No. 4 TCU Horned Frogs relish underdog role against Texas
After pulling away from Texas Tech 34-24 on Saturday, TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said his team was learning how to play with a target on their back.
Against Texas, the Horned Frogs will be in a role they’re more familiar and comfortable with. Despite ranked No. 4 in both major polls and in the College Football Playoff rankings, TCU find itself as a touchdown underdog to the Longhorns in Austin.
It was reminder to the players and Dykes that the Horned Frogs still have much to prove despite the 9-0 start.
“I feel like we’re still underdogs in a way. I’m not sure why that is,” Alan Ali said Tuesday. “I feel like with those spreads, people aren’t picking us to win by as much as you would think. That’s motivation for us, we feel like underdogs, we’re picked not to win this week. It’s a little motivation for us.”
TCU has latched onto that identity as an underdog after they were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 and widely expected to struggle to reach bowl eligibility.
Along with the sportsbooks, many are expecting TCU’s magical run to come to a halt Saturday night in Austin. For players like Mark Perry, the team is relishing having a more immediate goal and answering those doubts after dealing with the height of the CFP and Big 12 title chase.
“We weren’t picked to win anything this year,” Perry said. “ We take on the role as underdogs. One saying I like is ‘An underdog is a hungry dog and hungry dogs run faster.’ I think right now we have something to prove, especially with all the noise and talk.”
TCU has been favored in every game this season except for two. Oklahoma and now Texas. Dykes says facing two entities like those is bound to bring out the best in any team, including the Frogs.
“There’s always extra motivation when you play against a big brand team, whether it’s Oklahoma or Texas,” Dykes said. “They’ve got a lot of Twitter followers and TikTok followers and our guys are aware of that. That’s just the way it is.”
You would think the Longhorns also having former head coach Gary Patterson the staff would add more emotion to one of the most pivotal games of the season, but veterans on the roster say it honestly hasn’t been much of a talking point with the roster.
“We’re just focusing on what we have. We haven’t thought about what they have going over there as far as what they do,” Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson said.
Patterson could be viewed as a valuable resource for Steve Sarkisian and the rest of the Texas coaching staff with his intimate knowledge of the TCU roster, but Hodges-Tomlinson says TCU has evolved since Patterson resigned from the program last November.
“I feel like every athlete grows every year, so he knows us from last year,” Hodges-Tomlinson said. “We take steps and we get better, as a coach once you recruit somebody you know their positives and negatives, but as a player I understand that we grow every year.”
Thanks to Patterson, there’s already a strong belief within the program that the Horned Frogs can stand toe-to-toe with the Longhorns and TCU has the recent results to back it up. TCU is 7-3 against Texas in the last 10 meetings and is 4-1 in Austin during the same span.
It’s a hostile environment, but one players on the roster feel they’ll be able to handle, especially since they’re not expected to walk out of Austin 10-0.
Status of Johnston
Wide receiver Quinton Johnston could be available after missing most of the Texas Tech game with an ankle injury. While Hodges-Tomlinson let it slip that the team will be excited to have Johnston back on the field Saturday, Dykes was a little more cautious with his approach.
“He didn’t practice today, it was more of trying to get him enough rest,” Dykes said. “I know he wants to play, but we’re going to do what’s best for Quentin long term. I would anticipate him practicing tomorrow, that’s been the plan all week. Give him a couple days off, get him healed up a bit, go see what he can do tomorrow and proceed from there.”
Johnston leads the team with 42 receptions with 650 yards and four touchdowns. He’s a potential first round pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
