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Max Duggan takes questions from assembled media at the Fort Worth Club on Monday.
Overseeing the proceedings of the Davey O’Brien Award media availability on Monday on the 11th floor of the Fort Worth Club was William Henry Huddle’s depiction of the triumphant conclusion of San Jacinto.
“The Surrender of Santa Anna” has presumably hung over that fireplace for as long as the building has stood at West 7th and Taylor, a period of almost 100 years.
Few things, it came to one’s mind while studying it, accurately portray the reality of how quickly fortunes can change. The building itself is representative, what with the broken and made oil wildcatters who have roamed its historic corridors.
Then there is the story of Max Duggan, the TCU quarterback and this year’s winner of the Davey O’Brien Award, as prestigious an honor a college football player can earn, save for the most respected of its kind, the Heisman.
“About a year ago, I came here for dinner with family friends and I never would have thought I’d be here a year later winning the Davey O’Brien Award,” said Duggan, decked out for the occasion in his finest black tie, his perpetually bloody elbow, on the face of it, patched and anointed with Neosporin. “It’s pretty special to be sitting up here. I’ve been surrounded by so many great people — family, friends, players, coaching staff, people back home — helping me get to this point. To be able to share this with them means the most to me.”
At that time a year ago, Duggan, a native of Iowa, was essentially merely thinking about playing out his eligibility, graduating, and going to get a job in the real world. His first three seasons were littered with injuries and more losses than wins. Then in fall camp, he loses the starting job to Chandler Morris.
To be sure, we’re not talking about the adversity of the Alamo or Goliad, but things were not looking up for Max Duggan. But Duggan and TCU, like our revolutionary Texas heroes before them, simply proved everybody wrong in 2022. For Duggan, that included even his coaches.
Well, the real world he is now putting off after a senior season that could only be described as magical, ending in college football’s national championship game, a loss to Georgia. He should have won the Heisman, if you ask me.
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Max Duggan's career at TCU has a permanent place in posterity with his display in the Davey O'Brien trophy room at the Fort Worth Club.
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TCU Athletics via Twitter
“Obviously, we were disappointed” in the blowout loss to Georgia, Duggan said. “That’s not how we wanted the night to go, but that doesn’t take away the special season we had as a program. To be able to share that with players, coaching staff, our fans, the city of Fort Worth, and TCU … it meant so much to people and I think people will remember this season for a long time.”
Duggan will get a chance to play in the ultimate league — with no disrespect to the XFL, USFL, or the Canadians — the NFL.
For the time being, he has relocated to Orange County, California, to work out with Jordan Palmer, one of the so-called quarterback whisperers, those guys who fine-tune NFL-caliber quarterbacks and readies them for a potential career in the NFL. Palmer’s most recent clients include Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Jarrett Stidham, Drew Lock, Deshaun Watson, Joe Burrow, and Trevor Lawrence. There are more hits there than misses, and two former O’Brien winners to boot.
UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker are among those working out with Duggan in California.
Duggan also spent a week at the Senior Bowl, which he called a great experience and where he stood out.
Duggan is in California to work on his mechanics and footwork. He won’t be a top draft choice, but neither were three of his former Big 12 peers who led teams in the playoffs this past season. Jalen Hurts was a second-rounder, but Skylar Thompson and Brock Purdy, a Dallas Cowboys killer, were seventh-rounders. Purdy, in fact, was the last player drafted. Mr. Irrelevant, they call the last player selected.
The NFL Combine begins next week, where more real, up-close evaluations are made, and then he’ll return to TCU for Pro Day. That’s when other TCU seniors will try to make an impression on NFL scouts, who get it wrong on players about as often as they get it right. A total of nine TCU players will be at the combine.
The money wasted on failed first-round draft picks is far larger than the budgets of most Third World countries. I don't know that for sure, but I'm sure of it. Any of us would have gladly flopped for the money paid upfront. We're not talking mere beer money.
Oh, well.
If teams are looking for a great competitor and a guy who can lead a team from the huddle, we got a guy for you, NFL.
“You need to have one team that likes you as a person and likes your game,” Duggan said. “Wherever you go, it’s about the right fit.”
Speaking of changing fortunes.
TCU tennis is building a dynasty. While we were wrapping up with Duggan, Horned Frogs tennis players were beginning to celebrate a second consecutive ITA national indoor team men’s championship in Chicago.
David Roditi’s team did it the best way I can think of, too, cannonballing Texas.
In singles matches, Jack Pinnington topped Micha Braswell 6-4, 6-0, and Sander Jong bested Siem Woldeab, 6-2, 6-3. In doubles play, TCU’s Jake Fearnley and Luc Fomba beat Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri 7-5. Pinnington and Sander Jong beat Woldeab and Pierre-Yves Bailey, 6-4.
Up 4-0, the remaining three matches were halted, the mercy rule (let’s just call it that) on this bagel enforced.
The tennis team made a surprise appearance, with trophy in tow, at the No. 24 TCU men’s basketball game on Monday against No. 3 Kansas.
They were welcomed as the indoor court conquerors they are.
A men's basketball victory would have made Monday completely epic, of course. The men’s basketball team, too, is on the mend after string of losses with star Mike Miles on the sideline with a knee injury. The Frogs played in front of an electric sold-out Schollmaier Arena but lost, dammit, 63-58.
TCU, with Miles back, had trouble getting the ball in the basket, an important prerequisite to winning basketball games, particularly in the final minutes, which were as nail-biting as watching Red Panda balancing herself on a unicycle as tall as Eddie Lampkin and kicking bowls onto her head at halftime. Surely, she has spent considerable time in concussion protocol getting that bit perfected.
Not even Magic Max could help them (or Red Panda, who couldn't successfully get a set of five bowls kicked onto her head). Duggan, in his O’Brien tuxedo and with his girlfriend at his side, made quite the entrance with six minutes left in the game. They entered from the tunnel during a timeout. As they took seats courtside, Duggan enjoined the more than 8,000 in attendance to stand and urge on the Frogs down the stretch.
The crowd, of course, went nuts for their favorite quarterback. The affection is mutual.
Fort Worth “took me in and made me feel like I was one of their own. Fort Worth is somewhere I can call home. I love being a part of it. I love the people here. For TCU and Fort Worth to bring me in and take care of me and always have my back that’s why I love this place.”
Go out and keep proving people wrong. That’s what we do here.
