Boykin keeps taking care of himself and TCU’s big dreams

Trevone Boykin has gotten the TCU Horned Frogs to November with their dreams intact.

Now he’s just got to keep his body the same way.

“I hate to get hit,” he said and laughed after his somersaulting, dancing, darting, escape-act performance in a 40-10 victory against West Virginia on Thursday night. “I try to stay up and make things happen.”

He’s made this happen so far — the Horned Frogs are 8-0 and positioned to make a high debut in the College Football Rankings on Tuesday. For himself, he furthered his case for the Heisman Trophy, throwing three touchdown passes, diving head over heels for another on the ground, going turnover-free and even getting a hand-slap of appreciation from West Virginia coach Dana Holgersen.

Boykin passed Andy Dalton for the total yardage record at TCU, hosted the young Iowa State fan he befriended two weeks ago and didn’t even have to finish the game. It was just about an ideal night for the senior from West Mesquite.

But the best thing he did might have been just taking care of himself. He knows his value to the Horned Frogs.

“It’s not just me taking care of my body — it’s being a smart player, as well,” he said. “This is a long season. You have to be able to last.”

Boykin said he does not play with the fear of injury in the back of his mind. But he’s always processing the possibility, even as he hurtles toward the goal line with a defender lining up to stop him.

“I saw his head drop. I think he thought I was going to try to run him over,” Boykin said of West Virginia cornerback Daryl Worley, describing the somersault into the end zone in the first quarter. “I’m trying to stay as healthy as possible. I knew the best decision for me at that time was to try to jump over him. I knew I wasn’t going to completely hurdle him, so I kind of just cart-wheeled it and rolled.”

He smiled.

“I watched Jackie Chan in Rush Hour a couple of times. I just tried to hit and roll and not hurt myself.”

Well, thank you for that, TCU coach Gary Patterson must have been thinking.

“I didn’t watch,” Patterson said. “I saw what was going to happen, and I didn’t watch. There were three of them. Only two outcomes — either he was going to get down or he was going to do that. I was hoping he’d get down, but obviously he didn’t. I’ll promise you this — he’s glad tomorrow is Friday. He ran about as much as he did in the Minnesota game, and for about three days after that, he didn’t move very well. So he’s going to be sore.”

Asked what Patterson said to him on the sideline, Boykin smiled and said: “He didn’t say anything. I don’t think he even looked at me. But all the doctors on the sideline were, ‘You need to chill.’ I was all right. It was the only way I could get in.”

Boykin ran for 84 yards, the third consecutive game he led the Horned Frogs in rushing. He’s done that 10 times in his career at TCU, which includes 12,041 total yards. He became the 40th player in FBS history to top 12,000 yards.

The Horned Frogs will continue to lean on their quarterback, more so now that the toughest part of the schedule is coming up, with a road game at Oklahoma State next weekend, a home game against Kansas, then — if TCU remains unbeaten — the biggest games of all: at Oklahoma and at home against Baylor.

Can Boykin continue to take care of himself?

He shrugged.

“I never play with doubts in the back of my head about getting hurt,” he said. “I try to go out there and give 100 percent and lead this team to victory.”

Thursday night was another example.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Boykin keeps taking care of himself and TCU’s big dreams."