The Horned Frogs romp in FCS tune up
Dominant D
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The TCU Defense pitched a shutout for the first time since October 2017 in a 43-0 win vs. Kansas. While certainly all things about this game should be taken with a fair amount of salt given the FCS opponent, plenty of P4 squads have struggled vs. FCS foes while the Horned Frogs left no doubt. Holding the Sharks to just 2.3 yards per play, TCU forced 10 punts (six of which were three-and-out possessions), a turnover on downs on a bad punt snap, and a Namdi Obiazor interception. LIU completed just nine passes on the night and were able to manage just 127 total yards. Zachary Chapman & NaNa Osafo-Mensah each secured sacks as part of six total tackles-for-loss by the defense. Any sloppiness the defense may have shown at times at Stanford last week was erased in a hurry
Red Zone TDs
nbd, Cam Cook’s 3⃣rd TD of the night.
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— TCU Athletics (@TCU_Athletics) September 8, 2024
In 2023, TCU was among the worst teams in all of college football at converting scoring opportunities into points. On Saturday night, the Horned Frogs moved inside the opponent 20 on six occasions, reaching the endzone on all six trips. Cam Cook continued his terrific start to the season, scoring three times in the red zone, with Dominique Johnson scoring his first TD as a Horned Frog. Josh Hoover also got it done through the air in the red zone, tossing TD passes to JoJo Earle & Chase Curtis, as part of a near perfect outing for the QB, completing 80% of his passes for 267 yards.
Kept It Clean
Zero sacks, zero turnovers, zero first half penalties. Coming out of last week’s win vs. the Cardinal, TCU’s biggest area for improvement was the mental mistakes of bad penalties and turnovers. On Saturday the Horned Frogs mostly cleaned up those issues. Although TCU did finish with 6 penalties for 65 yards, one of which erased a 10-yard Jeremy Payne TD run, the Frogs did not have any penalties in the first half and otherwise did not have penalties that were backbreakers.
Spread the Wealth
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12 different players were on the receiving end of TCU’s 24 receptions on Saturday night, including first receptions on the season for Braylon James, Eric McAlister, JoJo Earle, Chase Curtis, Jordyn Bailey, Hunter Krepp, and Dominique Johnson. The Horned Frogs were able to show off the pass-catcher depth after the receptions were dominated by Bech, Richardson, and Williams last week. TCU will certainly need to lean on its many different options going forward, each bringing a unique skillset to attack opposing defenses.
Next: TCU opens Big 12 play vs. the UCF Knights in Fort Worth on Saturday, September 14 at 6:30 PM on FOX.