FWST: TCU’s offensive line eager to get back on track — or shake-up could be coming

[froginaustin]

gave up 41 and got slaughtered by a bad KSU state. 8-4 is the ceiling. 6-6 is very possible.

Let's be realistic.

10-2 is the ceiling today. 4-8 is the floor today.

 

[An-Cap Frog]

math is hard for you I guess. They were the bottom quarter of the standings coming into yesterday and are still bottom half of the conference even after pounding us for fun - that by definition means they are one of the worst.

Making a bowl at 6-6 doesn't mean they are not one of the worst teams in the conference - If I recall correctly, I think they play the statistically weakest schedule of anyone this year coming into this week. They only miss WVU in the bottom 6 and only play 2 of the top 6. But I would guess it will all come down to if they can win the cornbowl or tornado alley championship or whatever their in-state rivalry is called with KU since Tech and Utah will run them and they have Colorado and OSU on their schedule also.

Last year, there were 7 teams that did not win 6 games in the Big 12...maybe overall we are a better conference than last year and that number shrinks a bit, but in no way is KSU at the bottom of this league. KSU has four losses by a combined 13 points...

 

[Wexahu]

Last year, there were 7 teams that did not win 6 games in the Big 12...maybe overall we are a better conference than last year and that number shrinks a bit, but in no way is KSU at the bottom of this league. KSU has four losses by a combined 13 points...

Other than OSU this year, the difference between the top few teams and the bottom few just isn’t that big. I imagine it’ll be like that almost every year in this league.

 

[AroundWorldFrog]

We are a few bad Hoover throws from being undefeated. Way too many teams are just like us this year. Make a few mistakes one way or the other, and you lose. Same goes for our opponents.

I hope Sonny starts Seals this week.

 

[Wexahu]

I hope Sonny starts Seals this week.

Honestly would hate that just to wake him up and send a message, but no way that happens.

Is Hoover expected back next year? Havent heard much on that but I guess it all depends on what kind of offers come in.

 

[AroundWorldFrog]

I hope Sonny starts Seals this week.

lol, some of y'all need to tune your sarcasm meters

 

[82 Frog Fever]

lol, I can promise you neither of those are true.

I’m honestly not sure what I post that is so infuriating to people. Our coach is 31-15 now at TCU which I dont think is that bad. And I point out that record relative to the past, and the competition. We simply aren’t going to win 11 games every year. Not gonna happen, and never has.

Matt Campbell is 4-2 and lost to Colorado yesterday. Is he mediocre? If Dykes had done his job yesterday Chris Klieman would be 2-5 right now. As it is, he’s 3-4. Is he mediocre coach who needs to be replaced? Deion, the guy who was gonna take over the Big 12, is 3-4.

I guess we should just go get the next Cignetti out there. Only took IU about 80 years and 15 coaches to find him. But hey, if everyone thinks Dykes is the problem let’s get a new guy.

31-15??? You must be joking.
Of Dykes’ 31 wins, 13 were from ’22 and the vast majority of those players were GP’s signed players.
More than Half of the ‘22 team was manned by 13 future NFL players that GP signed. Most were seniors, and when they left, Dykes instantly sucked!

GP’s NFL PLAYERS ON THE ‘22 NCG TEAM:
Steve Avila OG - LA Rams
Brandon Coleman OT - Washington
Andrew Coker OT - Cincy Bengals
Kendre Miller RB - New Orleans Saints
Emari Demercado RB - Arizona Cards
Taye Barber WR - Tampa Bay Bucs
Derius Davis WR - LA Chargers
Quentin Johnston WR - LA Chargers
Max Duggan QB - LA Chargers (Heisman 2nd Place)
Hodges-Tomlinson CB - LA Rams
Dylan Horton DE - Houston Texans
Dee Winters LB - SF 49ers
Bud Clark S - Future NFL

At his best, Dykes is a .500 coach at TCU.
Dykes is 14-13 vs. Power teams in the last 2.5 years.
He is only 10-10 vs. current B12 teams in the last 2.5 years.
That won’t get us to a CCG! It’s just not good enough, not even close!
MEDIOCRE!!

