Not breaking news: Shawn Robinson will be TCU’s starting quarterback

If you’re still wondering who TCU’s starting quarterback will be in 2018, stop.

It will be Shawn Robinson, even if TCU coach Gary Patterson is hesitant to declare his starter on July 16.

Patterson is not alone, of course, as many coaches, including Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley, refuse to announce their starting quarterback under the guise of there still being a competition for the No. 1 job.

Yeah, right. Sure, in some cases, there is absolutely a quarterback battle raging into August.

But not for the Horned Frogs. They have Robinson, who played in six games as a true freshman in 2017, including a start against Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Even Patterson pointed out that it “was a hard place to play.”

“Obviously, he’s the guy that played the most games,” Patterson said at the Big 12 media days at The Star in Frisco. “He was able to win this last year. So obviously he’s proven himself, he probably has the edge.”

Just an edge? He has a little more than that.

Transfer Mike Collins has impressed and will get a chance to play behind Robinson, and if Robinson falters early, Collins or Grayson Muehlstein could find themselves with a bigger role. But neither have thrown a pass before for TCU. They are Plan B for the Frogs.

Justin Rogers, who is still recovering from knee surgery that wiped out most of his high school senior season, won’t likely be 100 percent until the final third of the season. He’ll probably get a good look during some games late, especially with the expanded redshirt rules that allow players to play in four games without losing their redshirt eligibility.

“Probably top-to-bottom, depth chart-wise [quarterback is] the best we’ve seen,” Patterson said. “But you’ve listened to me before, I don’t judge quarterbacks in practice or stats, anything else. I judge ‘em on Saturdays. That position is just different when you have a new guy in place, you do them a disservice if you ask too much of them as far as the pressure of it.”

Robinson is one of five TCU players attending today’s Big 12 media event, another sign that Patterson isn’t really hiding his intentions.

“We’re going to have a good skilled group around them and how do they grow up and become leaders and I think one of the biggest ways to become a leader is to come to this event and get a chance to see all of you and see, really, what’s out there, what you represent and the people that are going to be talking about you and what you do. So I thought it was a good thing.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2018 at 1:30 PM.