Frogs Let
Historic Opportunity Slip Away
By Tom C. "Midnite" Burke
It has become evident that you just can’t trust TCU head
football coach Sonny Dykes to lead the Horned Frogs to victory in the really
big games.
The latest disappointment occurred on Saturday, August 29,
across the pond, in Dublin, Ireland, about 4,500 miles from the comfort of
TCU’s hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. The heavily favored Frogs of the Big 12
Conference were upset 15-10 by the University of North Carolina in the 2026 Aer
Lingus College Football Classic.
Midnite Madness had predicted a 23-20 victory for TCU.
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| Tom C. "Midnite" Burke |
What happened? Did the “Luck of the Irish” not apply to
Horned Frogs? Where were those magical Leprechauns and their pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow? After all, it rained during the game (by the way, Dublin
averages 150 days of rain each year).
Dykes, who is in his fifth season as head coach of the
Horned Frogs and who received a contract extension from Athletics Director Mike
Buddie in the Spring, is 1-2 in three of TCU’s most program-defining games,
including two consecutive losses, going back to the 65-7 trouncing third-ranked
TCU received from the top-ranked University of Georgia in the College Football
Playoff National Championship Game on January 9, 2023, in Englewood,
California.
Dykes led the Horned Frogs to that national championship
game by orchestrating a 51-45 TCU College Football Playoff Semifinal Game
victory over the University of Michigan in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, but that game
is a distant memory.
Front and center today is the Dublin Debacle, during which
the Frogs looked nothing like a Power 4 Conference team. Despite being as much
as a 10-point favorite on the Emerald Isle, TCU lost to an Atlantic Coast
Conference (ACC) team they overwhelmed and embarrassed 44-18 in last year’s
season-opener, on Labor Day Monday, in the Tar Heels’ backyard of Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. In addition, North Carolina is reported to be the second
least-experienced team among Power 4 schools this season.
“I give North Carolina a lot of credit,” said Dykes. “They
have improved from last season. They did what they had to do to win. Their
defense really played well. I am disappointed we didn’t play better. All of us
have to learn from this game. We have to be critical of ourselves. We can’t let
this happen to us again.”
“This was a special trip for our team, a great experience,”
said North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick. “We didn’t just come out here
for the experience. We were inspired at our rally when Chancellor (Lee) Roberts
said we came out here for the experience and we came out here to win. And
that’s what the players did. It’s a good start. A great team win for us. I
can’t say enough about the efforts of everybody.”
With the loss, TCU is 0-1. The Frogs finished last season
9-4 overall, 5-4 in the Big 12. After their 30-27 overtime victory over USC in the 2025 Alamo Bowl,
the Horned Frogs were ranked 25th in the season’s final Associated Press (AP)
College Football Bowl Subdivision ranking. The Frogs’ finish to their 2025
season and their top-25 ranking prompted Dykes to proclaim, “This is a good
football program that is on the verge of being a great program.”
TCU’s next game on its good-to-great journey is on Saturday,
September 12, against Grambling State University, in Amon G. Carter Stadium, in
Fort Worth. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 pm (Central). The game will be televised
on ESPN+. Grambling opened its 2026 season with a 49-7 win over Clark-Atlanta
on August 29.
With the loss to UNC in Dublin, Dykes’ record in
international games fell to 1-1. When he was head coach of the University of
California, the Golden Bears played in Australia on August 27, 2016 (local
Sydney time), during Dykes’ last season at Cal. The Bears defeated the
University of Hawaii 51–31. Because of the extreme time difference, the game aired
in the United States on the evening of Friday, August 26.
With the win over the Horned Frogs, North Carolina is 1-0.
The Tar Heels finished last season 4-8 overall, 2-6 in the ACC and tied with
Florida State and Virginia Tech for 13th place in the 17-team conference.
The Tar Heels improved their series record with TCU to 4-1.
UNC’s next game is on Saturday, September 12, against East
Tennessee State, in Chapel Hill. Kickoff is scheduled for noon (Eastern). The
game will be televised on the ACC Network.
This was the sixth Aer Lingus College Football Classic and
the fifth consecutive edition since the event resumed in 2022. The inaugural
game was played on September 3, 2016. Georgia Tech defeated Boston College
17-14. Other Aer Lingus College Football Classic games:
- 2022:
Northwestern defeated Nebraska, 31-28
- 2023:
Notre Dame defeated Navy, 42-3
- 2024:
Georgia Tech defeated Florida State, 24-21
- 2025:
Iowa State defeated Kansas State, 24-21
This was the first of two international games this season
featuring teams from the Big 12 Conference. Kansas and Arizona State will meet on
September 19 in the Union Jack Classic. The game will be played in London’s
historic Wembley Stadium.
College football will return to Ireland next year. Pitt
will meet Wisconsin in the 2027 Aer Lingus College Football Classic, on August
27, 2027.
