Five takeaways from TCU football’s first scrimmage of training camp
TCU continued to ramp up preseason training camp with its first scrimmage Friday night at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
For roughly two hours the Horned Frogs tested themselves in various situational drills like full field drives, four minute offense and red zone offense.
With this also being one of the times the media was able to watch live tackling at practice, it was also a good showcase of how physical TCU can be this season, especially on defense.
There were bright spots on both sides of the ball, but a few questions also arose after the first scrimmage. Here are five observations from Friday’s scrimmage:
An okay day for Hoover
There were highs and lows Friday night with quarterback Josh Hoover. Let’s start with the good. After a sluggish first drive, Hoover responded with his best series of camp as he led the offense roughly 70 yards for a touchdown. After a bad throw to Drake Dabney against the blitz wiped away a chance for a chunk play, Hoover came back the next play to hit Eric McAlister for a slant for a first down.
Then when facing third down in the defense’s territory, Hoover made his best throw of camp when he broke the pocket, rolled to his left and launched a pass to a diving JP Richardson for at least 20 yards. Two plays later Hoover threw a jump ball up the sideline to Savion Williams, who made another one-handed grab for a touchdown. Hoover showed off his potential in that sequence, but there were other times where he still looked like a young quarterback that missed spring practice.
Hoover was picked off by transfer linebacker Cooper McDonald later in the scrimmage with TCU working on red zone offense. Hoover also had a few opportunities for more deep shots, but either didn’t see the receivers or he just missed on the pass. There was more good than bad and Hoover was pleased with what the offense learned about itself.
“I feel like there were some good flashes of some good things,” Hoover said. “But overall we have to just be more consistent. When you scrimmage for the first time, you realize penalties count. When you get holding calls and make mistakes in the passing game, it affects you. We’ve just got to stay out of bad down and distance.”
Pass rush dominates
The biggest reason Hoover and the rest of the quarterbacks couldn’t consistently find a rhythm is the pass rush of the Horned Frogs defense. Whether Andy Avalos sent just four rushers or more than five, TCU consistently got into the backfield flushing Hoover, Ken Seals and Hauss Hejny from the pocket on multiple occasions.
It wasn’t just one player either as different defenders had great moments. On the first drive for the starting offense Hoover was sacked by safety Jamel Johnson and defensive lineman Nana Osafa-Mensah on back-to-back plays to end a drive. When the second team offense got its turn, redshirt freshman Zach Chapman drew a holding penalty due to the pressure from his pass rush which helped set up a sack by Caleb Fox on third down to end the drive.
When Hejny got his turn with the third team offense, their drive was also ended by a sack as Jonathan Bax and Max Carroll combined for the sack. There were more sacks that followed throughout the night and while it was encouraging to see from the defense, it also raises questions about the ability of the offensive line to hold up in pass protection.
Run game trending up
While the O-line had its struggles holding up against the pass rush, the unit did a good job in the ground game of consistently opening running lanes for the backs. Cam Cook was arguably the top offensive player during the scrimmage with a number of hard, physical runs including a gain for over 10 yards where he broke multiple tackles.
Cook has showcased his big play potential many times throughout the fall and spring training camps, but Friday was about Cook showing off his toughness. On the first drive, almost every positive play resulted from Cook getting his hands on the ball. Cook continued to show why he’ll likely be the starter for TCU going forward, but Trey Sanders and Arkansas transfer Dominique Johnson also showed flashes.
Sanders has looked more explosive in camp this fall while Johnson was a late addition to the roster over the summer. He’s another experienced, bigger back that brings more physicality to the run. Freshmen running backs Nate Palmer and Jeremy Payne ran hard during the scrimmage and it’ll be interesting to see if either can crack the rotation. The offensive line showed better push in the middle than the unit did last year, which was another encouraging sign.
TCU’s wide receiver rotation shaping up
The Horned Frogs have to feel good about what they’ve seen from Williams and Richardson so far in camp. The two leading receivers from last year have consistently been two of the top playmakers for TCU, whether it be in team drills or one-on-ones. Both had around 50 or so yards in Friday’s scrimmage with limited touches and their spots as the starters seems cemented.
But who will get the third spot? Dylan Wright has been running with the first team offense after missing all of the spring, but it’s been McAlister continuing to make plays, regardless if he’s with the first or second team offense. Fall camp was an opportunity for Wright to make up ground, but his impact has been limited with few touches. If it was my decision then the three starters would be Williams and McAlister on the outside with Richardson at the slot followed by some combination of Wright, Blake Nowell, Jack Bech and Major Everhart behind them.
Defense continues to make statement
After a dominant spring, many were curious to see how the defense would perform with Hoover and his receivers back in the lineup. Through nine practices, not much has changed in terms of how effective the defense has been. The amount of touchdowns scored during open media can be counted on one hand and the defense looks to have made strides in almost every area.
When the pass rush didn’t get there, the downfield coverage was superb with cornerbacks JaTravis Broughton and LaMareon James having solid days. The defense did give up one big run to Trey Sanders, but overall the unit made the running backs earn every yard with a number of hard hits from the likes of Abe Camara and Johnny Hodges.
There’s more depth at defensive line and linebacker than a year ago, plus TCU has three athletic safeties in Camara, Bud Clark and Memphis transfer Cam Smith. There’s enough data now to reasonably expect the Horned Frogs to take a significant leap in Avalos’ first season. The question now becomes just how big that leap will be?
