TopFrog
Lifelong Frog
Preview: vs. Houston - TCU Athletics
FORT WORTH -- TCU hosts Houston on Friday, Oct. 4, at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN.
GoFrogs: Houston at TCU Preview
FORT WORTH -- TCU hosts Houston on Friday, Oct. 4, at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN
ABOUT THE GAME
•The Horned Frogs and Cougars are in the same conference for the third time. The Horned Frogs and Cougars were previously together in the Southwest Conference (1976-95) and Conference USA (2001-04).
•Former Houston Head Coach Dana Holgorsen is on TCU Head Coach Sonny Dykes' staff as a consultant. Dykes and Holgorsen worked together for seven seasons (2000-06) as assistant coaches under Mike Leach at Texas Tech.
•Dykes is 4-2 as a head coach against Houston. He is 1-0 at TCU while going 2-1 at SMU and 1-1 during his time at Louisiana Tech.
THE DYNAMIC DUO
•Quarterback Josh Hoover ranks third in the FBS in passing yards (1,774) while tying for fourth in touchdown passes (14).
•Hoover is on pace to set TCU season records for completion percentage, yards and touchdown passes. He has thrown for at least two scores in eight consecutive games.
•Wide receiver Jack Bech is the only player to rank in the top three nationally in receiving yards (2nd, 647) and touchdown catches (T-3rd, 6). He's also tied for seventh in receptions (35).
•Bech has topped 100 yards in four of five games, including a 200-yard effort against UCF that ranks third among Power Four Conference players this season.
•Bech is en route to breaking Josh Doctson's TCU season records from 2015 for receptions, yards and touchdowns.
FAMILIAR FACES
•Four members of the TCU coaching staff have ties to Houston.
•Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Kendal Briles is a 2005 graduate of Houston. In two seasons (2004-05) with the Cougars, he totaled 70 receptions for 680 yards and a touchdown. He then returned to his alma mater in 2018 as Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach.
•Also on the Houston staff in 2018 as an offensive analyst was current TCU Assistant Head Coach/Outside Receivers Coach Malcolm Kelly. He was a graduate assistant for the Cougars in 2017.
•Co-Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach A.J. Ricker was an offensive analyst in 2016.
•TCU Inside Receivers Coach Doug Meacham was Houston's offensive coordinator in 2013.
SERIES HISTORY
•TCU has won the last nine meetings with Houston to even the all-time series at 13-13.
•Prior to last season's 36-13 Horned Frogs victory at Houston, the most recent previous game saw Andy Dalton outduel Case Keenum in a 20-13 TCU win in the 2007 Texas Bowl.
•The Cougars' last victory in the series was a 49-46 win in Houston in 1992.
•TCU is 6-6 at home against the Cougars, 6-7 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites.
•The first game in the series was a 49-21 Cougars win in Houston in 1976, their first year in the Southwest Conference.
THE GIFT
•TCU Head Football Coach Sonny Dykes and his wife Kate have donated $1 million to TCU Athletics.
•The Dykes' gift will be split between honoring former TCU offensive lineman Jamal Powell with his name in the weight room in the new Mike and Brenda Harrison Football Performance Center as well as recognizing Shirley Enis, late wife of TCU Trustee Hunter Enis, with an endowment in her name to support women's athletics at TCU.
•Powell was a three-year letterman (2000-02) for the Horned Frogs, earning First-Team All-Conference USA honors his senior year. He then began a collegiate coaching career with Dykes hiring Powell as his offensive line coach at SMU in 2018. They worked together for three years until Powell's passing in April 2021 at the age of 39.
ALL IN
•With the upcoming settlement of the House v. NCAA class-action lawsuit, TCU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jeremiah Donati has announced that TCU will fully participate at the maximum level in the permissible revenue sharing plan with its student-athletes.
TCU SUPPORT
•Since it began Big 12 play in 2012, TCU has had nearly $500 million in donor-funded athletics facilities upgrades.
•The most recent project is the $52 million Athletics Human Performance Center Renovation and Expansion projects with the four facilities set for completion in July 2025.
•The Mike and Brenda Harrison Football Performance Center will include the Jamal Powell Weight Room, while the Simpson Family Restoration and Wellness Center will make TCU the only school in the country with a Snow Room.
