• The KillerFrogs

Top 10 TCU football players of all time

tcudoc

Full Member
Ask a hundred fans for a Top Ten List and you'll get at least one hundred versions, no two alike. Personally, I think Doc did a pretty good job with his, and he avoided what I consider to be the #1 fallacy with so many rankings: they rank only the players they've seen, in-person or on network television.
This list takes into account players from several eras...looks like Doc gave it some serious thought. Kudos, amigo.
I tried to avoid recency bias. It is very tempting to consider Jeremy Kerley, Turpin, Boykin, Verrett etc because they were amazing players that created a lot of excitement during moments of their career. In the end, I was thinking about how they matched up against others of their era. Lilly was a clear first round draft pick. Ki Aldrich was the first player chosen in the draft his year. Baugh and O'Brien are clear standouts. Swink was robbed of the Heisman he deserved because they rarely gave it to underclassmen and there was a definite East Coast bias at the time. But he was the best of the best during his junior season. Tomlinson was the Doak Walker winner and Heisman finalist and held the single game rushing record for many years. So, for me, only 4 positions are really in play for the rest of the pack. There are many older offensive and defensive linemen who deserve recognition, but I cannot distinguish between them, so I went more with position players with the exception of Jerry Hughes, who was All-American and very highly regarded. Kenneth Davis, like Boykin, has a bit of a stain on his TCU accomplishments and had an unceremonious end to his TCU career, but he was outstanding and I could not leave him off my list. Josh Doctson was the only one I allowed my recency bias to creep in. His abilities, in my mind, are what made Boykin a star. Therefore, I gave him the nod on my list. Renfro is the one no one ever seems to mention but, I think, deserves to be there.
 

PurplFrawg

Administrator
Boykin? I know he's in prison, but he was definitely in the top 10 of our MVPs.
Looks like he missed out on the parole date, but should be getting out soon.

Inmate Information Details​

SID Number: 50814287
TDCJ Number: 02309734
Name: BOYKIN,TREVONE D
Race: B
Gender: M
Age: 28
Maximum Sentence Date: 2022-10-31
Current Facility: RAMSEY I
Projected Release Date: 2022-10-31
Parole Eligibility Date: 2020-03-06

Offense History:​

Offense DateOffenseSentence DateCountyCase No.Sentence (YY-MM-DD)
2018-03-21TAMPER W/A WITNESS FV CASE2020-02-26TARRANT1600965D3-00-00
2018-03-21AGG ASLT CAUSING SER BOD INJ2020-02-26TARRANT1540408D3-00-00
 

tcudoc

Full Member
"Best" and "favorite" have a lot in common but they're not congruent. Your list did an admirable job of avoiding that confusion.
Yes. My favorites list would look a bit different and would include names like LaMarcus McDonald, Jeremy Kerley, Kevontae Turpin, Marvin White, Bo Schobel, Aaron Schobel, Andy Dalton, Aaron Green, Jimmy Young, Tank Carder and a few others.
 

allclearforfrogs

Active Member
Looks like he missed out on the parole date, but should be getting out soon.

Inmate Information Details​

SID Number: 50814287
TDCJ Number: 02309734
Name: BOYKIN,TREVONE D
Race: B
Gender: M
Age: 28
Maximum Sentence Date: 2022-10-31
Current Facility: RAMSEY I
Projected Release Date: 2022-10-31
Parole Eligibility Date: 2020-03-06

Offense History:​

Offense DateOffenseSentence DateCountyCase No.Sentence (YY-MM-DD)
2018-03-21TAMPER W/A WITNESS FV CASE2020-02-26TARRANT1600965D3-00-00
2018-03-21AGG ASLT CAUSING SER BOD INJ2020-02-26TARRANT1540408D3-00-00
Wow they sent him all the way to south of Houston. Hope he can do stuff with his life afterwards.
 