 

[AroundWorldFrog]

31-15??? That’s beyond moronic!
Of Dykes’ 31 wins, 13 were from ’22 and the vast majority of those players were GP’s signed players.
More than Half of the ‘22 team was manned by 13 future NFL players that GP signed. Most were seniors, and when they left, Dykes instantly sucked!

Hell, Quentin Johnston, a starting WR in ‘22 was still winning games for Dykes last year. At least 3 of those ‘24 wins were directly attributable to QJ.

GP’s NFL PLAYERS ON THE ‘22 NCG TEAM:
Steve Avila OG - LA Rams
Brandon Coleman OT - Washington
Andrew Coker OT - Cincy Bengals
Kendre Miller RB - New Orleans Saints
Emari Demercado RB - Arizona Cards
Taye Barber WR - Tampa Bay Bucs
Derius Davis WR - LA Chargers
Quentin Johnston WR - LA Chargers
Max Duggan QB - LA Chargers (Heisman 2nd Place)
Hodges-Tomlinson CB - LA Rams
Dylan Horton DE - Houston Texans
Dee Winters LB - SF 49ers
Bud Clark S - Future NFL

At his best, Dykes is a .500 coach at TCU.
Dykes is 14-13 vs. Power teams in the last 2.5 years.
He is only 10-10 vs. current B12 teams in the last 2.5 years.
That won’t get us to a CCG! It’s just not good enough, not even close!
MEDIOCRE!!

I don't think QJ was playing last year. Well, he was, but for San Diego.

But the point is correct that he inherited perhaps the best and most experienced overall roster TCU ever had. And still tried to scheiss it up by starting Morris.

 

[Wexahu]

I don't think QJ was playing last year. Well, he was, but for San Diego.

But the point is correct that he inherited perhaps the best and most experienced overall roster TCU ever had. And still tried to scheiss it up by starting Morris.

Those players went 5-7 the previous year, and 16-18 in their career under the prior staff. And got beat by Dykes twice at ACS. And SD basically had to start over after those players left.

He inherited one really good group of seniors and gaping holes in the roster after they left because of terrible recruiting classes in ‘’20 and ‘21.

 

[82 Frog Fever]

I don't think QJ was playing last year. Well, he was, but for San Diego.

But the point is correct that he inherited perhaps the best and most experienced overall roster TCU ever had. And still tried to scheiss it up by starting Morris.

Im sure you’re right. I believe my old brain was mixing QJ with Savion.
Thanks for letting me know.

 

[82 Frog Fever]

Those players went 5-7 the previous year, and 16-18 in their career under the prior staff. And got beat by Dykes twice at ACS. And SD basically had to start over after those players left.

He inherited one really good group of seniors and gaping holes in the roster after they left because of terrible recruiting classes in ‘’20 and ‘21.

All of that is very true!
Sonny deserves credit for bringing the ‘22 team “together” and focusing them in a very short period of time. He also deserves credit for filling in the gaps with 7-8 marvelous players like Alan Ali (Center) - Minn. Vikings.
However, giving Dykes full credit for 13 wins is like plagiarism (taking credit for someone else’s work). 2022 was a magical year that came together like a perfect storm. It will never happen again.
Here is the problem. Dykes and his staff were in over their heads in ‘22, as they weren’t large enough. They weren’t able to cover all the tasks that they had to do. Consequently, while preparing to play Michigan/Georgia, Dykes wasnt able to recruit the portal at the same time. It wasn’t necessarily his fault, but he did a bad job. The Dec. 22 portal for TCU was a failure. The 2023 recruiting class + portal was 36 and only about 1/3rd ever made substantial contributions and stayed. The linemen and RBs either weren’t very good or left in a year. Most of the good portal players didnt have much remaining eligibility.
TCU Football in ‘24 & ‘25 is struggling because of ‘23 recruiting, plus GP’s poor ‘20 & ‘21 classes. Lots of poor years.

So here is the question. Does Dykes get a pass on that? I would be inclined to say yes. EXCEPT, I also feel his offensive philosophy is terrible and his player development has been terrible.
However, if Sonny gets fired, TCU will owe him $21m+ and we’d have to start all over again.
It‘s quite the quandary and makes for HOT debates.

 

[Wexahu]

Sonny and this staff can't coach a tough team to play at the best of their collective talent level, and Wexahu's "more-reasonable-than-thou" schtick is horse crap. Both of these things are clear at this point. Further discussion of either is pointless.

