By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU coach Sonny Dykes felt the Horned Frogs got off to a clean start in their opening practice Wednesday, exactly a month before an early season opener in Ireland.
Even with a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback, Dykes said there were no turnovers, no false starts or offside calls and only one bad snap with the third team toward the end of practice. All that work done by the team during spring drills and summer workouts seemed to carry over into the start of fall camp.
“You did spend a lot of early practices back in the day trying to knock the dust off and get the guys to kind of get where they were in the spring,” Dykes said. “And now it’s almost like they get where they are in the spring and the improvement that takes place in (the summer), and then you start pretty quickly and you just kind of pick up where you left off. And I thought there was a lot of that today.”
The Frogs play a Week 0 game against North Carolina on Aug. 29, when the Aer Lingus College Football Classic is the first game to kick off that day. Those teams played last year in Chapel Hill for the Tar Heels’ debut with coach Bill Belichick in a 48-14 loss on Labor Day to wrap up Week 1.
TCU has a new OC and new QB leading the offense
Transfer quarterback Jaden Craig started 24 games at Harvard the past three seasons, and last year set single-season school passing records with 208 completions, 2,869 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Craig is the expected successor for Josh Hoover, who left TCU after 9,627 yards and 71 TDs passing the past three seasons. Hoover went to replace Heisman Trophy winner and NFL No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza for reigning national champion Indiana.
“Just for what I saw today, decision-making is faster. The ball is getting out on time more than it used to. I think there’s a pretty noticeable difference really even from the spring to what I saw,” Dykes said. “I think he’s ahead of schedule quite frankly. I feel good about where he is.”
Gordon Sammis took over as TCU’s offensive coordinator after three seasons in the same position at UConn. Kendal Briles left TCU to be South Carolina’s OC.
“Being able to come in and learn with everybody I think helped a lot because we had some of those conversations about where guys are supposed to be, how they’re supposed to run certain routes and stuff like that,” Craig said.
Dykes and the Frogs aren’t satisfied with being good
TCU has had consecutive nine-win seasons, but is now three full seasons removed from the Big 12 championship game, the four-team College Football Playoff and national championship game in Dykes’ debut as their coach in 2022.
“You get a taste for that and you want to go back and do it again,” Dykes said.
The Frogs finished last season with a three-game winning streak, but that came after a 44-13 loss at BYU in mid-November.
Dykes says he believes changes in the program have made the Frogs tougher, more disciplined and hopefully more physical.
“Those are the three kind of pillars that we talk about all the time that we’ve got to do if we want to be great. And the way I view it, I think we’ve been pretty good,” he said. “Being great really is about reaching your potential as a team, and I don’t think we’ve done that in the last three years. And I think we probably exceeded our potential in Year 1.”
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