Distractions for Both Teams
The focus of last year’s TCU-North Carolina game was
Belichick’s collegiate head coaching debut and his young, voluptuous
girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, who at the then-age of 24 years old was 50 years
younger than the coach.
This year’s game featured distractions for both teams.
The Tar Heels came into the game without their general
manager, Michael Lombardi, and defensive coordinator, Steve Belichick, and with
a new offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino, whose college coaching career has
featured its controversies.
Lombardi was placed on paid administrative leave on July 27
after a Human Resources complaint was filed. The university formally confirmed
it was investigating him three days later.
Steve Belichick is on a medical leave.
The Horned Frogs came into their rematch with North Carolina
with a new offensive coordinator, Gordon Sammis, a new starting quarterback,
Jaden Craig, and a new quarterbacks coach, Brad Robbins. All three were making
their TCU and Power 4-Conference debuts.
TCU also came into the game without their projected starting
safety, Jacob Fields, who had transferred to TCU after a standout season at
Louisiana Tech. Fields was dismissed from the team following an August 13
physical altercation with junior wide receiver Dozie Ezukanma in the Horned
Frogs’ locker room.
Days before the game in Ireland, TCU rescinded the
Star-Telegram’s credentials to cover Horned Frogs athletics over the
newspaper’s coverage of the incident.
The Star-Telegram is the only media outlet that covers TCU
athletics on a full-time basis. The newspaper’s TCU sports beat writer, Steven
Johnson, traveled to the Aer Lingus College Football Classic and covered the
Horned Frogs’ loss, despite lacking media credentials from TCU.
Dykes spoke with reporters in Ireland about the locker room
incident on the Thursday prior to the game.
"It was something that was certainly out of character
for the team and the young man that was involved," Dykes said. "Look,
you got 110 football players. I mean, things happen sometimes. You've got to
find ways to move through them, and man, these young kids are resilient. It's
like anything else, when something bad happens, it becomes a teaching
moment."
Not missing an opportunity to jab an in-state Big 12
Conference rival, former Texas Tech football player turned billionaire oil-and-gas
CEO Cody Campbell, who is bankrolling Tech’s massive payments to its athletes, targeted
the Horned Frogs through a social media post.
Campbell posted: "Fort Worth is 'Where the West
Begins.' The Star-Telegram has full access to the Texas Tech football program
and is always welcome in Lubbock. Hope to see you Saturday!"
“Where the West Begins” is a slogan that since the 1920s has
been displayed on the front-page banner of the Star-Telegram’s printed
editions, of which there now are only three a week.
The Star-Telegram was co-founded by Amon G. Carter and began
publication in 1909. Carter was the newspaper’s longtime publisher and his name
has long adorned TCU’s football stadium.
On Sunday, August 30, Fields turned himself in to Tarrant
County (in which Fort Worth is located) authorities for an assault charge
stemming from the locker room incident. The arrest warrant affidavit said
Ezukanma suffered a brain bleed and concussion after Fields punched and kicked
him in the head. Fields posted bond and was released. He has retained a defense
attorney.
An Historic Disappointment for TCU
TCU’s lethargic, mistake-filled loss to North Carolina was a
monumental disappointment and embarrassment in many ways.
This was an historic game for TCU, as it was the Frogs’
first game in a foreign country in the school’s 153-year history (the game
originally was scheduled for September 5, in Fort Worth).
The trip and the game were the opportunities of a lifetime
for many associated with the football program and the university.
TCU-North Carolina was the marquee game that opened the 2026
college football season.
The spotlight was shining brightly on the Horned Frogs’
football program, the university, Fort Worth, the state of Texas and the Big 12
Conference.
It was an opportunity for the TCU football program to begin
the season with a statement victory and steal some attention from Texas Tech,
BYU and Houston in the Big 12, and the University of Texas, Texas A&M and
SMU within Texas.
Thousands of Horned Frogs fans had bought into Dykes’
pre-season rhetoric about the impending greatness of this team and invested the
money and valuable vacation time necessary to travel to Dublin in support of
the Frogs (some reports indicated that as many as 8,000 TCU fans attended the
game).
With a victory in Dublin, TCU could have generated momentum
and further heightened the enthusiasm of Horned Frogs fans.
“This was a disappointing performance,” a dejected Dykes
said in an understatement after the game. “I didn’t see this coming. I’m
disappointed for our fans. I thought we had tremendous support. Appreciate them
coming over here (to Ireland) and supporting us, like they always do. We have
the best fans in the country. I’m sure they are disappointed, and I am too. We
just let them down. I am disappointed we didn’t play better.”
The three most disappointing aspects of the games were the
Frogs’ mistakes, the ineffectiveness of TCU’s offense and the lackluster
performance of Craig.
