TCU football carries high hopes, momentum into new season after strong finish in 2020
The TCU football program is just one game over .500 the last three seasons. It’s the first time in Gary Patterson’s tenure that the Horned Frogs have gone three consecutive seasons without at least one of them finishing with double-digit wins.
But a new season always brings new hope. And this year’s team has a quiet confidence about it. The Frogs closed the 2020 season by winning five of their final six games and have carried that momentum throughout the offseason.
Now they’d like to carry it into the season opener against Duquesne on Saturday night at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
“I was talking to Coach [Jerry] Kill about it earlier today, I said it’s really important that we come into this first game hot,” senior tight end Carter Ware said. “Come in, play a clean game, just so we can carry that momentum that we had last year and just roll through it going into conference play.”
Of course, TCU is expected to have little trouble with Duquesne. The Dukes play a level below in the FCS.
Ware and coach Gary Patterson both said the right things going into the season-opening game. The Frogs won’t take anybody lightly, including the Dukes. But this game is expected to become an opportunity to get plenty of players playing time in hopes of building depth going into the tougher stretch of nonconference games against California and SMU before the Big 12 opener against Texas.
It’s also a chance to see what the offense looks like with Doug Meacham handling offensive coordinator duties with former coordinator Sonny Cumbie back at Texas Tech. Ware has felt more intensity during practice with Meacham fully in charge.
“It’s been pretty seamless. I love Coach Meach, he’s a funny guy but he’s intense too,” Ware said. “I think that’s a little bit of something that’s been different — a little more intensity during practice, but I love it. You’ve got to have that if you want to be a good team. ... I’m excited to have him as my coach.”
TCU had the Big 12’s top-ranked rushing offense last season but averaged fewer than 200 yards passing per game.
Ware feels that the offense will play more aggressive but didn’t want to share too many secrets.
“We’re going to be aggressive overall,” he said. “We’re not going to let anybody hold us back no matter what they line up in. We’re going to play our game. Some weeks we might be needing to run the ball, some weeks we might air it out. It just depends who we’re playing and what we think is best, what the coaches draw up the scheme with. We just need to go out there and execute it.”
All eyes will be on junior quarterback Max Duggan when it comes to executing the offense. Duggan is the leader of the team and several feel he’s poised for his best season yet.
Patterson reiterated that quarterbacks are judged on Saturdays and that Duggan has 12 evaluations coming up. But he praised Duggan’s leadership abilities and offered this about his preseason so far: “He’s been awesome.”
Ware took it a step further.
“Max is our guy. He’s solid as a rock,” Ware said. “We go with Max. His highs are our highs and his lows are our lows. He carries us and we carry him. We’ll fight with that guy until the end. He’s a great leader on the field and off the field. We love that guy.”
