Fort Worth Magazine
When it comes to putting a subject under the spotlight, no one does it like Brian Estridge, left, the voice of the TCU Horned Frogs.
TCU begins the football season on Labor Day in a situation eerily similar to 2023 when all the eyes of the football world had binoculars focused on Amon G. Carter Stadium.
TCU got snipped by Colorado in the season opener at home in Deion Sanders’ debut in an atmosphere P.T. Barnum could only wish to duplicate. Is there a bigger circus attraction that Coach Prime? I mean, they call him Coach Prime. Michael Irvin was there to address the Buffaloes pregame — oh, my. Who needs lions, tigers, and bears when you've got that lineup?
This year, it’s the Bill Belichick and his Girlfriend Bowl on the road against North Carolina in the Research Triangle township of Chapel Hill. (I really wanted to create a phrase playing off the “Duchess of Sussex,” but my parents had bigger ambitions for me.)
And if that weren’t enough, the buildup and hype will last all the way through the weekend. Can a judge order the Frogs sequestered?
“I really wish we were playing on Thursday,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said on Monday.
Yes, it’s beginning to look — and smell — a lot like football season. Dykes was summoned to the Railhead Smokehouse on Montgomery Street and Interstate 30 for the first of his seasonlong, weekly coach’s shows with host Brian Estridge, the voice of the TCU Horned Frogs, on Monday. That show can be heard on Lone Star 92.5 FM.
I’m telling you, that Monday chopped sandwich special is hard to beat. Pro tip: Add cheddar to the sandwich. The jalapenos on the side aren’t for everyone.
TCU opens the season at 7 p.m. Monday on ESPN.
But Dykes and his coaching staff find themselves in much the same position as they did two years ago against Colorado. They know next to nothing about North Carolina, whose roster features 70 new players. Belichick, the former NFL coach and six-time Super Bowl winner, who like Galileo, van Gogh, and Mendel, is forced to deal with the burdens of genius (insert an eyeroll here) has scrubbed the roster clean.
Moreover, he is said to be up to his old tricks. As the story goes, Belichick has had his players practicing without numbers, so that if TCU had a Bond, Bourne, or Powers on a 1099, his camera couldn’t identify whom he — or she — was looking at. That’s a takes-one-to-know-one deal. Bill, of course, has been attached to spy scandals in the past, as well as inflated ball controversies, and whatever other edge he can scratch out before the game starts.
Only the paranoid survive. Belichick missed his calling with the Nixon administration, with all due respect to the Nixon administration.
“We don’t really know, to be honest,” Dykes said of North Carolina’s offense under Freddie Kitchens — a one-time NFL head coach and assistant at North Texas and with the Dallas Cowboys — who worked under former North Carolina coach Mack Brown and was retained by Belichick. “We’re not really sure exactly what we’re going to see.”
On defense, Dykes said of Steve Belichick, Bill’s son and nepo defensive coordinator: "You get a pretty good idea of what you think you're going to see. But how's the personnel going to fit? What's his father's influence going to have on him and all the different things."
North Carolina, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference — the venerable ACC — went 6-7 last season. A year before Deion Sanders arrived, Colorado went 1-11.
Like the concern in this game, TCU was unable to adequately prepare for Colorado in 2022 without any film. They knew Travis Hunter was fast but didn't know he could fly. The Frogs also probably didn't anticipate him playing every down on offense and defense. It was dang close to that, as my faulty memory recalls.
There is, however, one very big difference between this game and the Colorado game: North Carolina doesn’t have the best player in college football on its roster like Colorado (Hunter) and another who was a top college quarterback (Shedeur Sanders).
That’s not to say North Carolina QB Gio Lopez is a second-rate afterthought. All indicators suggest he is not. I don't have film on him, but the redshirt sophomore looks to be a pretty good player. A transfer from South Alabama, a year ago Lopez set that program’s single-game record for total offense in the season opener against North Texas with 494 yards, including 432 passing. Don't mention it, North Texas. You're welcome for that memory. He also led the Jags to a school-record 87 points in a victory over an 0-12 Northwestern State. He also threw for four touchdowns in that game.
And then there’s this about that Colorado game in 2022: TCU simply wasn’t very good that day. This Horned Frogs team also appears to be better and deeper overall and a dependable decision maker and playmaker at quarterback, Josh Hoover. You sleep easier at night when you have confidence in your quarterback.
So, ultimately, Dykes said, game one is “more about you than it is your opponent.”
“It’s about you going out and performing at a high level,” he said.
Get to the grocery store for your Velveeta, Rotel, and heavy cream. Pick up some barbecue at Railhead.
It’s game time.
