU is picked to finish fourth or worse in most of those too-early lists of 2023 Big 12 contenders. Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas State are generally picked above the Frogs, despite all those successes last year.
Perhaps some folks have forgotten that quarterback Chandler Morris was the starter last year in the opener against Colorado, before giving way mid-game to Duggan due to injury. The Frogs rolled Colorado 38-13 in Dykes’ debut, and didn’t look back with Duggan becoming a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Morris reportedly had an outstanding spring, bouncing back admirably from the injury.
“It really set my mind on not taking a day for granted,” he told Sports Illustrated after the spring game. “It can really get taken away from you quickly. There were definitely some growing pains this spring, but we adjusted well. … I think we finished off with a lot of confidence.”
TCU’s offense lost a lot of firepower, but the transfer portal was good to the national runners-up.
Former five-star running back Trey Sanders transferred in from Alabama, joining returners Emani Bailey and Trent Battle.
Standout receiver Quentin Johnson was drafted in the first round by the Chargers, but another Alabama transfer, JoJo Earle, should join 6-5 Savion Williams to give Morris plenty of targets. Tight end Jared Wiley, a Texas transfer, is also expected to deliver another solid season.
Defense was not TCU’s strong suit last year, and was nothing like some of those stingy units BYU and Utah used to face when the Frogs were in the Mountain West with them. The Frogs were No. 95 nationally in total defense.
The good/bad news is that eight starters are back, including fifth-year senior safety Mark Perry and linebacker Johnny Hodges.
TCU Horned Frogs 2023 football preview
2022 record: 13-2 (9-0 Big 12).
Local ties: None.
2023 schedule
Sept. 2 — Colorado.
Sept. 9 — Nicholls.
Sept. 16 — at Houston.
Sept. 23 — SMU.
Sept. 30 — West Virginia.
Oct. 7 — at Iowa State.
Oct. 14 — BYU.
Oct. 21 — at Kansas State.
Nov. 2 — at Texas Tech.
Nov. 11 — Texas.
Nov. 18 — Baylor.
Nov. 24 — at Oklahoma.
