TCU offense: better, worse or about the same (as last year)? Why?

Barring injuries of course, I think that the TCU offense this year could be the best one in school history by just about any measure you’d care to name- which means yes, I think it’s going to be better.  

The Frogs return 9 of their starters on the offensive side (Some sites won’t count the departing B.J. Catalon as a starter, which would bring the count to 10), including senior quarterback and preseason Heisman favorite Trevone Boykin, late season sensation RB Aaron Green and perhaps most importantly, 4/5 starters on the offensive line.

Although the graduation of LT Tayo Fabuluje will definitely sting a bit, his replacement Aviante Collins already has a year of starting experience under his belt and saw frequent duty in relief as the Frogs saw plenty of garbage time last year, and now in his senior year he’ll be slotted in with four other seniors on the offensive line.  A frightful prospect for next year of course, but for this year TCU’s line is big, experienced and nasty and should be one of the countries best.  

At the skill positions TCU returns all four of its receivers who are among the speediest in the country, highlighted by the virtually uncoverable Josh Doctson who is 6’4″, blazing fast and has tremendous leaping ability and the offense’s x-factor Deante Gray, who has the sort of elusiveness and acceleration that makes him a threat to score any time he touches the ball.  

Then there’s Trevone Boykin, who in his only full year of playing and practicing at the quarterback position learned a new offense and rewrote the TCU quarterbacking records en route to a fourth place finish in the Heisman race.  Imagine what he’ll be able to do with another full offseason of practice and familiarity with the new offense.

TCU defense: better worse or about the same (as last year)? Why?

TCU’s defense got off to a bit of a slow start last year, with the game against Baylor in particular standing out as a low point and the complete destruction of the Ole Miss offensive unit in the Peach Bowl, which may be my favorite TCU defensive performance ever, and I can definitely see a similar rounding into form this year as the Frogs lose the majority of the back 7, including 3 time All-conference strong safety Sam Carter, cornerback Kevin White- who matured into a true shutdown corner by erasing West Virginia’s Kevin White- and turnover forcing machine Weak Safety Chris Hackett, who declared early for the draft (which is looking like a big mistake according to many mock drafts).  

The defensive line loses all-conference DT Chucky Hunter, but returns the three other starters that will have to control the line of scrimmage and create pressure while an almost entirely new back 7 finds itself.  

The good news is the few holdovers in the secondary are good, with CB Ranthony Texada expected to make a big jump from his freshman season and senior FS Derrick Kindred ready to take over leadership of the secondary.  So despite the graduation exodus, there’s a lot of talent there, and TCU’s success last year has resulted in a lot of snaps for the new incoming starters, so even though I don’t expect they’ll be as good as last year’s group, Patterson will make sure they still find ways to be effective.  A Gary Patterson defense is a Gary Patterson defense, and with an offense that will do more than its share, I think they’ll be all right.

You buying or selling this team in 2015? (How many games they winning this year? Playoffs?)

My rampant homerism is well known at this point, but this year I think I have better reason than usual to expect big things for the Frogs, and I’m predicting another 11-1 season and (at least a share of) a second Big 12 Championship.

The offense should be one of the nation’s best as it returns almost everyone and the players will have a second year in the new up-tempo system of Offensive co-coordinators Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie, and the schedule sets up pretty well to let the defense get its feet under it before the big guns of the Big 12 come out.  

There’s a dangerous road trip to Minnesota to kick off the season, but they run the sort of offense that TCU should be able to keep up with, and then have two home games with SMU and Stephen F. Austin that shouldn’t pose many issues.  

Playing at Texas Tech is a concern, but with the Raiders breaking in yet another new DC I think the Frogs can outscore the Raiders and should finish the first half of the season undefeated.  

The gauntlet begins in the second half, when TCU plays the presumed contenders for the Big 12 title, OSU, Oklahoma and Baylor in the space of four weeks, with two games being on the road, and I think they drop a game to one of the two Oklahoma schools before beating Baylor in the finale.  

Fortunately, each of the other presumed Big 12 contenders has a very similar finishing swing to the season, with Oklahoma playing @ Baylor, TCU and @ OSU consecutively, Baylor playing Oklahoma, @ OSU and @ TCU consecutively and OSU mixing in a road date with ISU in a four game spate of TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma.  

The bad news for the playoff prospects of the Frogs is that the likely losses are late in the season, which tend to go poorly in the polls, so depending on how the other conference races go, the Frogs may find themselves with a Big 12 trophy but no playoff birth to show for it yet again.  

I’ll predict that if the loss comes against OSU the Frogs will have enough time with the last two games to rise in the rankings and get into the playoff, while a loss against Baylor or Oklahoma kicks them out.  Whatever happens though, it should be a blast.

Nick of the TCU blog Frogs O War provided the information for our TCU football spring update.  For more TCU football information, commentary and analysis, you can follow Nick on Twitter @FrogsOWar.