Life — especially for writers who are football fans — is weird. I promised last week that in the limited action I witnessed, redshirt freshman Josh Hoover was a definitively better passer than Chandler Morris. What I couldn’t predict was that on an autumn Saturday night in my late 30s, I’d be combing the darkest corners of the internet through vacuum forums to find Hoover Company slogans for the title of this week’s Buck U, but here we are.
Hoover is the name you’ll read in every TCU football-related story or social media post and that you’ll hear on the lips of every Frog fanatic — and rightfully so. For the first time since Week 1 against Colorado, and with better execution, Kendal Briles’ offense hummed against the visiting Cougars from Brigham Young. The freshman from Heath looked like a quarterback with several seasons under his belt instead of one embarking on his first career start. Hoover’s numbers (37 completions for 439 yards and four touchdowns) are approaching video-game stats. The frosh did throw two interceptions, one that deflected off the hands of his receiver, but the good overwhelmed the bad in the manner of Mother Teresa leaving some plastic bags in her recycling bin.
Disregarding the deserved attention of our pungasmic new quarterback, all phases of Sonny Dykes’ Frogs arrived ready to right the ship on Saturday afternoon. TCU scored their first touchdown three plays into the game, and it was on defense. Millard “Nook” Bradford lit the fuse on what would be an explosively horrendous day for the BYU offense by intercepting Kedon Slovis and housing the rock less than 90 seconds into the game. TCU’s defenders didn’t even allow 250 total yards to a Cougar squad who graced the end zone only once, converted after that, then kicked a lone field goal for a combined 11 points. The Frogs were already up 24 when the aforementioned TD occurred, and they quickly scored again to recover a 23-point advantage into halftime before driving 82 yards for another 6 after the bands returned to their seats.
Even special teams recovered their swagger as Griffin Kell knocked home three field goals and Jordy Sandy booted a 44-yard punt, though he only had to kick it away once the entire afternoon. The 44-11 victory was a foregone conclusion when the defense started fast and Hoover immediately found his groove.
While not flawless, Hoover’s performance is notable for several reasons. He was making his first career start against a BYU squad who had lost only once, to a ranked Kansas team. The backup looked comfortable, and when protection broke down or reads were hazy, he bought time while keeping his eyes downfield, eventually finding open receivers. No. 10 ran only once but proved in the second half he has wheels with a 26-yard scamper, flashing speed and good decision-making to move the sticks without risking his well-being in a blowout. His airborne numbers were excellent, so good that no TCU quarterback has passed for as many yards in 2,569 days — or just more than seven years for those of you too lazy to dust off your old pre-calc TI-84s and do the math yourselves.
Despite how giddy I am to proclaim the triumphant return of TCU football domination (or at least occasional winning), I’d at least reserve elation. It’s true that with Hoover at the helm from the beginning, it’s entirely possible the Frogs could be undefeated with a Top-15 ranking right now. We’d still be riding the gasp-tastic roulette wheel from last season because the defense shows up only around half the time, and that’s being generous, but there’s no way to know. Hoover has flaws, and his passes are occasionally caught by the wrong team, but when Briles dials up 58 attempts, that can happen. The Cougars’ line was especially adept at batting down passes by the prolific youngster. Good defensive coordinators also earn their money by punishing players based on their tendencies, and a new kid on the block doesn’t really have any — at least none that are available on game film — creating something I call the backup-quarterback effect.
We saw Morris take advantage of this phenomenon a few years ago when he started for an injured Max Duggan to run roughshod over a 12th-ranked Baylor squad for one of TCU’s only notable wins in an otherwise down season. All warnings aside, Hoover seems entirely capable of excelling in this fast-paced offense, and the expedience with which he stepped into the role and how his teammates have responded speak exceptionally well to their collective trajectory for the rest of the season.
As far as the conference goes, the Frogs are sitting tied with Kansas, who they won’t play this year, and Texas Tech, who they will, in the middle of the pack at 2-2. The Sooners are dominating after only one year of Brent Venables taking over after Lincoln Riley abandoned not playing defense in a flyover state to not play defense on the West Coast. The Sooners’ last-drive victory over Texas leaves them in the driver’s seat ahead of five teams with one loss each.
Kansas State, one of the aforementioned teams with a single loss, hosts TCU in the Little Apple on Saturday evening. The Wildcats just ruined the Red Raiders’ homecoming game last week but have dropped close matchups to Mizzou (who are ranked 20th right now) and a head scratcher to Oklahoma State, who had been uncharacteristically terrible before that game. The Cats have played the majority of their real competition on the road this season but have eclipsed 40 points during every game in Manhattan.
The Kansans are having their own peculiar love affair with a freshman quarterback at the moment. Will Howard, who played a renaissance season last year and beat the Frogs in the conference title game, shares the load with an electric running freshman slinger, Avery Johnson, who rushed for five touchdowns in Lubbock last week. Typically, when a team is rotating two quarterbacks, it’s because no one is performing well enough to warrant full-time snaps, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for the uglier-purple team. Joe Gillespie is undoubtedly sitting in a room stressing about how to prepare his defense for two talented QBs with different strengths who the Cats will interchange often depending on the situation and competing scheme.
If Hoover can continue to dazzle in the passing game and the TCU defense that played against BYU shows up, then Saturday could be very competitive. Still, I’m too jaded to believe this defensive alignment can defend both a competent passing and a dynamic running quarterback, along with a generally vaunted rushing attack, on the road. We all witnessed — or maybe you simply changed the channel like many did — what occurred against Iowa State, and I fear the sequel is in production. The key difference is the Frog offense should be able to stay on the field and score quickly to counter an offense that will bleed the game clock as well as the Frogs’ desire to live. With five games remaining in TCU’s regular season, I think they’re all winnable — except maybe at Oklahoma — but I like the Frogs’ chances of damming Texas in Fort Worth more than turning Manhattan into a Hooverville.
