No. 13 TCU wants to show how much it’s grown since blowout loss to Oklahoma State
TCU’s 46-point loss to Oklahoma State was one of the program’s low points last season, coming just two weeks after the firing of long-time coach Gary Patterson.
It was complete domination, something that TCU hadn’t been used to during Patterson’s 21-year tenure. But what a difference time and a new coaching staff can make.
Eleven months ago the Horned Frogs were on the wrong end of a 63-17 beatdown. This week, TCU is favored over an undefeated Oklahoma State team that still features plenty of players that delivered the humbling defeat.
That is a credit to the strides TCU has made quickly under first-year head coach Sonny Dykes. He and the Frogs aren’t satisfied with just being favored.
They want to prove that this is a vastly different team than the one Oklahoma State rolled in Stillwater last November.
“I think our players are aware of the game last year, they won by 46 points so we’ve got a lot of catching up to do in a short amount of time,” Dykes said Tuesday.
TCU came into the Oklahoma State game after a resounding upset of Baylor the week prior. You would think that type of win would’ve carried momentum over into the matchup at Stillwater. That didn’t happen.
“We’ve grown a lot as a team mindset wise. Last year there was a lot of things going on prior to that, but we’ve grown a lot. Coach Dykes has done a great job of keeping us close-minded and making sure we focus on ourselves,” Duggan said.
Duggan didn’t expand on some of the things that were going on behind the scenes, but that was only two weeks after Patterson’s resignation. Reading between the lines, it seems like even the upset over Baylor wasn’t enough to get past that fallout.
“We were pretty shaken up back then at the end of the season, they didn’t really get our full team. We’re just trying to forget about that game, we don’t even want to talk about it,” receiver Taye Barber said. “We’ll see what happens Saturday.”
Not being mentally engaged is how you get rolled while allowing almost 700 offensive yards and surrendering seven sacks.
With this being a Top 15 showdown, the Horned Frogs are in a much better space mentally.
That’s one step in the right direction to turn the tables against the Cowboys, but the other steps will take place on the field.
Here’s what TCU is expecting:
Gillespie the X-factor?
Oklahoma State is one of the few offenses that can go toe-to-toe with TCU’s. It all starts with quarterback Spencer Sanders, who has taken strides in his fourth year with the Cowboys. Sanders had 288 yards of total offense and threw a touchdown pass in last year’s blowout. He’s even more formidable this year.
“He’s gotten better with taking care of the ball. Every year, he’s improved his ability to not turn the ball over, there’s more certainty in his decision making,” Dykes said. “When you’re playing with confidence as a quarterback, the ball comes out faster, more precise. You can tell he’s played a lot of snaps, he’s had a lot of success. He’s very certain where he wants to throw the ball.”
The key for TCU will be finding a way to make Sanders regress to the quarterback he’s been at different points of his career, like when he threw four interceptions against Baylor in the Big 12 championship game.
Defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie could be the key in that as he knows Sanders as well as anybody. While leading the Tulsa defense, Gillespie faced Sanders three times from 2019-21. Sanders didn’t pass for more than 200 yards in any of the games. It should be noted in 2020 Sanders was one of three quarterbacks OSU used against Tulsa.
Sanders has been more effective as a runner and led the Cowboys in rushing with 62 yards in Oklahoma State’s 28-23 win in 2021. If TCU is able to hold Sanders under 200 yards, it’ll be a massive success. Dykes is taking comfort in knowing he has a coordinator that’s experienced some success against such a talented player.
“The good thing is he’s coached against them. Oklahoma State always changes a little bit, but they’re also pretty consistent in their approach offensively,” Dykes said. “He’s done game plan against him before, he’s executed a plan and knows the challenges which certainly helps. It gives you a little bit better understanding of the ins and outs of what they want to do. So yeah it gives you a level comfort that he’s done it before against these guys.”
New DC, same approach
Cowboys defensive coordinator Derek Mason is still shaping the unit after taking over for Jim Knowles, who is now at Ohio State. There’s been some regression for Oklahoma State defensively as the unit has gone from one of the nation’s best to middle of the pack or worse in numerous categories. One thing that hasn’t changed is an unrelenting pass rush that is at the root of their identity.
“They’re going to pressure you up front, pressure the passer and take the run game away from you. That’s where it begins for them,” Dykes said. “Penetration, whether it’s in your protection or run game schemes, they’re going to try and get push up front and knock your guys in the backfield. They’re big and physical enough up front to be able to do that. They have a good scheme, they know what they’re doing.”
The Cowboys are holding opponents to 3.3 yards per carry and are allowing a tad over 125 yards on the ground. The unit is respectable and will try and take Kendre Miller out of the game to make TCU one dimensional. That’s where the challenge comes in for TCU as the Cowboys have changed their preferred coverage style in the secondary.
“They run a lot of man. Last year they were three man down, cloud (coverage) team. They had a good defense last year. This defense is going to be good too and they run a lot of man, we have to beat it,” Barber said.
The one-on-one battles in the pass game and in the trenches will determine the overall success of the offense. Mason’s defense shrinks the game in a sense as he relies on his player to win each individual battle which in theory leads to winning the ‘war’ with the offense. TCU is is prepared for those moments.
“They’re well-coached, they do a lot of things schematically where it’s our guy vs. their guy. We have to make sure we’re doing our job and not let them dictate what we do too much,” Max Duggan said.
