TCU
TCU sophomore quarterback Josh Hoover
The Horned Frogs may have not gone as far as they wanted to last season, however, this has only added to the team’s desire to get back to the heights they achieved over a season ago under quarterback Max Duggan. Instead, the Frogs ended their 2023 football season at 5-7, which is a far cry from the 13-2 record achieved by the team the year before. With this juxtaposition at the forefront of their minds, several TCU football players talked about their expectations going into the 2024 spring practice beginning on March 23 at a recent press conference.
The first player to sit in the proverbial hot seat was TCU’s current quarterback sophomore Josh Hoover. Hoover got his chance to shine in week six of the 2023 season when he came in as a relief for then starting quarterback Chandler Morris who went out with an injury. Hoover seized the moment completing 11 of his 19 pass attempts for over 100 yards and a touchdown to boot. However, Hoover wouldn’t start until the following game where he would complete 37 out of his 58 passing attempts for a total of 439 yards, which includes four touchdowns. The final score of his first start had TCU 44 to BYU 11. But as the season numbers reveal, this was only one of a handful of games that went TCU’s way, leaving many to wonder if the 2022 season was a fluke.
Stephen Montoya
Josh Hoover
“Every year you got to prove yourself and go out and get better and I'm thankful for the last half of the season, the opportunity I had to play because I feel like it really helped me and I feel like I have some experience now going into the off season,” Hoover says. “I feel like I have the opportunity to just build on what happened and fix some of the mistakes and focus where I need to focus, so it's going to be good.”
Hoover verified that his six starts last season helped him find who he was on the field, and that, if given the chance, he can do it again and do it well.
“You're not always quite sure until you do it and so after getting in there and playing, I realized I can do this, and I can be that guy. And so, I think you learn that, and confidence comes with it. It's not easy to go out there and lose some close games and make some plays that you probably shouldn't have made. I feel like I grew a lot through those lessons.”
And Hoover isn’t the only one stating this either. Hoover’s teammate senior wide receiver JP Richardson said, “Josh is an outstanding leader.”
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JP Richardson
“Everybody kind of snaps out of it when he starts talking,” Richardson told the media. “[He’s] a guy that everybody gets along with. He's a great person. I've gotten a lot closer with him just outside of football and he's a blast to hang around. And just as far as being a leader, he's very vocal, extremely vocal and that's good to see and I'm just excited to see how his confidence continues to grow and how he continues to better himself as a quarterback.”
On the defensive side of the ball things have also taken a huge turn in the form of a new defensive coordinator Andy Avalos. According to junior defensive lineman Damonic Williams, Avalos has already asserted his presence on the field.
Stephen Montoya
Damonic Williams,
“He [doesn’t] want to waste time. I want to say first day he got in the team meeting we get straight to the point. That was definitely his model and that's what he was setting to do and that's what he did,” Williams explained.
Senior linebacker Namdi Obiazor said he was open to Avalos’ way of coaching, going so far as asking the new coach where he might fit in the scheme of things for the upcoming season.
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Namdi Obiazor
“When he first came here I kind of seen what he was running,” Obiazor says. “I kind of just met with him and had him break down the defense and point to where he sees me playing.”
Post conversation, Obiazor says, Avalos placed him on a robust coverage that will translate over to a NFL level defense. “I feel like playing that now will get me ready for the next level.”
When asked what excites him about the new defense the most, Obiazor says, “The ability for everybody to move around and play multiple positions.”
“We have D linemen dropping into coverage, we got safety blitzing corners. It’s going to have quarterbacks and offenses thinking, even if it’s hard for us to do while we're learning it, but I know once we figure out and finally lock down the defense it's going to be hard for people to stop,”he says.
Williams also said the defense is looking at trying to get to the quarterback more next season, which begins with the upcoming practice schedule.
“Everyone wants to win,” he says. “And me, I hate losing more than I love winning. That's just a really big thing with the team that we have to remember that winning feels good, [but] losing is going to feel a lot worse.”
