TCU beat their old Southwest Conference friends the Houston Cougars 36-13 on Saturday night in the Coogs’ inaugural Big 12 game. Though the matchup is nothing new, the in-state teams haven’t met as concurrent constituents since 1995. Their last meeting was 16 years ago, and someone named Art Briles was coaching the Coogs, and our current offensive coordinator Kendall Briles, Art’s son, had just graduated from U of H two years previous. Houston’s current head coach, Dana Holgorsen, was formerly leading West Virginia, and he and TCU’s Sonny Dykes along with Art all coached together under the late Mike Leach out in Lubbock on the same staff, giving the whole matchup Saturday a creepy familiarity.
Despite the victory, which everyone should be satisfied with, a discerning eye saw familiar Frog struggles, especially defensively. It might seem like an odd assertion for a phase that didn’t allow a touchdown — U of H’s only end-zone trip came on a kickoff return — but bear with me. The Cougars’ offense looked terrible, and it was because they are. In fact, according to last week, they’re only the second-best college football team in Houston, because they were earlier bested by the Rice Owls — Rice cares so little about football that their faculty and administration have repeatedly tried to dissolve the program.
Cougar quarterback Donovan Smith, a transfer from the Red Raiders, was plagued by an inadequate receiving corps all evening. Smith is one transfer prospect away from slicing the Frogs’ secondary into the purple shreds we witnessed Week 1 against Colorado. TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie, to his credit, was more liberal with blitzing and intermittently pressured Smith to commit to throws before he was comfortable or to stumble into sacks. Still, I’ve yet to watch a game when TCU defenders look effective in any zone alignment with a base rush, and that’s a huge problem.
TCU quarterback Chandler Morris, who was born in May under the Taurus sign, is still behaving like a two-faced Gemini. First series success and an extremely quick score quickly devolved into ignoring three receivers in favor of one for the entire first half. Poor pocket presence materialized into an early lost fumble when Morris bailed toward the only penetrating defensive end. I will lend the sophomore mercy as it pertains to his lone interception, as tight end Jared Wiley was significantly held, though it was not called, allowing the ball to sail to a waiting Houston defender. The box score tallied 314 yards and two touchdowns through the air, but the passing game felt laborious and predictable. Briles pivoted and leaned on the running game, and Morris scrambled to extend drives and finished as the second-leading Frog rusher.
The good news offensively, as it was last season, is the Frogs are still a force on the ground. Emani Bailey is quickly becoming the factor opposing defenses will scheme to stop. The stout junior from Denton rushed 23 times for 126 yards and a touchdown, and across the first three games he has averaged 119 yards per contest. Houston will be better the next time these teams meet, but the Frogs have now won nine straight against the Cougars, and the all-time series is tied at 13.
Quickly transitioning from familiar to straight-up family, the Metroplex Privilege Bowl resumes Saturday morning. The Battle for the Iron Skillet is only scheduled for three more meetings, including this weekend. The TCU/SMU series will pause indefinitely after the 2025 season. Dissolving the yearly yuppie fest was inevitable and nailed into a tightly sealed coffin after the announcement that the Ponies would begin their nine-year unpaid internship in the ACC starting next year. Frog Fans like myself really enjoy the crosstown affair, but the program has failed to gain anything but heartache from the often tumultuous matchup for many years, and both teams will likely start paying an additional cupcake to play each season as they prioritize their conference schedules. This, like rivalries such as Texas-Texas A&M and Oklahoma-OK State, might be played infrequently for two-year stands down the road, but that all remains to be seen as mega-conference alignment continues.
Considering the Frogs’ shortcomings, notably defensively, which I’ve already discussed at length only three games in, the Mustangs are especially dangerous since quarterback Preston Stone is tossing the ball consistently well and just rattled off a five-touchdown, 300-yard performance against Prairie View A&M last week. TCU is the second-biggest name brand on SMU’s schedule after Oklahoma, to whom they lost 28-11. The Sooners seem to have regained their stride and swagger through these early weeks, and that loss should cause Fort Worth fanatics to pause heading into this weekend. Morris needs two good halves and zero interceptions, and the defensive secondary still needs major improvement to slow down an offense predicated around timing routes and a quick release to negate extra pressure. TCU has yet to prove they can cover receivers in mid- and shallow- crossing patterns, but they’ll have to at least slow them down if TCU wants to retain the Skillet and Dykes’ pride as his old team visits his new house for the first and second-to-last time.
I’m probably being a little bit too hard on our one-loss boys after winning a conference matchup, but they’ve yet to play a complete game or convince me they’re capable of beating a good team. Yes, that includes Colorado, who might be above average but really hasn’t proven anything yet, either. Morris is still showing his level (intermediate), and the defense, who are at least tackling better, do not seem to be able to defend passes unless the receivers are woefully deficient. I hope everyone enjoyed last week, because buckle up, Frog Nation — there probably aren’t many more comfortable victories to be enjoyed this season.
