TCU’s defense bounces back in chippy practice
You know you’re getting deeper into preseason camp when things start to get chippy between teammates.
Chippiness is the word to describe Friday’s practice as there were a few shoving matches during the 11-on-11 portion of practice.
Linebacker Marcel Brooks was in the middle of both piles that ensued and was briefly pulled to the side to cool off. He later returned to the field without incident.
Head coach Sonny Dykes called the team together after the second round of shoves to get everybody back on the same page. It was the most involved Dykes has been at this point in the preseason during the open media sessions.
Emotions simmered after everyone was brought together. When players spend so much time hitting and competing with the same faces, these type of days are going to happen in preseason camp. Overall consider it a positive as Friday was the most physical practice of camp so far.
Defense bounces back
The catalyst for the physicality was TCU’s defense. After giving up a few big plays in Thursday’s practice it was clear that defense wanted to respond.
Friday was much different as the offense found many of its plays stopped at or near the line of scrimmage. Brooks was a standout with the second-team defense and delivered a few nice hits to fire up the rest of the unit.
Chandler Morris had a long scramble, but in live action it would’ve been a sack as the defensive line was strong up front even without Dylan Horton.
You want to see both sides of the ball flash in preseason camp and the defense did that after allowing the offense to have the edge Thursday.
RB rotation shaken up
Depth is abundant on offense, including in the running back room. Louisiana transfer Emani Bailey and Florida State transfer Corey Wren got a big chunk of the carries Friday.
Bailey had the best run of the day as he received first-team reps. Wren moved up and got action with the second team. Kendre Miller will likely be the starting running back, but it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the rotation shakes out.
Bailey was considered a four-star transfer and Wren could be a home-run hitter for that unit.
Injury update
Dylan Horton missed his second straight practice, but was rehabbing on the sideline. Linebacker Wyatt Harris left Thursday’s practice early and was also rehabbing on Friday with Horton and true freshman wide receiver DJ Allen.
Offensive lineman Noah Bolticoff and corner Keontae Jenkins missed their fourth straight practice and were working out off to the side.
QB thoughts
With the defense winning the day, the quarterbacks didn’t get to show much. The Horned Frogs continued to rotate at quarterback as Chandler Morris took the first snaps on Friday followed by Max Duggan and Sam Jackson.
During individual drills Morris appears to be most consistent thrower, from quick-hitters to deeper routers. True freshman Josh Hoover is probably in line for a redshirt, but might throw the prettiest ball out of the group.
Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley offered some thoughts on how the QB room is performing.
“There have been some positive things. I think we’re doing a nice job early on of just distributing the football. We’ve got a lot of different guys touching the football right now,” Riley said. “For the most part we’ve kept the ball away from the defense which is tough to do against Coach Gillespie. We’ve still got a long ways to go, we’ve still got a healthy competition going on.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2022 at 11:00 AM.
