By Tom C. “Midnite” Burke
*Note: Because of other commitments, after postings about this game, Midnite Madness will not be updated until the October 22 game against Kansas State.
TCU’s game against the 18th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners at 11 am this Saturday, October 1, in Amon G. Carter Stadium, in Fort Worth, will feature several “firsts.”
- It’s the first Big 12 game of the 2022 football season for the Horned Frogs.
- It’s the first Big 12 game for TCU head coach Sonny Dykes as a head coach.
- It’s the first matchup against a ranked team for Dykes as TCU’s head coach.
- It’s the first matchup between Dykes and Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables, both of whom are first-year head coaches at their respective schools.
TCU comes into the contest at 3-0 (0-0 Big 12) and as the only undefeated FBS program out of 12 in Texas.
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| Tom C. "Midnite" Burke |
The Horned Frogs are 3-0 for the first time since 2017, when Dykes was on staff as an offensive analyst.
Dykes is the first TCU head football coach to win his opening three games since Francis Schmidt in 1929. Dykes is the 12th head coach since Schmidt.
The last time TCU opened with a 3-0 record and played Oklahoma in its fourth game was 2014. The Horned Frogs won, 37-33, in Amon G. Carter Stadium, en route to a Big 12 Championship, 12-1 season and No. 3 final ranking in the Associated Press poll.
Oklahoma comes into Fort Worth at 3-1 (0-1 Big 12). On Saturday, September 24, in Norman, Oklahoma, the Sooners were beaten by Kansas State, 41-34. Previously, Oklahoma had beaten UTEP, 45-13, in Norman, whipped Kent State, 33-3, in Norman, and embarrassed Nebraska, 49-14, in Lincoln (the prior week, the Cornhuskers had fired head coach Scott Frost).
Against Oklahoma, TCU will be opening its 11th season in the Big 12 (the Frogs joined the Big 12 in July of 2012, for its fifth league in an 18-year span).
In Big 12 play, the Frogs are 1-11 against the Sooners, including a 37-33 win in Fort Worth on October 4, 2014, and a 41-17 loss to the Okies in the Big 12 Championship game in AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, on December 2, 2017.
Last year, in Norman, Oklahoma walloped the Horned Frogs, 52-31.
Overall, Oklahoma is 17-5 against TCU, including having won the last eight contests.
The Horned Frogs are 2-8 versus the Sooners in Fort Worth, 3-7 in Norman, 0-1 in Oklahoma City and 0-1 in Arlington (2017 Big 12 Championship Game).
The first game in the series was a 34-19 Sooners victory in Oklahoma City in 1944.
In its 2005 season-opener, TCU's 17-10 win at No. 5 Oklahoma, under then-head coach Gary Patterson, was its first victory over an opponent ranked that high since a 6-0 decision at No. 1 Texas in 1961. The 10 points by OU marked its fewest in a home game under former Head Coach Bob Stoops.
On
Saturday, TCU senior quarterback Max Duggan (#15) will start his third
consecutive game of the season, in place of Redshirt freshman quarterback
Chandler Morris, who started and was injured in TCU’s win over Colorado. Morris did not play in the Frogs' wins over Tarleton State and SMU. Reportedly he will be available to play against Oklahoma.
Surprisingly, despite being listed as a redshirt freshman, Morris is older than Duggan. Morris was born on December 26, 2000. Duggan was born on March 12, 2001.
With the 2020 football season providing a free year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic and because he only played in four games last season to preserve a redshirt season, Morris has four years of eligibility remaining.
Even though he is listed as a senior, Duggan has two years of eligibility remaining, including the free year of 2020.
Duggan leads the nation in passing efficiency with a 216.0 rating. C.J. Stroud, of Ohio State, ranks second with a 207.5 rating. Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy is third with a 204.5 rating.
Duggan ranks third in the nation in completion percentage, at 77 percent (47-of-61). McCarthy, of Michigan, ranks first at 80 percent (48-of-60). Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan ranks third at 77.2 percent (61-of-79).
Duggan has thrown for 695 yards. He has eight touchdown passes. He has not thrown an interception.
In TCU’s win over SMU, Duggan was 22-of-29 for 278 yards, with three touchdown passes. His performance earned him an Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Player of the Week Honorable Mention Award.
Duggan is in fourth place in TCU history with 6,615 career passing yards. First place is held by Trevone Boykin, with 10,728 yards. Andy Dalton is in second place with 10,314 yards. Max Knake is in third place with 7,370 yards.
Derius Davis (#11) is TCU’s leading receiver. He has caught seven passes for 126 yards. He has two touchdown receptions.
Tight end Jared Wiley (#19) and Quincy Brown (#88) also have two touchdown passes. Jordan Hudson and Savion Williams each have a one touchdown catch.
Wide receiver Taye Barber (#4) has eight receptions for 101 yards. Wide receiver Quentin Johnston (#1) has eight catches for 73 yards.
Running back Kendre Miller (#33) is leading the Frogs in rushing. He has 250 rushing yards on 38 attempts. He is averaging 6.6 yards per carry and 83.33 yards per game. He has three touchdown runs.
Running back Emari Demercado (#3) has 120 rushing yards on 16 carries. He also has three rushing touchdowns.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Jackson (#16) has two rushing touchdowns. Davis and running back Emani Bailey (#9) each have one rushing touchdown.
