TCU Athletics
TCU fits into the role of underdog the way Rudy did his Notre Dame jacket.
Perfectly.
The Horned Frogs are quite comfortable playing the gritty, little guy with a reputation for taking a chunk out of the backside of the kraken.
“Oh, sure, yeah, yeah,” Sonny Dykes said this week of his team embracing the role of underdog. “I think that’s the TCU football way. I enjoy that role of having to wake up every day and go earn it. It’s good for our players. That’s the way life is. It doesn’t matter what happened last year or two years ago or two hours ago. It matters what’s going to happen. Our players have had that mentality since the beginning.”
There is one guy who immediately comes to mind when thinking about Dykes’ response.
TCU Athletics
Emari Demercado
He is Emari Demercado, who wakes up every day seeking out a way to prove himself as a football player. He’s been doing it since leaving Downey High School in California in 2017.
Moment of disclosure: Demercado has been a favorite of the writer since meeting him at a media availability in 2018.
He is smart, as an MBA in business analytics from the Neeley school would suggest. He knows his role and performs it well. He is content to do anything, including special teams, to get on the field. He’s older, 2022 being his sixth year of college football. And he is a good, seasoned leader, as Max Duggan told us this week.
It’s cliché, but every football team would be better with guys like Demercado on the roster. In fact, good teams — any team and any sport — have guys like Demercado playing for them.
“He’s a very intelligent young man who makes the most of his opportunities,” Dykes said. “He’s a very good player, very mature. Knows exactly what to do.”
TCU is hoping to have starter Kendre Miller (knee) back for tonight’s game against No. 1 Georgia in the national championship game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Frogs are a better running team with both Miller and Demercado running the football.
They present differing styles that keep defenses on their toes. Dykes calls it a “ying and yang” effect.
Miller was listed as questionable last week, though it sounds as if he’s more doubtful heading into the game.
“I just have to go into it as if I’m going to be the guy,” Demercado said. “If he plays, I would love to have him because we are a great duo.”
Demercado, 5-foot-11, 210 pounds, has had his best year in 2022, rushing for career highs of 622 yards and six touchdowns, but he saved his best moment as a college football player in TCU’s biggest game in the Fiesta Bowl against Michigan. When Miller went down, Demercado took over, rushing for a career-high 150 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown. His 69-yard run in the third quarter was the longest of his career.
“It was big for me,” Demercado said. “Always having the confidence of what you’re capable of and finally being able to put it on display.”
Demercado is another one of those guys, like Duggan, who placed loyalty above self.
He was lightly recruited out of high school, receiving only two FBS offers, from Army and Navy. His FCS offers were Cal Poly and UC Davis.
“I think that was it,” he said.
Demercado, though, wanted something better, a Power 5 opportunity. And he believed in himself.
He took a detour to junior college to meet the goal he had set for himself. He had a good year in his only season at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, rushing for 1,026 yards and 15 touchdowns. He was named an All-American by the California Community College Football Coaches Association.
At TCU, he has had to fight for playing time behind NFL-caliber guys, such as Darius Anderson, Sewo Olonilua, Zach Evans, and Kendre Miller. Rather than seek a better opportunity at a school with less than that kind of depth on the roster, he stayed and worked harder.
“Having those kind of guys around you helped step up my game,” he said. “You have to elevate yourself.” When Dykes was named to replace Gary Patterson, the new head coach told Demercado that he wanted him back, despite the new staff recruiting the transfer portal looking for running backs.
You can never have too many of those guys, the coach said.
It was no wonder, with that kind of experience, that Demercado was ready when his number was called on New Year’s Eve against Michigan.
Coincidentally, the national championship game takes Demercado back full circle. It’s being played in his hometown.
Demercado’s journey will take him back home for his last game. He remembers thinking in the preseason how “that would be crazy if that were to happen,” TCU playing in the game in Inglewood.
“It’s literally a five-minute drive” from his boyhood home to the stadium.
You can be sure he’ll be there on time.
Demercado will have his family, his girlfriend and his best friend Ryder Hawkins, plus all their parents at the game. Demercado said he lived with the Hawkins family after he transferred to Downey because they lived close to the school.
They'll certainly have a moment all of them could only have dreamt of.