Penalty Flags Fly
The Horned Frogs were penalized 11 times for 89 yards. North
Carolina was flagged three times for 20 yards. The officiating crew was from
the ACC.
Erasing penalties and reducing penalties were a focus of
TCU’s offseason. In 2023, TCU ranked 12th out of 14 teams in the Big 12 in
penalty yards and 11th in total penalties. TCU ranked 10th in both categories
out of 16 conference teams in 2024. In 2025, TCU ranked 12th in the conference
in total penalties and 15th in penalty yardage. The Frogs were 103rd in the FBS
last season in penalties per game, averaging seven.
After the game, when Dykes was asked what the Horned Frogs
could have done differently to avoid being penalized so often, he said, “Not
have ACC officials.”
Offense, Craig Fail to Impress
After offensive coordinator Kendal Briles departed for the
University of South Carolina and starting quarterback Josh Hoover transferred
to the University of Indiana, Dykes brought in Sammis and Craig, who is one of
the Frog’s five captains, to run a ball-control offense. Dykes believes such a
traditional, physical offense can help the Frogs reach the Big 12 Conference
Championship Game for the first time since 2022.
Sammis, who is just 10 years removed from coaching the
offensive line at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), spent the previous
four years at UConn, the last two as the Huskies' offensive coordinator. UConn
is a Group of 6 football program that competes as an independent in football.
Craig, a former zero-star recruit, was a full-time starter
the final two years of his four-year career at Harvard, in the Ivy League, in
which there are no athletics scholarships. As a senior, he set Harvard
single-season records for passing completions (208), touchdown passes (25) and
passing yards (2,869). Craig finished his career with the Crimson as its
all-time leader in passing yards (6,074) and touchdown passes (52). He made
first-team All-Ivy League twice and took Harvard to the FCS Playoffs in 2025.
Despite their success at lower levels of collegiate
football, doubt reigns supreme about Sammis and Craig at the Power 4
Conference-level after the TCU offense failed miserably in the loss to North
Carolina.
Against North Carolina, the Frogs went up 10-3 on their
first two drives in the first quarter. Sophomore running back Jon Denman scored
the fourth touchdown of his career on a two-yard run and junior placekicker
Kyle Lemmermann kicked a 31-yard field goal.
TCU didn’t score again, even though the Frogs got the ball
eight more times during the game’s final 49 minutes. Craig and his offensive
teammates often looked dazed, confused and lethargic, and the play calling by
Sammis was ultra-conservative and lacked continuity.
TCU scored for the 421st consecutive game, the
second-longest streak in NCAA history behind Florida (473 games), but the 10
points are the least scored by the Frogs since a 41-3 loss to Kansas State on
October 21, 2023, in Manhattan, Kansas.
TCU had scored at least 30 points in its last 10 season-openers,
which was the longest active FBS streak.
TCU also lost its streak of scoring at least 28 points in 30
straight non-conference regular-season games. It was the second-longest streak
by an FBS team in the last 45 seasons.
The Frogs accumulated only 281 yards of total offense
against North Carolina; 175 yards through the air and 106 yards on the ground.
The rushing stat is misleading, as the Frogs lost 60 yards on the ground,
including a fumble by Craig that he recovered and three sacks of the fifth-year
senior.
TCU had just two passes completed beyond 15 yards in the
air, and the Frogs only converted one-of-five fourth-down attempts.
Dykes opted to go for it on critical fourth downs in the red
zone on TCU’s last two drives, and the Frogs failed both times.
On the Frogs’ next-to-last drive of the game, Payne was
stuffed on fourth-and-one from the five-yard line on a simple run up the
middle.
On TCU’s final possession of the game, Craig threw an
incompletion when rolling left on fourth-and-two from the 10-yard line. If he
had chosen to keep the ball and run, he might have gotten a first down.
Instead, the Tar Heels got the football on a turnover on downs and ran out the
final 4:05 of the game.
If field goal attempts had been converted on both of those
fourth downs, TCU could have won the game 16-15.
“Looking back now, obviously, I wish we had kicked the two
field goals, but at the time, it makes sense to try,” Dykes explained. “When
you’re not moving the football, you’ve got to try to get the ball in the end
zone.”
Craig completed 20-of-32 passes for 175 yards. He threw no
touchdown passes or interceptions. He had a long completion of 40 yards. He was
sacked three times, including once when he turned over the football on a
fumble. He fumbled another time, but recovered the football.
Craig and Sammis had ample opportunities in their first-ever
FBS game to produce a rousing comeback victory for the Frogs, but both failed.
In Craig’s and Sammis’ defense, TCU was without two starting
wide receivers. Fifth-year senior Jordan Dwyer, who is a transfer from Idaho,
and Ezukanma missed the game because of injuries.