You say this, and a few minutes later you say you'd take James Franklin because his teams are physically tough. Ground game, defense, blah blah blah.

At Penn State James Franklin was 15-28 against ranked opponents and 4-21 against Top 10 opponents. At freaking Penn State.

Your emotionally unstable rants are embarrassing.

 

[Limey Frog]

You say this, and a few minutes later you say you'd take James Franklin because his teams are physically tough. Ground game, defense, blah blah blah.

At Penn State James Franklin was 15-28 against ranked opponents and 4-21 against Top 10 opponents. At freaking Penn State.

Your emotionally unstable rants are embarrassing.

Penn State was in a really bad position when Franklin took over after the scholarship reductions from the Sandusky scandal. For nearly a decade they didn't lose to anyone they were more talented than. If TCU did that we'd win nearly all of our conference games.

I didn't really care if you're embarrassed. You can dig a hole and die in it for all I care.

 

[Wexahu]

Penn State was in a really bad position when Franklin took over after the scholarship reductions from the Sandusky scandal. For nearly a decade they didn't lose to anyone they were more talented than. If TCU did that we'd win nearly all of our conference games.

I didn't really care if you're embarrassed. You can dig a hole and die in it for all I care.

Franklin never coached a game at Penn State with fewer than 85 scholarships. In his first eight seasons he had seasons of 7-6, 7-6, 9-4, 4-5 and 7-6. At Penn State!! You'd have had him fired about three years in.

 

[gohornedfrogs]

2014 looked like a miracle too when I look at GP’s 10-year B12 record. He was 37-40 in the league other than that magical year. 6 of 10 years below .500 in league play. You’d think the way people talk that before SD showed up we were a perennial national contender. We weren’t anything close to that.

To answer your question though I’d say let this year play out and if we go 7-5 or 6-6 or something consider making a move, but maybe give him another year depending on how the roster is shaking out. If we keep him make it clear things need to improve next year and if they don’t, let him go.

During GP’s tenure, we finished in the top 10 an average of once every three years. Yes, there were a lot of 6-6 and 7-5 seasons sprinkled in there. Our ceiling was high, but when we weren’t good, we were merely middle of the conference. I personally think that having those peaks was what made this program special. GP had a knack for developing players and we’d see those peaks whenever we had very experienced teams. He also reinvented the program several times in order to create those peaks. We don’t have to win national championships to be happy, though. Making an occasional playoff, and finishing in the top 10 is fantastic.

I’m really kinda tired of hearing that those peak teams really weren’t that good, and that we were just lucky. Those were good teams and gave us some special moments.

As for Sonny, there’s nothing I see that leads me to believe he has the ability to create those peaks. We may get more 8-4 and 9-3 seasons with him than we did with GP, but I don’t see us winning any conference championships and finishing in the top 10 every three or four years. Short of that, we’re just the Texas Tech we ridiculed all those years.

 

[Wexahu]

During GP’s tenure, we finished in the top 10 an average of once every three years. Yes, there were a lot of 6-6 and 7-5 seasons sprinkled in there. Our ceiling was high, but when we weren’t good, we were merely middle of the conference. I personally think that having those peaks was what made this program special. GP had a knack for developing players and we’d see those peaks whenever we had very experienced teams. He also reinvented the program several times in order to create those peaks. We don’t have to win national championships to be happy, though. Making an occasional playoff, and finishing in the top 10 is fantastic.

I’m really kinda tired of hearing that those peak teams really weren’t that good, and that we were just lucky. Those were good teams and gave us some special moments.

As for Sonny, there’s nothing I see that leads me to believe he has the ability to create those peaks. We may get more 8-4 and 9-3 seasons with him than we did with GP, but I don’t see us winning any conference championships and finishing in the top 10 every three or four years. Short of that, we’re just the Texas Tech we ridiculed all those years.

I never said those peak teams weren't any good. When did I ever say that? Conversely, I kinda get tired of hearing that our 2022 year was a fluke, and I actually hear that all the time.

I get it, right now it doesn't seem like a great team is in our near future. But rewind back to 2014 where we were coming off 7-6 and 4-8, we had brought in the guy from A&M to be the QB because Boykin was so bad in '13, I think at that time exactly nobody predicted we'd have the years we did in '14 and '15. And honestly, besides those two years, it was a whole lot of average. That's just a fact. 32-40 in the Big 12 between 2012 and 2021 if you remove the results from '14-15.

