TCU position outlook: A year later, linebacker unit goes deeper

A year ago, TCU began the season with Sammy Douglas and Mike Freeze at linebacker. They ended it with a couple of safeties, Montrel Wilson and Travin Howard.

A season-ending knee injury to Douglas and a departure for personal reasons in Freeze’s case left the Horned Frogs scrambling for two new starters by Week 2. Wilson and Howard, backkup safeties, may not have been the optimal choices, but they were fast and made tackles, and that counted for a lot. By season’s end, they were first and fifth on the team in tackles. They return in 2016 as the starters.

Douglas is healed, Ty Summers is back after a strong finish to his freshman season, and four-star junior college transfer Tyree Horton is aboard to add depth.

The personnel

Starters

MLB Montrel Wilson (6-3, 210, soph.), converted safety who started in Week 2 and made seven starts, fifth on the team in tackles.

SLB Travin Howard (6-1, 210, Jr.), converted safety who started in Week 2 and led the team in tackles with 105. Made 32 tackles over last two games.

Primary backups

Sophomore Ty Summers (6-2, 235), junior Sammy Douglas (6-3, 215), junior Tyree Horton (6-0, 225).

Key stat

9 Consecutive seasons a linebacker has led TCU in tackles, when Travin Howard had a team-high 105 last year. The streak started after safety Marvin Godbolt led the Frogs with 86 tackles in 2006.

What they’re saying

“In the linebacker room, we all have a great bond. We’re all friends. We’re brothers. We pat each other on the back if we make a good play. We try to make each other better each and every day.”

Linebacker Travin Howard

“We went from being inexperienced, probably the weakest point of our defense, at linebacker. Now the top five guys all run sub-4.6. They all now are a lot bigger, a lot stronger than what they were a year ago when we went into the season. They’re all really leader-type guys.”

Coach Gary Patterson

Final analysis

This is the deepest and most proven part of the team. Travin Howard and Montrel Wilson combined for 166 tackles in 19 starts last season. Ty Summers made five starts, including a 23-tackle performance against Baylor. Sammy Douglas started the opener last season , missed the rest of the year because of injury, but still has played in 24 games and is a special teams ace. Tyree Hortonwas rated the top inside linebacker in junior college last season. Patterson likes the speed and athleticism of the group. It will be interesting to see what a year of experience means for Howard and Wilson.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 11:02 AM with the headline "TCU position outlook: A year later, linebacker unit goes deeper."