Defensively, linebacker Johnny Hodges (#57) and safety Mark Perry are
leading the Frogs with 15 total tackles. Hodges has one sack and 2.5
tackles-for-loss. Perry has one tackle-for-loss.
Linebacker Dee Winters (#13) has 11 total tackles, 1.5 sacks and three tackles-for loss.
Safety Josh Newton (#24) leads the Horned Frogs with two interceptions. Safety Abe Camara (#14) and cornerback Jaionte McMillan (#27) each have one interception.
TCU fans have been most familiar with either Bob Stoops or Lincoln Riley as head coach of the Sooners. Stoops was head coach from 1999 to 2016. Riley was the head man from 2017 to 2021, when he left Norman to become head coach of USC (TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley is Lincoln’s younger brother).
A
former 13-year University of Oklahoma assistant coach who won a national
championship with the Sooners and two more with Clemson University during a
highly successful 10-year stint as defensive coordinator, Venables was named Oklahoma’s
23rd head football coach on December 5, 2021.
The 50-year-old Venables served as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers
coach at Oklahoma from 1999-2003 and as associate head coach, defensive
coordinator and linebackers coach from 2004-11 under Stoops.
Venables,
a native of Salina, Kansas, and a former Kansas State football player
(1991-92), returned to Oklahoma from the University of Clemson, where he had
been defensive coordinator since 2012 and assistant head coach/defensive
coordinator since 2018.
Venables began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Kansas State in
1993. He coached linebackers at Kansas State in 1996 and 1997. He was the
Wildcats’ linebackers coach/defensive run game coordinator for the 1998 season.
In the Sooners’ loss to Kansas State last Saturday, Oklahoma’s defense gave up 509 total yards.
Wildcats quarterback Adrian Martinez, a transfer from the University of Nebraska, accounted for 382 yards and five touchdowns. His performance earned him Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Martinez gashed Oklahoma’s defense for 148 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries. He completed 21-of-34 passes to seven receivers for 234 yards and a touchdown. He was not sacked and he did not throw an interception.
Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn added 116 rushing yards on 25 carries.
Oklahoma is averaging 40 points per game and leading the Big 12 by averaging 513 total yards per game. In its loss to Kansas State, Oklahoma accumulated 550 yards of offense; 330 yards passing and 220 rushing yards.
The Sooners' high-powered offense is averaging 282 passing yards per game and 231 rushing yards per game.
Leading Oklahoma’s offense is redshirt junior quarterback Dillon Gabriel (#8), who is from Hawaii and and transferred to OU from the University of Central Florida. Gabriel has completed 78-of-117 passes for 1,089 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has not thrown an interception. He has rushed for 126 yards.
The Sooners’ leading rusher is senior running back Eric Gray (#0). He has carried the football 53 times for 400 yards, an average of 7.5 yards per carry and 100 yards per game. He has scored two rushing touchdowns.
Running back Marcus Major (#24) has scored four rushing touchdowns. He has 164 yards on 33 carries.
Oklahoma’s leading receiver is junior wide receiver Marvin Mims (#17). He has caught 18 passes for 397 yards, an average of 22.06 yards per catch and 99.25 yards per game. He has three touchdown receptions.
Tight end Brayden Willis (#9) has caught four touchdown passes. Wide receiver Theo Wease (10) has two touchdown receptions. Major (#24) and wide receivers Jalil Farooq (#3) and Drake Stoops (#12) each have one touchdown catch.
Defensively, the Okies from Norman lead the Big 12 in sacks with 13. TCU has allowed five sacks, with all of them occurring last Saturday in the Frogs' win over SMU.
The Sooners' defense is led by sophomore linebacker Danny Stutsman (#28). He has 35 total tackles, including one sack and four tackles-for-loss.
Senior linebacker David Ugwoegbu (#2) has 34 total tackles. He has one sack and two tackles-for-loss.
Defensive backs Key Lawrence (#12), Justin Harrington (#37) and Gentry Williams (#24) each have one interception.
In addition to the “firsts” that will occur during the matchup between the Horned Frogs and Sooners, it is interesting to note that two TCU assistant coaches and a support staff member are former Oklahoma standouts.
TCU outside receivers coach Malcolm Kelly, whom Dykes held over from Patterson’s staff, was a two-time First-Team All-Big 12 selection and a 2005 Freshman All-American at Oklahoma. he totaled 144 receptions for 2,285 yards and 21 touchdowns in three seasons. When he left Norman, Kelly ranked second all-time at Oklahoma with 21 touchdown catches and nine 100-yard receiving games. He tied a school record with 11 receptions as a sophomore versus Texas Tech in 2006.
The Frogs’ defensive line coach, JaMarkus McFarland, was four-year letterman at Oklahoma. He earned All-Big 12 honors his senior year in 2012 when he posted a career-high 28 tackles, including six for loss and three sacks. He totaled 17 tackles-for-loss and 7.5 sacks for his career, helping the Sooners to three Big 12 Championships. He was a three-time First-Team Academic All-Big 12 recipient.
Jonathan Alvarez, who played in 25 games with 16 starts (2014-18) as an offensive lineman for the Sooners, is in his first year as an athletics academic advisor working with the TCU football program.
The betting line: Oklahoma is favored by 5.5 points. The Sooners have been given a 66.5 percent probability of winning the game. The over/under is 67.5 points.
Midnite’s prediction: Oklahoma 41, TCU 31
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