TCU’s Taye Barber making his presence felt after battling early season injuries
TCU wide receiver Taye Barber couldn’t believe he dropped a wide-open pass during the first half of last week’s Texas game.
“It went right off my fingertips,” Barber said, shaking his head. “And then all my friends kept telling me to come on and they knew I could do better. So I just put the fuel in the tank and came up with some big catches.”
Yes, he did.
Barber, a sophomore from Cypress Springs High School, more than redeemed himself in the second half. He hauled in a 51-yard reception from quarterback Max Duggan early in the third quarter, setting up a game-tying touchdown run by Sewo Olonilua.
Then, when TCU faced a third-and-14 and was leading late in the fourth quarter, Duggan again went to Barber for a 36-yard gain.
Those were two game-changing catches in TCU’s 37-27 victory.
“Taye’s my roommate, so I’m definitely going to be hyping his head tonight,” junior linebacker Garret Wallow said, smiling in the postgame news conference. “That’s huge. It was an incredible catch. Taye, he did his thing today. That’s all credit to the whole entire team.
“I’m very proud of him, I’m very proud of how the whole offense played.”
TCU’s offense is starting to click with Duggan becoming more comfortable in it. But it also helps to have playmakers such as Barber on the field.
Barber battled injuries early this season, sitting out three games and playing sparingly in two others. But he returned to full strength for the Kansas State game two weeks ago, and hauled in four catches for 37 yards.
Against Texas, he finished with 94 yards on five catches. He’ll look to keep building going into Saturday’s game at Oklahoma State.
“It’s been real tough, real tough,” Barber said. “Just in and out of the training room all day every day, since fall camp. So to get back on the field last week was a big thing for me, and following this week we just had to put together a win.”
TCU had been counting on Barber to play a significant role in its offense. This is a guy who had 303 yards receiving on 32 catches last season, playing in all 13 games including seven starts. He was just the second player to have a reception in every game as a true freshman in the Gary Patterson era.
Asked about his freshman season, Barber said: “It was big to me because I was just coming out of high school, so I just wanted to get my feet wet a little bit and build on top of that my sophomore year and going forward.”
There’s no question the game has slowed down for Barber and he should be a go-to target throughout the second half of the season.
He certainly has become a favorite of Duggan given the big-time catch to seal the Texas victory. Conversly, Barber has plenty of confidence in Duggan.
“We just knew he needed a little experience, get the flow going, go against a couple teams, get started,” Barber said. “Cause you know he’s a freshman coming out of high school, so we knew he was going to be good.
“Ain’t nothing faze Max. We’re all behind Max.”
