After vicious hit, TCU WR John Diarse wakes up sleepy offense

TCU needed that score to open up the second half, bad. The junior transfer from LSU took a simple slant 75 yards on the Horned Frogs’ first play of the second half for the game’s first touchdown.

It came after Diarse was the defenseless player in a targeting scenario late in the first quarter when quarterback Kenny Hill threw his fourth interception of the year to kill a TCU drive deep in SMU territory. SMU cornerback Christian Davis was ejected from the game after launching into Diarse as a blocker after teammate Anthony Rhoane plucked the sharply thrown ball out of the air. At one point it looked like Diarse would not come back in to the game, as his helmet was briefly packed away.

TCU went back to Diarse twice more in the second quarter. Late in the third quarter, he had five catches for 124 yards and a touchdown. The Diarse slant went for 15 more yards to set up the fade to Jalean Austin for the game’s second touchdown, giving the Frogs a 20-3 lead.

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 9:39 PM with the headline "After vicious hit, TCU WR John Diarse wakes up sleepy offense."