Analysis: Which new Horned Frogs could provide an instant impact in 2025?
Sonny Dykes was in good spirits Wednesday as he and the TCU coaching staff put the finishing touches on the No. 1 recruiting class in the Big 12.
Dykes continues to have the Horned Frogs recruiting at a different level than most of the program’s counterparts across the league and the 2025 class featured 29 signees, including six four-star recruits according to 247Sports.
Twenty of the signees will be early enrollees in January, which should allow a number of these incoming freshmen to be instant impact contributors.
“I’m really proud to bring these guys in,” Dykes said. “Sometimes in recruiting classes you have highly rated guys that are a little bit of fluff. He’s a heavily recruited guy, but he may have academic issues or character issues. He may have been injured, but we didn’t do that this class.
“There’s no fluff in this class, these are legitimate dudes that are going to make this program better.”
Here’s five takeaways from TCU’s top-ranked recruiting class:
The foundation
The highest ranked signee for TCU is four-star edge rusher Chad Woodfork. Woodfork is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound edge rusher that plays at Summer Creek in Humble, Texas near Houston. Woodfork had offers from many teams across the country including Florida State, Georgia and LSU.
Woodfork is having a dominant season for Summer Creek with 16 tackles for loss and 12 sacks as he has helped lead the Bulldogs to the Class 6A-DII quarterfinals of the state playoffs. Woodfork was one of the first players to commit during the summer and TCU held off late charges from a number of blue blood programs.
“Chad was big, he jumped on the boat early,” Dykes said. “He jumped in early, everybody came after him. He stayed with us, I think in a lot of ways he was the backbone of the recruiting class. He was a (highly) ranked edge rusher and those guys are hard to find. Guys with his length, his athleticism, his production. He’s a winner.”
Upgrade at QB?
TCU’s class took a hit when four-star quarterback Ty Hawkins flipped his commitment to SMU. It’s never a good feeling to lose a talented recruit to your rival, but TCU responded by adding a quarterback that ended up being more highly ranked than Hawkins. TCU legacy and four-star quarterback Adam Schobel was a huge pull for Dykes and the program.
247Sports has Schobel ranked as the No. 200 prospect and No. 16 quarterback in the class. One spot ahead of Hawkins who is the No. 17 quarterback and No. 215 prospect. The Horned Frogs flipped Schobel from Oklahoma State in July.
Schobel’s father Matt and uncle Aaron played for TCU in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His brother John committed to the program in May.
Landing a talented player that also loves the program was significant for this class.
“You could see pretty clearly how much TCU meant to their family,” Dykes said. “I think we probably made a mistake on Adam the first go round and maybe didn’t evaluate him as well as we should have. As we watched more tape and got to know him better, it was pretty obvious he was one of the top quarterbacks in the country.
“He’s got the size, arm strength, the ability and most importantly the character you need at that position.”
Signing Shelton
The Horned Frogs pulled off a major flip when they were able to sign former Arizona commit Terry Shelton. The four-star wide receiver from Ranchview Carrollton flipped to TCU on Nov. 17 and the Horned Frogs held off a late offer by Florida State to secure Shelton’s signature.
Wide receiver will be a position of need for TCU with the loss of Savion Williams, JP Richardson and Jack Bech. The 6’4 Shelton could come in right away and compete for playing time. Shelton had 924 yards and 14 touchdowns this season for the Wolves.
“Terry Shelton is exactly what you want,” Dykes said. “If you’re going to start with a wide receiver physically, he’s got great length. I think he led the state in rebounding last year. He knows how to go get the ball, whether it’s a basketball off the rim or a football in the air.
“He’s highly competitive and has great speed. He’s just one of those guys where the upside is very high for him.”
JUCO value
With the emergence of the transfer portal, junior college prospects are going under the radar more than ever. Years ago, if you wanted to find an older player that could make an impact early, then JUCO was the way to go, but now you can find that in the transfer portal.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still good players at the JUCO level and TCU signed four JUCO players, all on the defensive side of the ball. TCU signed JUCO defensive tackles Perry Cole and Kelten Mickell along with safety Kollin Collier and cornerback Jonah Martinez.
Dykes says the players were too good to pass up.
“You look at the four junior college prospects we got, I think they were all vastly under recruited,” Dykes said. “I think in so many ways the junior colleges have become the forgotten guys in a lot of ways. So to be able to go and get two defensive tackles of the quality we got, those guys are very difficult to find.
“If you take those two players as four year transfers, the competition for those guys would be heavy. Quite frankly they would be very, very expensive. There’s value there, we feel like we got really good players for a good value.”
A surprise name to watch
If there’s an under the radar player to watch in this class it’s three-star running back Jon Denman. From Palestine, Texas, Denman is ranked the No. 60 running back in the country according to 247Sports. Denman considered Arizona, Boston College, Houston and Oklahoma State seriously before deciding on the Horned Frogs.
Denman has a number of traits you’re looking for such as experience playing on both sides of the ball and in multiple sports. In track, Denman posted 100-meter times of 10.93 and 11.01 in March 2024. He also ran a 23.13 indoor 200 in Jan. 2024, per MileSplit. As Denman rushed for 871 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior at Palestine High.
Denman transferred to Westwood High and only two games worth of stats were posted on the team’s MaxPreps, but in those two games Denman rushed for 334 yards and six touchdowns. Dykes thinks Denman will have a chance to compete for early playing time.
“Everybody was coming (trying to recruit) Jon,” Dykes said. “He’s a physical guy that runs hard and finishes run. He’s explosive, that’s the cool thing about him. He’s elusive, explosive and he’s fast but he’s a finisher. That’s what makes the great running backs great, you look around the league and there’s five or six elite running backs in this league and they all got one thing in common, they finish runs.
“We were fortunate to get him on board and to hold onto him. He’s a guy that I think will come in the door and compete, at least that’s what I hope.”
