Frog Mailbag: Does bowl eligibility mean a successful season for TCU?

We take questions from Facebook and poll our Twitter audience as the Horned Frogs enter their second bye week.

TCU football will be back in a bowl game after beating Oklahoma State 38-13 at Amon G. Carter Stadium over the weekend. The Horned Frogs, who are currently in their second bye week of the season, will conclude the regular season with a home game against Arizona and a road game against Cincinnati. After it appeared that TCU’s season was dead in the water, the Horned Frogs have won three of their last four games and now stand at 6-4.

But does bowl eligibility mean a successful season for head coach Sonny Dykes and his team? What exactly defines a “successful” TCU football season? We took questions from Facebook and polled our Twitter audience for another installment of the Frog Mailbag.

The Big 12 Conference has several tie-ins as far as bowl games are concerned. Looking at the conference standings right now, I’d expect TCU to land anywhere from fifth to eighth, which would give the Horned Frogs some options for potential landing spots. CBS Sports insider Jerry Palm has TCU slotted to face Vanderbilt in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 27, while Action Network’s Brett McMurphy also has the Horned Frogs and Commodores linking up in the Liberty Bowl. Patrick Andres of Sports Illustrated took a different route, writing that TCU could face South Carolina in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 31. Bill Bender of Sporting News also has the Horned Frogs and Gamecocks squaring off in the Texas Bowl. There are a few outliers as far as predictions go, but the consensus seems to be that, at this moment, TCU will land either in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl or Houston for the Texas Bowl. Should the last two games of the season not go TCU’s way, those results could very well change.

Barring something disastrous over the final three games of the season, I haven’t read, seen or felt anything that would suggest coaching changes are coming over the offseason. I do think the offense has rebounded over the last three games and Josh Hoover has taken steps forward after struggling with turnovers during the middle of the season. The defense has generated more sacks, but the struggles to create turnovers and stop the run are glaring at this moment. Given that Andy Avalos is the second defensive coordinator Dykes has hired, I would be very surprised if the Horned Frogs moved on from him. With that said, a lot can happen over the last three games of the season. Just as TCU can win out and finish 9-4, the team could also lose out and finish 6-7, which in my opinion would call for more changes.

I love the spiked collars on the uniforms and I was bummed out when they were removed this season. I understand that TCU is likely making way for the sponsorship patches to be placed on the uniforms, but the spiked collars made the TCU uniforms stand out from other schools. I just want to say this too… Please get rid of the black/red uniforms. I’m probably in the minority here, but I think the red-on-black uniforms are the ugliest uniforms we have. I like when the red is accented in a very subtle manner (see TCU men’s and women’s basketball uniforms for an example), but not when it’s the main element.

I see both sides to this argument. There are certainly positives to reaching a bowl game, as the university will bring in additional revenue while both players and coaches receive an extra several weeks of practice time to build for next season. With that said, I’m inclined to side with the “no” voters and say that reaching a bowl game should be the expectation, not the exception, for the TCU football program. With Texas and Oklahoma no longer in the conference and the Horned Frogs continuing to lead the conference in recruiting, there’s no reason for TCU to be clawing its way to bowl eligibility, particularly when the team has played a very weak conference schedule this year (no BYU, Colorado, Kansas State or Iowa State). Bowl eligibility is an achievement, sure, but I would disagree that it’s a big deal.

This poll ties in to the headline of this article and one of our Facebook questions: Is earning bowl eligibility enough to call the 2024 season a success? Once again, I’ll side with the “no” voters and say that TCU still has a lot to show and prove in order for this season to be called a success. Coming into the season, I predicted that TCU would win eight games, and I think anywhere between eight and nine wins would merit a successful season. I believe TCU will find a way to achieve that because Arizona is struggling mightily and Cincinnati on the road is a very winnable game. With that said, there are glaring issues with the roster right now, particularly on the defensive line and even in the secondary, that need to be rectified.

Building off of my previous statement, one reason I think TCU will win its last two games is because the offense has done a much better job of protecting the football. TCU has been one of the worst teams in the country in turnovers, but the Horned Frogs finished with a +3 turnover margin against Oklahoma State and didn’t turn the ball over against Baylor. Josh Hoover has completed nearly 75 percent of his passes over the last two weeks and the addition of Savion Williams to the backfield has added an extra element to an otherwise lackluster rushing attack. If TCU can win the turnover battle over the next two weeks, I think we’ll see the Horned Frogs entering the bowl game with an 8-4 record looking for nine wins.