Stephen Montoya
Beloved TCU head football coach Sonny Dykes spoke candidly about the mindset he and the team are in given the woes of last season. After the smoke settled on the gridiron in 2023, the Horned Frogs had an overall record of 5-7, 3-6 in conference play, 4-3 at home, and 1-4 in away games.
This record juxtaposed to the legendary 2022 season where TCU went all the way to the National Championship is still fresh in many fan’s minds. Although the Horned Frogs were bested by the Georgia Bulldogs with a final score of 65-7, they finished the season ranked #2 in both the AP and Coaches Polls.
This would be the second time TCU reached this height since the glory days of “Slinging” Sam Baugh took the Horned Frogs to victory at the 1936 Sugar Bowl and the Cotton Bowl Classic in 1937.
However, for TCU to even get to this level on the national sports stage was miraculous, given they won a whopping 12-0 games during the regular season.
Last season, however, was, well, less than stellar given TCU’s leader Max Duggan, who played quarterback for the Horned Frogs during this rise, graduated and moved on. In his wake stepped in, then, freshman Josh Hoover to take over at the helm.
“We are ready to overcome last season and the disappointment that we had in that season,” Dykes said during a press conference at TCU this week. “And then a lot of changes have occurred in our program. And so, we're excited to be able to go play this game and get a great test and find out where we are as a program.”
For the season opener, TCU will face off against Stanford on the road this Friday night at 9:30 p.m. CT on ESPN. The last time the Horned Frogs began a campaign with a Friday night road game was in 2022, when the team faced off against Colorado, which TCU won 38-13 en route to a College Football Playoff National Championship appearance.
Stanford will be the first of 11 Power Four Conference opponents the Horned Frogs will play against this season.
“It's going to be late playing on the West Coast, two times zones away,” Dykes added. “All that kind of stuff is in some ways not ideal to start the season, but I think in this case it's probably exactly what we need.”
Regarding his opinion of TCU’s first opponent, Dykes says Stanford is a talented team that is going to play hard, something they have been prepping for.
“You just look at the recruiting classes historically that Stanford's had,” he says. “It's a talented group and everybody makes the biggest jump really when you're developing your program from year one to year two in most cases. And so, I would anticipate this being a completely different team, a team that's going to play us with a lot of confidence.”
Historically, TCU has a track record of besting Stanford with a 3-0 series lead over the team. The last meeting between these two came in 2017 when the Horned Frogs came back from a 21-3 deficit to win 39-37 in the Alamo Bowl. Another fun fact about this rivalry is that TCU also won 38-36 at Stanford in 2007 and 31-14 in Fort Worth in 2008.
Although the stats favor TCU in the matchup, safety Bud Clark says he’s prepping for a battle.
“They're a big team,” Clark says. “They’re going to fight until the last minute, so we got to be on the same thing with them, keep our energy up.”
Clark says the team has been ready for this match up since their final meeting last season.
Stephen Montoya
Besides two openers, one in 2008 and another in 2014, August 30 equals the earliest date in history for TCU to open it season. The previous occasion in 2014 saw the Horned Frogs defeat Samford 48-14, en route to a Big 12 Championship and 12-1 season that culminated with a 42-3 win over Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. Here’s keeping our fingers crossed or better yet in the shape of a Horned Frog for good luck.
Now with a full season under his belt as the Horned Frogs QB, Hoover says he’s ready for a challenge.
“I think just overall [I’m] just more comfortable in the offense and just the entire operation of quarterback,” he says. “It feels like the last two weeks have been the longest two weeks of my life since we did fall camp, and I think we're just itching to go play somebody; I know I am. I know that's how our team feels.”