Boykin didn’t live up to high expectations, but he’s not alone, TCU coach says

Trevone Boykin was not happy with himself after the Minnesota game, TCU coach Gary Patterson said.

“I think everybody had high expectations. I think he had high expectations; I don’t think he lived up to his own expectations,” Patterson said Monday during the weekly Big 12 coaches conference call.

Boykin completed 26 of 42 passes for 246 yards, one touchdown and an interception and also ran for a score.

“He scored enough points to win,” Patterson said.

“He missed some easy throws that could have been touchdowns,” Patterson said. “But he checked into an option play and ran it in — which is pure athletic ability — for a touchdown.”

Patterson said it’s not just Boykin who will have to play better on offense.

He said receivers Josh Doctson and Kolby Listenbee and running back Aaron Green can all play better. Doctson led the team in receptions Thursday night and scored a touchdown, but Listenbee had only one catch while Green averaged 4.6 yards on 19 carries.

“All three I think know that they can play a lot better football,” Patterson said. “Aaron missed a couple of cuts. Josh Doctson only practiced one week out of the four in two-a-days. He’s got to get himself into better shape, work himself into being the player he was a year ago.”

Patterson said receivers Desmon White, who played in place of Deante’ Gray, and Ty Slanina were among the less-heralded players who “really did some decent things in the run and pass game.”

But overall, Patterson said the grinding performance will benefit Boykin and others.

“He’ll get better,” Patterson said. “Playing a tough game at Minnesota, I hope, will help us down the road playing in Lubbock, playing in Manhattan, playing in Ames, playing in Stillwater, playing in Norman — the five road games we have left. Because I think all of them are going to be the same way.”

Turpin ‘awesome’

Freshman punt returner KaVontae Turpin “did awesome” in his first game, Patterson said, and is going to get a chance at kickoff returns this week.

Patterson said Turpin is hard to tackle one-on-one and reminds him of another Horned Frogs standout.

“He’s a little bit like Jeremy Kerley in the fact that he’s mature, he’s a tough kid, he doesn’t get shook in those kind of situations,” Patterson said.

Turpin had three returns for 13 yards and did not mishandle any. “Made some good decisions,” Patterson said.

Listenbee averaged 19 yards on three kickoff returns, with a long of 24.

LB evaluation

Patterson said the linebackers made “a lot of mistakes” against Minnesota, but that they were all correctable mistakes.

“We got a lot of formations from Minnesota that they weren’t ready for, and older guys do a better job of correcting that,” Patterson said.

Ty Summers replaced Sammy Douglas, who went out after the second series, and Mike Freeze played the entire game.

“Overall, they all played really hard,” Patterson said. “We’ve got to get a lot better to keep winning ballgames. I was happy with them for the first game.”

Adjustment time

Patterson said he was proud of the way his defense eventually adjusted to Minnesota, and that such adjustments will start to happen sooner in games.

“Even if we didn’t handle something right, the next drive we were able to make adjustments — we were able to move forward and get that play stopped,” Patterson said.

“We’ve got to keep learning so we don’t have to wait three or four plays to get it changed, so we can adjust earlier than that. As they get older and more mature, some of them, they will.”

Patterson added that the defense “minimized busts” and played hard.

More to play

Patterson said the depth chart will change this week so he can use players who didn’t play at Minnesota.

“There are some younger guys who we think will help us depth-wise that will play in the Stephen F. Austin game, the next two games,” he said. “Grow them up before we get into league play.”

This story was originally published September 7, 2015 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Boykin didn’t live up to high expectations, but he’s not alone, TCU coach says."