In his postgame remarks, Dykes defended Craig. He said he is
a talented quarterback and that he and the program believe in Craig 100
percent.
TCU junior running back Jeremy Payne rushed 25 times for 142
yards, the second-most yards of his career and the third 100-plus yard game of
his career. He averaged 5.7 yards per carry and had a long run of 48 yards, the
longest by either team. Payne added 27 yards on five receptions.
Dating back to the 2024 season, TCU has had a running back
eclipse 135 rushing yards twice. Both times, it has been Payne. He rushed for
174 yards against Cincinnati in 2025.
Sophomore wide receiver Ed Small had nine receptions for 65
yards. He had a long reception of 17 yards. Senior tight end Ka’morreun
Pimpton, a transfer from LSU, had one reception, for 40 yards, which was the
second longest play by the Frogs. Senior tight end Kari Ashley, who transferred
from Navarro Junior College and previously played at Georgia Tech, caught three
passes for 17 yards.
Defense Controls Tar Heels
TCU’s defense, which returned most of last year’s defensive
line and senior preseason All-Big 12 safety Jamel Johnson, gave up 322 yards of
offense to the Tar Heels (232 passing yards and 90 rushing yards), but only 13
points, on one touchdown and two field goals.
When you hold a Power 4 Conference team to 13 offensive
points, you expect to win the game.
UNC quarterback Billy Edwards, Jr., a transfer from
Wisconsin who is in his sixth year of eligibility, completed only 16 of 28
passes. The Frogs sacked him three times.
Redshirt junior tight end Jelani Thurman, a transfer from
Ohio State, was the Tar Heels’ leading receiver. He caught five passes for 94
yards. He had a long reception of 35 yards. Junior wide receiver Jordan Shipp
had five receptions for 71 yards, with a long reception of 19 yards. Redshirt
junior wide receiver Trech Kekahuna, a transfer from Wisconsin, caught three
passes for 38 yards. He had a long reception of 21 yards.
TCU’s run defense especially was stout, despite missing
injured senior defensive end Zach Chapman.
Redshirt junior running back Benjamin Hall, a transfer from
the University of Michigan, was UNC’s leading rusher with 36 yards on 11
rushes. Sophomore running back Jaylen McGill rushed five times for 33 yards. He
scored a touchdown on a nine-yard run in the first quarter.
Junior placekicker Aeron Burell, a transfer from LSU, kicked
a 20-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 28-yard field goal in the third
quarter.
TCU senior linebacker Max Carroll led the Frogs’ defense
with nine tackles. He also forced a fumble and recovered two fumbles. He is the
first TCU player to recover multiple fumbles in a game since at least 1995.
Sophomore safety Julius Sims and senior linebacker Michael
Short, a transfer from the University of North Carolina, had six tackles each.
Johnson, who is a team captain, had five tackles. Senior defensive tackle and
team captain Ansel Din-Mbuh, a transfer from Washington State, had two sacks,
the most of his career, and 2.5 tackles for loss. Sophomore defensive end John
Schobel had his first career sack and a tackle for loss. Junior safety Kaden
McFadden forced a fumble.
Unfortunately, the most notorious defensive play of the game
by the Frogs came on the final play of the game. With 30 seconds left in the
game and UNC facing a fourth-and-one on the TCU 45yard line, TCU senior
defensive tackle Markis Deal jumped offsides, giving the Tar Heels a first down
and allowing the Tar Heels to run out the clock.
Special Teams ‘Snap’
North Carolina last season never led Power-Four opponent at
halftime, but the Tar Heels went ahead of TCU on a safety and led the Frogs,
12-10, at the half.
After a snap from fifth-year senior long-snapper Aaron
Bowers, a transfer from Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth, sailed high over the head
of junior punter John Hoyet Chance, a transfer from Louisiana Tech, Chance had to
kick the football out of the back of the end zone for a safety, to keep North
Carolina from potentially recovering the football for a touchdown. Earlier
in the game, Chance handled a bounced snap when he was in punting formation.
The safety scored by UNC on the play was the first safety scored
by a TCU opponent since Texas scored one in a 33-31 loss to the Frogs in Austin
on October 3, 2020.
Chanced punted twice against the Tar Heels. He averaged 43.5
yards per kick. He also handled kickoff duties. His three kickoffs resulted in
touchbacks.
Placekicker Lemmermann converted his lone field goal attempt
of 31 yards.
Dykes Believes in Team
“This was a disappointing performance. We were here to win
the game,” said Dykes. “I never doubted our players’ focus. We missed a lot of
opportunities and at times we played inexperienced. We’ll make corrections and
get better. I believe all of us will give everything we have to ensure we
become a good football team.”
Additional Game Insight
Box score: here
Game highlights: here
TCU post-game remarks: here
Additional remarks by Dykes: here
North Carolina post-game remarks: here
