Frog Mailbag: Can TCU build on its bye week and salvage the season?

The Horned Frogs are 3-3 entering this weekend’s matchup against Utah.

Most TCU fans were probably relieved that the Horned Frogs were recently on a bye week. After a deflating and embarrassing home loss against Houston earlier this month, TCU is now 3-3 on the season with just two victories over FBS opponents (Stanford and Kansas). The Horned Frogs are now tasked with hitting the road and taking on the Utah Utes, who will be without quarterback Cameron Rising for the remainder of the season due to an injured leg. With their season nearing on life support, will head coach Sonny Dykes and the TCU football players have enough resolve to bounce back and save their 2024 campaign? Here are some recent Facebook questions and Twitter polls for this week’s mailbag.

After showing tremendous promise over the first three games of the season, Josh Hoover has plummeted down to Earth, throwing six interceptions and losing three fumbles over his last three contests. While fans are still somewhat confident in Hoover’s abilities to run the offense, I’m genuinely curious to see whether or not four-star true freshman quarterback Hauss Hejny becomes more involved. I don’t think Hoover gets benched unless he continues to turn the ball over, but despite having thrown for over 2,000 yards already, Hoover has been a complete non-factor running the ball. We’ve seem Hejny get a few plays in TCU’s recent games, most of which have been running plays, and I think we’ll continue to see the former Aledo star hold some kind of role in the offense.

TCU stands at 3-3 and needs three more wins to clinch bowl eligibility. As depressing as it sounds, though, I don’t think there’s a single game remaining on the schedule that’s a “gimme” for the Horned Frogs. Houston is arguably the weakest non-FBS school on TCU’s schedule and the Cougars won by two scores in Fort Worth. Utah is still a very good team without Rising and Texas Tech has beaten both Arizona and Arizona State, who just knocked the Utes off. I’m not saying TCU can’t beat Utah or Texas Tech, but the Baylor game on Nov. 2 is likely the next time we’ll see the Horned Frogs favored or slightly favored. After that, TCU has Oklahoma State, another team that has wildly underperformed this season, before closing out against Arizona and Cincinnati. I really hope it doesn’t happen, but there’s a chance the Horned Frogs are 3-5 going into the “Bluebonnet Battle” against Baylor.

TCU has to continue working on running the football offensively. Josh Hoover ranks at or near the top of all FBS players in pass attempts, pass completions and passing yards, but he’s also turned the ball over 10 times this season. The weight of the offense has collapse on him and the Horned Frogs must run the football better to take that pressure off of his shoulders. Defensively, I’m not sure what adjustments can be made. The 3-3-5 continues to fail and TCU has only slightly improved its pass rush from the EDGE position. The only real adjustment I can think of is the Horned Frogs rolling out some sort of sub-package where the EDGE man or even a defensive back is subbed out for another defensive linemen to give TCU a 4-2-5 or even more of a traditional 4-3-3 look. The defensive line has not performed this year and Utah features one of the best backs in the Big 12 in Micah Bernard.

The fandom has reached a new low and perhaps an all-time low under the tenure of Sonny Dykes, who’s starting to feel the heat from the fan base after the losses to SMU and Houston. I’ll have to agree with most fans in our poll who were equally shocked to see the Horned Frogs blow an easy home game against the Cougars, who rolled out their No. 2 quarterback and torched the TCU defense. I’ll always hold out hope for some sort of success from the football team, but given that we’re officially halfway through the season, I haven’t seen enough to convince me that this team can finish with a winning record. The defense has not played well enough, the offense has turned the ball over too much and the mental mistakes (penalties included) have been too much to overcome.

The Utah matchup may be one of the most important games of the young career of Hoover, who desperately needs a bounce-back effort after all of the turnovers in TCU’s last three games. Hoover has shown flashes of potential and exudes many of the leadership qualities needed from a starting quarterback, but the ball security issues are a legitimate concern going forward. With four-star true freshman Hauss Hejny on the depth chart and four-star 2025 recruit Adam Schobel on the way, Hoover needs to show over the second half of the season that he can still be the QB1 for the Horned Frogs.