And then you get people on here saying "in this conference we should be contending for the championship every year and playing in the CCG at least every other year. Anything less than that is unacceptable". I think one poster actually said we should be in the CCG every year and anything less than that is unacceptable. Based on what?? There are 15 other programs in this league, I guess their fans should expect one trip to the CCG about every 15-20 years, while we should be entitled to it every year? I realize there is no UT or OU in the league anymore so theoretically it should be easier, but we can't recruit to a conference that has UT and OU in it anymore, so it's harder to attract players and be really good than it was 5-10 years ago too. So I don't see us finishing in the Top 10 every three or four years either, because in this new college football I think that is going to almost impossible for schools like TCU, unless some booster wants to spend all his money on TCU football and we start outbidding UT, OU, A&M and LSU for players.

And it's like our fans look our program in the mirror and think we've just been a notch below Alabama and Ohio State before Dykes got here. It's simply not true at all. If the standard for the new coach is "Top 10 every three or four years and CCGs every other year" or they are out of here be ready for a revolving door of coaches and big contract buyouts on a regular basis.

 

[Limey Frog]

Franklin never coached a game at Penn State with fewer than 85 scholarships. In his first eight seasons he had seasons of 7-6, 7-6, 9-4, 4-5 and 7-6. At Penn State!! You'd have had him fired about three years in.

That was pre-transfer portal era. It was still a big rebuild from where he was. But whatever. You're always right, oh wise one. I'm so glad TCU is heading for a 6-6 season. Forgive me, lord.

 

[Bizarro Frog]

Good news is It can be turned around quick under the transfer portal and NIL. Frogs need to go out and get an offensive and defensive line like Tech did. Just need a local Billionaire who did not got to Tech, Texas or A&M fund it. Should be an easy ask, right?

 

[Wexahu]

That was pre-transfer portal era. It was still a big rebuild from where he was. But whatever. You're always right, oh wise one. I'm so glad TCU is heading for a 6-6 season. Forgive me, lord.

I'm not always right, or wise. But good god, I'm sure I can find posts from you early last year saying we'd finish 5-7 or 6-6. You post like a 12-year old.

And Bill O'Brien finished 8-4 and 7-5 in the two years prior, so I'm not sure how huge a rebuild it was. I think, in fact I know, that O'Brien inherited a much bigger rebuild. Like I said, you would've fired Franklin a few years into his tenure there.

 

[Chongo94]

I never said those peak teams weren't any good. When did I ever say that? Conversely, I kinda get tired of hearing that our 2022 year was a fluke, and I actually hear that all the time.

I get it, right now it doesn't seem like a great team is in our near future. But rewind back to 2014 where we were coming off 7-6 and 4-8, we had brought in the guy from A&M to be the QB because Boykin was so bad in '13, I think at that time exactly nobody predicted we'd have the years we did in '14 and '15. And honestly, besides those two years, it was a whole lot of average. That's just a fact. 32-40 in the Big 12 between 2012 and 2021 if you remove the results from '14-15.

And then you get people on here saying "in this conference we should be contending for the championship every year and playing in the CCG at least every other year. Anything less than that is unacceptable". I think one poster actually said we should be in the CCG every year and anything less than that is unacceptable. Based on what?? There are 15 other programs in this league, I guess their fans should expect one trip to the CCG about every 15-20 years, while we should be entitled to it every year? I realize there is no UT or OU in the league anymore so theoretically it should be easier, but we can't recruit to a conference that has UT and OU in it anymore, so it's harder to attract players and be really good than it was 5-10 years ago too. So I don't see us finishing in the Top 10 every three or four years either, because in this new college football I think that is going to almost impossible for schools like TCU, unless some booster wants to spend all his money on TCU football and we start outbidding UT, OU, A&M and LSU for players.

And it's like our fans look our program in the mirror and think we've just been a notch below Alabama and Ohio State before Dykes got here. It's simply not true at all. If the standard for the new coach is "Top 10 every three or four years and CCGs every other year" or they are out of here be ready for a revolving door of coaches and big contract buyouts on a regular basis.