TCU football eager to start new chapter in season opener at Stanford

The agonizing wait for TCU football is almost over.

It’s been more than 275 days since the Horned Frogs last touched the football field. The final game in last year’s campaign perfectly summed up the Horned Frogs’ 5-7 season.

The defense was picked apart for 69 points and while the offense scored 45 points, many came when the game was already decided. The taste of failure both in that game and the season stuck with the Horned Frogs all offseason. It’s time for TCU to prove that it’s a different team than a season ago.

“We’re excited to get started, we’ve had a long time to deal with last season and the disappointment that we had,” coach Sonny Dykes said on Tuesday. “A lot of changes have occurred in this program, so we’re excited to go play in this game and find out where we are as a program.”

There were wholesale changes across the board, including a new defensive coordinator in Andy Avalos and hiring three more former head coaches to the staff including former Nevada coach Ken Wilson as a linebackers coach.

The Horned Frogs brought in a large transfer class that prioritized production over past recruiting rankings or which school the player was originally at. All of those moves were made to reshape the program after it went from being the national runner-up to missing a bowl game.

It seemed to translate well during the offseason with the Horned Frogs feeling good about where they stand after the conclusion of training camp. However, while the Horned Frogs are saying all the right things now, there’s an understanding that the team won’t really find out who they are until kickoff against the Cardinal.

“It feels like the last two weeks have been the longest of my life since we ended fall camp,” Josh Hoover said. “I think we’re just itching to go play somebody. Since we played OU all we could think about is Stanford, so we’re excited and I feel that eagerness on our team.

“We’re excited to test our skills and test ourselves. We know what we can do on the practice field and in fall camp, but until you go play somebody else you don’t really know. We know what we can do, it’s just about proving it to everybody else.”

The Horned Frogs have to prove that 2023 was the fluke, not 2022. All of that can’t be proven in one game, especially one against a team that was 3-9 a season ago.

However, it’s still a game against a team in a Power Four conference on the road and just like the Horned Frogs, the Cardinal will have a lot to prove themselves.

“I think challenges are what kind of reveal football teams,” Dykes said. “We’re going to play a 9:30 central game, it’s going to be late. Playing on the west coast two time zones away, all that kind of stuff is some ways not ideal to start the season. I think in this case it’s exactly what we need.

“They’ll have a good football team, Troy Taylor is a good football coach and a smart guy. They’re going to be disciplined team that plays really hard.”

Both TCU’s offense and defense will face tests from Stanford. Offensively, it’ll be an opportunity to show how much Hoover and the rest of the offense has grown under second-year offensive coordinator Kendal Briles.

Stanford returns some of its top playmakers defensively, but this was one of the worst defenses in the country last year. It should be the type of game where the Horned Frogs can build confidence and momentum.

Defensively, the Horned Frogs won’t be facing a dynamic offense, but they will be facing one of the best receivers in the country in Elic Ayomanor. Ayomanor had over 1,000 yards receiving last year and over a third of the Cardinal’s passing yards.

“He is very talented,” Dykes said. “You turn on the second half of the Colorado game last year and it’s a pretty remarkable performance. One of the best I’ve seen. Typically you don’t see receivers taking over games and he just took that game over. Most of his catches were on Travis Hunter, a corner everybody says it’s going to be a first round pick.”

Ayomanor is the perfect receiver to test TCU ahead of facing some of the Big 12’s best, especially considering the Horned Frogs will be without starter Avery Helm.

Whether it’s the depth of the defense or the growth of Hoover, the season opener will be the first of many tests for TCU. The Horned Frogs believe they’re a different team, but now it’s time to show and prove.