Frog Mailbag: How are TCU fans feeling with Oklahoma State up next?

We take questions from Facebook and poll our Twitter audience.

TCU football turned in one of its best offensive performances of the season against Baylor, but it wasn’t enough to take home a win, as the Bears exacted their revenge on the Horned Frogs and snapped their five-game losing streak against TCU with a walk-off field goal to win 37-34 last weekend. The Horned Frogs squandered a stellar showing from Josh Hoover, who completed over 73 percent of his passes and threw for 333 yards and two touchdowns with zero turnovers. TCU also couldn’t capitalized on another efficient game from Savion Williams, who led the team in rushing for a third week in a row with 57 yards on eight runs while catching eight passes for 92 yards and throwing a touchdown to Jack Bech.

TCU will look to turn the page this weekend, when the Horned Frogs return to Fort Worth for their final two regular-season home games including Saturday’s matchup against Oklahoma State. The Horned Frogs (5-4, 3-3 Big 12) fell out of the conference title race with their loss against Baylor, but still have a chance to clinch bowl eligibility with a victory over the Cowboys this weekend. We took questions from our Facebook page and polled our Twitter audience to gauge the fan base for this week’s installment of the Frog Mailbag.

I completely agree that the defensive line was a question mark entering the season. TCU lost star nose tackle Damonic Williams and added Houston transfer Hakeem Ajijolaiya, but the Horned Frogs largely doubled down on their returning veterans and young players to take big leaps this season. That hasn’t happened, as starters like Caleb Fox (11 tackles) and Tymon Mitchell (four tackles) have had almost zero impact on the game. Depth is now a concern too, as both Markis Deal and Hakeem Ajijolaiya suffered injuries against Baylor and are not expected to play against a Oklahoma State team that features an All-American caliber running back in Ollie Gordon II. This likely means TCU will have to deploy third-string defensive tackles like Connor Lingren, who played sparingly against Baylor and is a converted offensive lineman with zero career tackles. I’m very worried about how the Cowboys will run the ball on Saturday and TCU’s interior linebackers will have to shine.

I wrote before the Baylor game that TCU would need to add some wrinkles to the wrinkle, meaning offensive coordinator Kendal Briles would need to show some different looks out of the Wildcat formation that we hadn’t seen against Utah or Texas Tech. I thought the Horned Frogs did this pretty well on Saturday, as Savion Williams broke off a big run on a fake option play early in the game and even threw a fourth-down touchdown pass to Jack Bech. We also saw a pitch-back to Josh Hoover out of this formation, so it’s clear that Briles is looking at ways to both run and pass out of that formation. I expect TCU to continue using the Wildcat for the remainder of the season, as Savion has run for 201 yards and is averaging 7.7 yards per carry over the last three games. But I agree with the premise of this question, which is that Josh Hoover cannot simply be a decoy from this formation. It seemed like Hoover was finally willing to use his legs on Saturday, so perhaps Briles will add one or two designed quarterback runs when the team takes on Oklahoma State.

Savion Williams has been TCU’s most effective rusher over the last three weeks, which has helped the Horned Frogs cover up a glaring lack of production from their running backs this season. Cam Cook has struggled with both vision and ball security, while Trent Battle has played only two games and Jeremy Payne, who showed promise against Kansas, is still a true freshman. Of the three players mentioned above, Payne was the most involved against Baylor, rushing for 21 yards on seven carries while adding four catches for 26 yards. I’ve said since the win over Kansas, and will continue to say, that I believe Payne is the best running back on the roster right now and deserves the chance to start at least once as TCU winds down the regular season. Hopefully Payne gets that chance against Oklahoma State.

If it wasn’t evident before the season began, it’s more evident now that the TCU coaching staff must recruit the transfer portal hard for defensive linemen, particularly guys on the interior who can help the Horned Frogs fix their putrid run defense. I still believe in the young players like Markis Deal, Zachary Chapman, Avion Carter and Travis Jackson, but TCU needs to go after veteran players with a proven track record of production at the Power 4/5 level. Another factor to consider is eligiblity, as both NaNa Osafo-Mensah and Tymon Mitchell are sixth-year seniors while Caleb Fox and Hakeem Ajijolaiya are fourth-year seniors. I’m fairly certain none of these guys will have eligibility remaining after this season, meaning there will be multiple big holes to fill when TCU returns next fall.

One of the biggest bright spots from Saturday’s loss against Baylor was the performance of Josh Hoover, who turned in arguably his best performance since he threw for 402 yards and four touchdowns against UCF. Hoover made good decisions, showed efficiency through the air and even escaped the pocket a few times with his legs to pick up additional yardage. I think these last three games are critical for Hoover, who will have opportunities to exploit mediocre Oklahoma State and Arizona defenses at home over the next few weeks. If Hoover can finish the regular season strong, there will be no doubt about his QB1 status for 2025.

TCU should win this game, but the Horned Frogs did fall on their faces as heavy home favorites against Houston earlier this season. I’d like to believe head coach Sonny Dykes and his staff won’t allow for the same mistake to be made twice and there’s no reason why the TCU offense can’t hang 30-plus, or even 40-plus points against the Cowboys, who are allowing over 500 yards of total offense per game. Oklahoma State is 0-6 in the Big 12 and even though the Cowboys have a habit of playing the Horned Frogs tough, TCU should win this game fairly handily.