The 2024 season reached a new low after the Horned Frogs fell to the one-win Cougars.
If the road loss against SMU wasn’t the low point for the TCU football team this season, then the team’s 30-19 home defeat against the Houston Cougars certainly has to be the bottom of the hole for the Horned Frogs. Not only did TCU lose despite entering as a two-score favorite, but the team was thoroughly outplayed in all three phases once again. The Horned Frogs turned the ball over four times and allowed 207 rushing yards to a Houston offense led by backup quarterback Zeon Chriss, who ran for a 71-yard touchdown right up the middle against an anemic TCU run defense. The Horned Frogs, who fell to 3-3 on the season against one of the worst teams on their schedule, will now have a bye week before hitting the road against Utah. Here are three things we learned from TCU’s disastrous home loss.
TCU cannot run a 3-3-5 defense. It’s time to make a change
I thought that TCU took a small step forward defensively against Kansas. The Horned Frogs held the Jayhawks under 80 rushing yards in the second half and made key stops down the stretch to seal its 38-27 victory. But Friday’s performance was a complete disaster, as the Horned Frogs surrendered 30 points to a Houston team that had been SCORELESS over its last two Big 12 matchups. TCU forced zero turnovers and couldn’t stop a backup signal caller making his first start of the season. It’s painfully clear at this point that the Horned Frogs cannot stop the run, as they’ve now allowed over 200 yards on the ground three times in six games. But TCU has made almost zero significant plays in the passing game, as veteran cornerback JaTravis Broughton has struggled mightily and the TCU secondary as a whole has just one interception this season.
The ultimate takeaway right now is that, whether it’s Joe Gillespie or Andy Avalos coordinating the defense, TCU’s 3-3-5 scheme that head coach Sonny Dykes believes in is not working and hasn’t worked since 2022, when the Horned Frogs had NFL talent like Dylan Horton, Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson, Josh Newton and Dee Winters to shoulder the burden. While there’s a difference between Gillespie’s 3-3-5 and Avalos’ 3-3-5, which features an EDGE rusher, both units had and have failed to stop the run.
The weight of the offense has crashed down on Josh Hoover
After a stellar start to the season, quarterback Josh Hoover has plummeted down to Earth, throwing six interceptions and fumbling the ball away three times over the last three games. Hoover has been forced to carry the offense due to TCU’s inefficient and largely ineffective running game, and the redshirt sophomore had done well to fulfill that huge responsibility. But the last three games serve as a humble reminder that the third-year quarterback still has a long way to go to reach the upper tier of Big 12 signal callers. Hoover’s decision making down the field has been questionable of late, as most of his interceptions have been the result of late throws and bad passes that have floated long enough in the air to be picked.
TCU’s offensive line hasn’t helped, either, as Hoover has now been sacked six times and he seems to have zero desire to use his legs and gain yardage with his feet. Since taking the field last season, Hoover has -15 rushing yards and four touchdowns, most of which have been in extremely short-yardage scenarios. Until Hoover becomes a true threat to run, defenses will continue to drop back in coverage and wait for more poor decisions.
Sonny Dykes should be coaching for his job at this point
I wrote after TCU’s embarrassing loss against SMU that the hot seat should be warming up for head coach Sonny Dykes, who’s now 9-12 over his last 14 games dating back to the Big 12 Championship loss against Kansas State in 2022. After blowing through all of the goodwill gained during that national championship season, the program has seemingly returned to the state of purgatory it reached over the final phase of Gary Patterson’s reign, when TCU went 23-24 overall between 2018 and 2021.
To make matters worse, very little has happened over the last three games to convince me that this season can be successful. TCU is now -10 in the turnover margin and the team’s -2.2 turnover margin per game average is 132nd out of 134 FBS schools. The Horned Frogs are averaging 6.6 penalties per game. TCU is allowing 205.2 rushing yards per game, which ranks 113th among FBS teams, and 249.5 rushing yards per game AT HOME! The Horned Frogs are conceding an average of 37 points per game, 118th nationally. Offensively, TCU is averaging just 89.2 rushing yards per game, which ranks 119th nationally. Finally, we can’t forget that Dykes got himself tossed from the SMU game due to drawing a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
TCU has too much wealth and too many resources for athletics to allow for this kind of play to continue. The Horned Frogs have the No. 20 ranked recruiting class for 2025 and are now competing in a new Big 12 that doesn’t have Texas or Oklahoma. After finishing 5-7 and not making a bowl game last season, TCU will need to strongly consider a change at the head coaching position if the team fails to qualify for a bowl game again this season. Dykes is currently under contract through 2028 after reportedly agreeing to an extension in 2022. TCU had to pay a large buyout just three years ago, reportedly giving Gary Patterson $17 million after the two parties split in 2021. Should the Horned Frogs move on from Dykes, it would likely entail a more significant buyout cost. I’ll always hold out hope that TCU can turn things around, but there’s little happening right now to convince me that will happen.