‘He’s a warrior.’ TCU QB Duggan opens up on heart condition and returning to field
TCU safety Trevon Moehrig has admired the perseverance quarterback Max Duggan has shown in getting back to the field this season.
“He’s a warrior,” Moehrig said. “I think that defines his character pretty well, just him pushing through and wanting to come back and play.”
Duggan was diagnosed with a heart condition in mid-August that sidelined him for an extended period and would have kept him out of a possible season-opener against SMU on Sept. 11.
But Duggan has fully recovered from a procedure to address the issue and played the entire second half of TCU’s season-opening 37-34 loss to Iowa State on Saturday. Duggan called the process back to the field “a little bit crazy,” but he’s happy to have his medical condition “solved.”
TCU was hesitant to put Duggan in earlier in the game because the team would’ve liked to give him another week to build up his strength and conditioning. Duggan said he is working hard to get back to where he needs to be in order to play an entire game.
The expectation is for Duggan to start against Texas on Saturday. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. in Austin.
“I’m working hard every single day,” Duggan said. “Teammates are helping me, strength staff, athletic trainers are helping me every single day to get back to where I want to be and be able to help this team as much as I can in whatever role that is.”
Duggan sparked the offense against Iowa State, turning in one of the best performances of his young career. He finished 16 of 19 passing for 241 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Saturday marked the most accurate Duggan has been at TCU.
But Duggan didn’t take many positives away from the game. Instead, Duggan echoed what coach Gary Patterson preaches in that quarterbacks are judged on Saturdays. And the team lost on Saturday.
“We weren’t able to get the win,” Duggan said. “That’s really the most important thing. So, whatever I can do to help our team win in whatever role that is is what I’m mainly focusing on.”
Still, it was a feat in itself to see Duggan back on the field. When TCU revealed that he’d been diagnosed with a heart condition that would keep him out indefinitely, some wondered whether he’d even return to the field this season.
But, as Moehrig said, Duggan has displayed perseverance and toughness since signing with TCU. This is a kid who played through a finger injury on his throwing hand late last season.
“We found out last year how tough he was, how much of a competitor he was,” Patterson said. “As he goes forward, that will help our offense and our football team.”
Duggan downplayed his toughness and perseverance, simply saying: “I haven’t been here very long, but I see how hard these guys work in the program. A lot of our fifth-year guys and seniors have been through a lot and a lot of people on our team have been through a lot and have worked very hard to get to this point. So I think just seeing them every day working as hard as they do. Just being around the guys, getting to practice, I just enjoy it so much.”
Duggan also enjoys winning more than losing. He hopes to put the Frogs in position to win more games this season.
Part of that is improving his accuracy such as he did against Iowa State.
Last year, Duggan struggled by completing just 53% of his passes (181 of 339). He had a mixed bag of games such as being more precise against Texas (19 of 27) and then completing less than half his passes in the final two games against Oklahoma (7 of 21) and West Virginia (15 of 36).
Asked what he learned from last season, Duggan said: “The more games you play in, the more confidence you have. I think my teammates helped me a lot last year. Coaches helped me a lot last year. Those were big things. They supported me and had my back. That was a big reason for last year. We’re trying to build on that and win some ball games this year.”
Patterson isn’t surprised to see Duggan flashing early signs of improvement as a sophomore. After all, players are expected to take steps forward and develop, especially from Year 1 to Year 2.
“Everybody is going to grow,” Patterson said. “Everybody forgets he was just a true freshman. Andy Dalton didn’t even play until he was a redshirt freshman and he went 7-5 his first year in 2007. I hate to put labels or limitations on it. I think that’s what grown ups do — we put ourselves in a situation where you hold guys back.”
Patterson went on to say Iowa State’s defense with a three-man rush lends itself to a quarterback such as Duggan taking advantage of the easier, underneath routes. Against Texas’ defense, Patterson said, it will be a more “in-your-face kind of defense” based on its schemes and philosophies.
“It’ll be a different problem for him,” Patterson said. “We’ll see how he handles that this week being in his second game coming back.”
Based off last year, Duggan handled Texas’ defense as well as any he faced. Duggan had one of his best games. As stated, he was 19 of 27 passing for 273 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He also led the Frogs in rushing with 72 yards on 13 carries with one TD.
Duggan certainly gained a fan in Texas coach Tom Herman.
“I think he’s a heckuva player. I’m happy for him that he is healthy again,” Herman said. “He’s one of the better ones in this league and we’re going to have our hands full with him.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 11:38 AM.
