Arlington grad Sammy Douglas triumphant in return to TCU lineup

Saturday night is what Sammy Douglas pictured when he signed with TCU.

He’d be a starter.

He’d make lots of tackles.

He’d be on a winning team.

Except for the result, everything happened just as he pictured. The former Arlington High star made the starting lineup against Arkansas and led the Horned Frogs in tackles with 17, one of the highest totals ever for a linebacker at TCU under coach Gary Patterson. Only the end result, a 41-38 double-overtime loss, clouded the picture.

“Being on the starting team, I felt pretty good,” he said. “I felt like I had accomplished something, instead of getting hurt again.”

That was likely Douglas’ greatest fear, and who could blame him?

He made the starting lineup out of fall camp a year ago and debuted at Minnesota. But two series in, he suffered a season-ending knee injury. He watched the rest of the season from home, unable even to make the games because of his crutches.

“Last year was really tough,” he said. “I didn’t realize until after the games, not being able to celebrate with the team and go out there and playing with them. I realized it was very hard. More than I really thought it was going to be.”

A year of rehab had Douglas ready for fall camp this year, but he didn’t have his job back automatically. Travin Howard led the team in tackles in his place last sesason and looked ready to return in that spot.

But an emergency appendectomy sidelined Howard for much of camp, and Douglas got a chance to work with the first team. He took advantage.

“They played hard,” Patterson said of Douglas and Ty Summers, who combined for 27 tackles against Arkansas. “Played hard.”

Douglas got the starting nod along with Summers before last week’s game when Patterson was looking for another linebacker pair against the Razorbacks.

Douglas’ 17 tackles tied for sixth-most at TCU since 2001, Patterson’s first year as head coach. Douglas had 25 career tackles entering the game.

“The things you’ve been telling him through the years, now he gets an opportunity to see,” Patterson said. “I’m excited for him because he’s far advanced from where he was last year when he started the Minnesota game.”

Douglas said his first major injury devastated him.

“I’d been waiting for a long time to even get to be on the field, so when I was out there, I was pretty happy,” he said about last year’s season opener. “And then when I first got hurt, I was like, my gosh, already? I’m already hurt? So yeah, I was pretty devastated after they said I couldn’t go back in and they told me the bad news that I wasn’t going to be able to play the rest of the year.”

His Arlington connections — running back Kyle Hicks of Martin and former receiver Kolby Listenbee of Bowie, among others — helped rally his spirits. The roster lists six AISD players this season.

“Going in, we weren’t that tight because we were rivals,” Douglas said. “But now that we’re a team and we’re around each other a lot, we’re a lot closer. I feel like I’m a lot closer to Kyle as a friend and a teammate.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Arlington grad Sammy Douglas triumphant in return to TCU lineup."