WR Desmon White steps up in place of injured Turpin

Before the offensive awakening in the third quarter that sealed TCU’s 33-3 victory over SMU at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, the Horned Frogs were relatively silent Friday night on that side of the football.

But the Frogs stayed in the game, and eventually put it away, by leaning on some key special-teams contributions from punt returner Desmon White and a pair of kickers who combined for four field goals, including a career-long of 46 yards from Ryan Graf.

White, a junior from DeSoto, stepped up nicely in the role of replacement for KaVontae Turpin, the Frogs’ receiver/kick returner who leads the team in all-purpose yards (169.3 per game). Turpin was sidelined against SMU because of a knee injury sustained last week against Iowa State.

Heading into the contest, TCU coach Gary Patterson expressed a need to find someone who could take up Turpin’s slack because the Frogs would be “hurting most” on special teams in a field-position contest. Without Turpin, a player Patterson described as “a different animal … that always makes the first guy miss,” the coach wondered how the Frogs would fare in that department against SMU. White alleviated those concerns Friday.

He averaged 24.7 yards per attempt on three first-half punt returns, including a 14-yarder that put the Frogs in position for Graf’s 46-yard field goal that tied the game, 3-3.

White also added a career-high six catches for 49 yards as part of the receiver rotation, tying John Diarse (6 catches, 139 yards) for most catches by any TCU player. One of White’s receptions came on a 77-yard drive that produced Graf’s 20-yard field goal that put TCU on top, 6-3, at the half.

The Frogs stepped on the gas after intermission, adding three touchdowns and a pair of Brandon Hatfield field goals to put the game away. White added 123 all-purpose yards to that effort, helping put TCU (3-1) on an uptick heading into next week’s pivotal Big 12 game against No. 25 Oklahoma (1-2), the defending conference champion.

Patterson referred to White and cornerback Tony James, who made his first career start, as the two players who had outstanding games in his post-game talk with players.

“Des was awesome. He caught the ball well and made some things happen in the punt return game,” Patterson said. “We knew what we had with Turpin, but Des stepped up. He changed the field position and it made a big difference. You’ve got to win somewhere in your kicking game.”

TCU quarterback Kenny Hill said White, a quarterback in high school, is fast emerging as a favored target because he has a knack for finding the open spot when running routes.

“He thinks like a quarterback in terms of finding open spots and things like that,” Hill said. “Being able to have trust like that, knowing where he’s going to be, that’s big.

“He’s a great athlete. He’s a lot like Turp. They have similar playing styles. And he finally got that opportunity to show it tonight.”

White said he was pleased to contribute as both a receiver and a return man in the Frogs’ triumph.

“It feels good to do anything to help the team win,” White said. “That’s what I do, go out there and try to do my part. Kenny threw me the ball and I got open, made some easy catches. I did what I’m supposed to do.”

In the final analysis, so did both kickers. But Patterson acknowledged Graf’s two field goals were too low despite being successful. That led to a switch to Hatfield, who caromed one of his kicks off the right upright.

The kicking situation could be pivotal next week against Oklahoma. But the bottom line showed Graf and Hatfield, despite some ugly moments, combined to hit 4-of-4 against SMU.

“It’s going to be an interesting year for field goals at TCU,” Patterson said.

It will be interesting to see how big White’s dual role becomes as well.

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "WR Desmon White steps up in place of injured Turpin."