Photo Credit: x.com (@sleeperCFB)
The tidal wave of uncertainty that’s brought on by the Spring and Summer months is all reconciled once the pads come on in August. The recruiting well dries up, spring ball comes & goes, and the outside storylines that make up the offseason only matter if things go awry. Among other elephants in the room, TCU has a lot of questions to answer across the pond tomorrow. Some come from within, and some are without.
Questions Within
If you’re a college football junkie like
I am, (and if you’re reading this, I would assume you are) then you’ve been watching all these season preview Youtube videos or Reels or TikToks where people are prognosticating about the offense. The feeling I get from most of these pundits is that they assume that Jaden Craig & Gordon Sammis are going to be plugged into the same run & gun offense that we’ve seen from Frog offenses past. On the contrary, TCU’s offense is going to be a lot more akin to the offense that Dykes ran at Cal that turned Jared Goff into a first overall pick. Reports out of camp indicate a lot more multi-tight end sets, heavy run fun focus, and a lower variability when it comes to the big play.
I’m not going out on a limb to say that this year will propel Craig into the top draft spot, but his strengths shown at Harvard point to this regime change fitting his skillset. He can attack the deep middle of the field with accuracy, and his strength is in his processing like the pro game demands of the QB position. Speaking of, another question posed for within is the time it will take for Craig to adjust to the Big 12 after making his hay in the Ivy League. The same pundits discussing TCU’s offensive potential are dubious on Craig’s numbers translating to the same level of success in a conference with deeper competition.
To me, the question is not as material as the others about TCU’s offense. If Craig was getting looks to be a day 3 draft pick from some NFL scouts, then I’d imagine he can manage the jump across college leagues with relative ease. A better question, in my humble opinion, is how the supporting cast around him is going to rally to his cause and elevate their own respective games. The divorce with Josh Hoover has been embittered between parties as Sonny Dykes and Curt Cignetti have exchanged verbal blows over the offseason, but how is this offensive line going to step up to protect Craig in a way that they couldn’t for Hoover?
Hoover has his warts as a quarterback, when it comes to keeping the ball protected, but some of the blame for his errors can fall at the feet of the line that was protecting him. Playing under duress has a certain effect on players that forces them to be erratic with their decisions and ideally said duress can be minimized by stronger line play. Playing into your own hand with offensive design is another factor that commands less from your protection. This is where the aforementioned run-heavy/pro style offense could shelter Craig from the hero ball that Hoover found himself striving for during his tenure in purple. So the question ultimately boils down to how well the offensive line can bring the Payne, especially when defenses know it’s coming.
Questions Without
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the Jacob Fields dismissal on August 18th, along with the fallout of his dismissal’s reporting by other local media folk. The Twittersphere (or X-sphere?) was ablaze with criticisms over the University’s handling of Star Telegram coverage of the incident, as media privileges were revoked for local writer Steven Johnson and the outlet altogether for TCU coverage. Most of the criticism levied against the university has come from fellow journalists, and they have been quite heated over the ordeal. Other critics are level-headed observers that see it for what it is: a reaction to a reaction.
I’m not at liberty to deem either side of the aisle as the moral side, but I am rational enough to understand that whatever wall TCU has put up for Steven & the Star Telegram will eventually fall down and peaceful coexistence will resume. Steven is beloved enough by the fan base for whatever sin he committed to be forgiven and I don’t see any other newspaper-based partner out there for TCU to cling to for their publicity (here seems like a good place to clarify that I am a blogger, not a journalist). Sonny Dykes has assured the rest of the media that the team is closer than ever, and the outside noise has not impacted chemistry in a negative way. Once again, the product displayed by the team tomorrow will tell us more about chemistry than words or promises in front of a microphone will.
I’ve seen a lot of people online surmise that this storyline has been part of an overarching theory/question that also needs to be answered with play, and that is the dreaded Ireland curse. This is the 5th year in a row that the Aer Lingus Classic is being played at Aviva Stadium in Dublin and each showing has resulted in an upset victory for the underdog, outside of Notre Dame stomping Navy in 2023 (Luck of the Fighting Irish?). The line for this game has stretched in the past couple of days, favoring TCU by 8.5 points as I write this, slotting them in the Goliath role for tomorrow’s matchup. Perhaps the clover helmet that TCU furnished for this matchup was meant to be a shield from the curse, with some sort of Gaelic mysticism that protects them from such.
All jokes aside, the Ireland Curse may just be a symptom of what us normal folks would call “jet lag” and would be another outside test for this team’s fortitude and discipline when hopping the pond. The schedule planners appear to have factored this in with some buffers, considering the team has a week off and then a pair of non-conference gimme games (respectfully) against Grambling State & Arkansas State. For whatever may come, in victory or defeat, the Frogs will have a solid shot at mentally resetting once they get back to Fort Worth. After watching Kansas State narrowly escape North Dakota and eventually fall to Army last year, the early bye week doesn’t seem half bad.
Answers from Within
As previously alluded to, all these questions that are coming to a head in time for kickoff can only be answered with play on the field. The Frogs have an opportunity to show that they are unfazed by the news cycle that follows them around and that the effortful strategy that began in January has been fruitful for their offensive retooling. At the very least, it will be healthy for us fans to muse about real football instead of football speculation without any sort of payoff for our discussions. So, as always, take these articulate questions & gentle words into College Football’s kickoff tomorrow and judge the answers for yourself. Godspeed!
