TCU going into Ohio State week ‘stoked’ and ‘confident’
TCU receiver Jaelan Austin didn’t hide his excitement about the upcoming Ohio State contest.
“I’m stoked,” said Austin, the senior receiver from South Grand Prairie High School. “It’s always nice to play on a big stage like that at Jerry’s World. I’m a hometown kid, so I love playing in there and against a good team like Ohio State. Couldn’t ask for anything more honestly.”
It’s the game everyone has been talking about for the Frogs. With no disrespect to Southern or SMU, this is the non-conference matchup everyone circled and it wasn’t too surprising when ESPN announced it as the destination for next week’s College GameDay. The live television show will set up shop on TCU’s campus, and the Frogs are 6-0 when part of those festivities.
Not too long ago it would’ve been almost unthinkable for something like this to happen -- a storied program such as Ohio State taking on TCU.
But TCU has become a power in today’s game under Gary Patterson, and won’t feel overwhelmed on the national stage at AT&T Stadium on Saturday night. In fact, the Frogs are going in with confidence.
It’s hard not to after winning the first two games by a combined score of 97-19 with plenty of room for improvement.
Asked if TCU went into the Ohio State game with confidence, quarterback Shawn Robinson said: “For sure. We have a lot to work on. We’re excited, but we’re just going to take it day by day and get better.”
TCU has room for improvement on offense and defense.
Robinson has played well, using his legs to extend plays and score touchdowns, but has struggled with accuracy on deep balls. The wide receiving corps has home-run threats throughout, but has dropped passes.
The new-look offensive line is starting to gel, but is still a work-in-progress.
Defensively, TCU has been prone to give up big plays early on. Those will be more costly, of course, against an Ohio State compared to a Southern or SMU.
But there’s reason for optimism too. This team has shown resiliency early on.
Robinson doesn’t get rattled when he makes mistakes, and the defense has a penchant for coming through with timely plays.
On Friday, after Robinson had thrown an interception to open the second half, the defense bailed him out by getting a score on a forced fumble by Ben Banogu and a scoop-and-score by linebacker Alec Dunham.
On the possession following his interception, Robinson scored a touchdown on an 18-yard run.
So, yes, this team is confident.
“Confident is a good word,” Dunham said, “But I would just say more we have to go into the week and get prepared. When we go in Saturday I want to say, ‘I’m going into Ohio State prepared versus confident.’”
Coach Gary Patterson and his staff will have the team prepared. They’ve been through this before.
“We’ve got quite a task, quite a task next week,” Patterson said. “But you know what? We’ve been the underdog before, so this is not going to be our first rodeo.”