Trevone Boykin’s command has impressed TCU’s new coaches

There were things Doug Meacham noticed early on when he got to TCU as one of the new offensive co-coordinators.

Trevone Boykin had a strong arm. There were good skill players on the team. And not everyone believed in the quarterback.

It was clear Boykin would be a fit in the running elements of the offense, but the smoothness of his transition to the passing elements knocked Meacham and Cumbie on their heels.

“If you watch him, there’s comparisons to Johnny Manziel or whatever, but the thing that impressed me the most — and Coach Cumbie has done a phenomenal job of coaching the quarterbacks — is his patience in the pocket, going through the reads, processing in the pocket and sliding through,” Meacham said. “Because when you have skills like he does with his legs, your instincts tend to take over.

“But I think Trevone has really bought into the reads and actually become a quarterback and gotten better at that part of it.”

When Meacham and Cumbie arrived, they watched and charted every throw Boykin had made in college. They asked him to describe it and explain what he was thinking. It was hundreds of throws, and it took time.

But Boykin had no problem with it. He knew the old offense, and he was already learning the new offense. He had started when coach Gary Patterson told him who the new coordinators would be.

“I went and did my research and found out more about them,” Boykin said. “But I knew it was a system that I ran in high school, so I was pretty familiar with it. I was basically locked in, and I bought in, and I just tried to be one of those guys who soak it all in and be one of the best quarterbacks I could be.”

Cumbie noticed.

“It’s not an offense for dummies,” he said. “The biggest thing is he took it more serious. He’s very smart. He just buckled down and learned it. He dedicated himself to doing that. From the moment that I sat in front of that meeting room, he was the smartest quarterback we had.”

As Meacham looked at Boykin’s previous two years at TCU, he took into account that Boykin had been playing a different position when he was called on to fill in at quarterback.

“That’s very difficult to do, regardless of personnel or offense or any of that,” Meacham said. “So he had a spring and a summer and a nonconference schedule to prepare, as opposed to the past, when he had none of that.”

But there was never a need to “build up” the quarterback.

“That kid’s going to be confident no matter what,” Meacham said. “I don’t think he’s ever been unconfident his entire life. He’s pretty even-keeled. Negativity doesn’t affect him that much. He doesn’t get super-excited, nervous, really down. He’s just a real solid kid.”

Additionally, Boykin had “real solid kids” around him.

Cumbie said: “There were a lot of really talented players that were here before we got here. We just kind of came in with some new ideas, and I think the kids were excited. Like Trevone said, they bought in. And when you have talented kids that buy in and are accountable, as Coach Patterson has built them, it makes for a good transition.”

One of those was senior backup quarterback Matt Joeckel. The example and competition from the former Texas A&M player also spurred Boykin’s development.

“Matt kind of brought a professionalism with him — his dad’s a lawyer, he’s going to be a lawyer — in terms of how to study, how to watch film, how to handle yourself,” Meacham said. “I think that’s helped Trevone, too, just being around Matt, seeing that part of it.”

But perhaps Boykin deserves the most credit. He is the one who did the work, won the job, and got TCU this far.

“I realized early on, he’s got really good arm skill, he can move around, he can extend plays,” Meacham said. “The thing I was most surprised with, he adapted to the offense really quickly. He has a really good feel for the game, and he anticipates really well. He has a lot of characteristics that you would expect in a quarterback.”

That should be no surprise to anyone anymore.

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Trevone Boykin’s command has impressed TCU’s new coaches."