Rabidfrog

Active Member
Who makes your list? The first half of the list is easier. The second half gets tricky.
I’ll start:
1-Sammy Baugh
2-Bob Lilly
3-Davey O’Brien
4-Ladainian Tomlinson
5-Jim Swink
6-Ki Aldrich
7-Kenneth Davis
8-Jerry Hughes
9-Josh Doctson
10-Mike Renfro
Tre Boykin and RagsMathews
 

ShreveFrog

Full Member
I'll offer a serious response now. Dalton simply must be on the list. Someone in @tcudoc 's back half of the list needs to go. Tough choice, I know. I would probably lean toward Doctson. A #6 and #2 finish with a Rose Bowl championship simply don't happen without Andy. And we were a dropped pass and/or a special teams blunder from back to back perfect seasons, New Years bowl wins, and #2 finishes.
 
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tcudoc

Full Member
I'll offer a serious response now. Dalton simply must be on the list. Someone in @tcudoc 's back half of the list needs to go. Tough choice, I know. I would probably lean toward Doctson. A #6 and #2 finish with a Rose Bowl championship simply don't happen without Andy. And we were a dropped pass and/or a special teams blunder from back to back perfect seasons, New Years bowl wins, and #2 finishes.
Valid opinion on Dalton. I struggled between him and Doctson. Since he was not in any all American lists, I felt like my bias about his NFL success may be what was driving me to include him. I went with Doctson instead but I get the argument and maybe purplfrawg is right and the list should be 11.
 
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McFroggin

Active Member
Who makes your list? The first half of the list is easier. The second half gets tricky.
I’ll start:
1-Sammy Baugh
2-Bob Lilly
3-Davey O’Brien
4-Ladainian Tomlinson
5-Jim Swink
6-Ki Aldrich
7-Kenneth Davis
8-Jerry Hughes
9-Josh Doctson
10-Mike Renfro

I’d replace Renfro with Dalton. Renfro pro-wise did much more than Doctson. College wise, Doctson showed much more. 1st round vs 4th round pick. Doctson could high point the ball better than anyone in the nation at that point. Combine numbers were absolute freak-show. He just didn’t transition. So if we are talking top TCU athletes while at TCU, Dalton and Doctson did more than Renfro. Top TCU athletes after TCU and Renfro beats them both. Dalton has to be on the list with all he accomplished.
 

Rabidfrog

Active Member
I’d replace Renfro with Dalton. Renfro pro-wise did much more than Doctson. College wise, Doctson showed much more. 1st round vs 4th round pick. Doctson could high point the ball better than anyone in the nation at that point. Combine numbers were absolute freak-show. He just didn’t transition. So if we are talking top TCU athletes while at TCU, Dalton and Doctson did more than Renfro. Top TCU athletes after TCU and Renfro beats them both. Dalton has to be on the list with all he accomplished.
Renfro was all the offense we had for several years in the seventies. Amazing how many he caught when the defense knew they would throw to him every other down.
 

Eight

Member
I’d replace Renfro with Dalton. Renfro pro-wise did much more than Doctson. College wise, Doctson showed much more. 1st round vs 4th round pick. Doctson could high point the ball better than anyone in the nation at that point. Combine numbers were absolute freak-show. He just didn’t transition. So if we are talking top TCU athletes while at TCU, Dalton and Doctson did more than Renfro. Top TCU athletes after TCU and Renfro beats them both. Dalton has to be on the list with all he accomplished.

you might have a bit of recency bias with doctson and renfro

first, josh never played on a team nearly as [ Finebaum ]ty as renfro. renfro played on some of the most horrific teams in tcu history and somehow put up numbers far, far superior than his teammates.

exampe, when renfro had 50 catches in 1977 the frogs second leading receiver had 18 catches

then we have small matters such as the manner in which the defense could basically tackle the receiver coming off the line in the mid 70's, the wider hash marks, much more stringent holding rules for offensive linemen, crowns on the field and ball that locked much closer to a rugby ball than the modern football and we haven't even gotten to the offense the frogs ran with doctson compared to renfros day
 
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