Analysis: Five observations from TCU football training camp

The Horned Frogs have gotten through five practices of training camp so far and TCU has taken strides in its preparation for the season opener Aug. 30 at Stanford.

The camp has been a chance for the new defense, under Andy Avalos, to continue growing and it’s also been quarterback Josh Hoover’s first action since the season finale against Oklahoma after he missed the spring with a back injury. The Horned Frogs’ talented 2024 recruiting class is also now fully on campus and looking to make a name for itself.

It’s still early in the process. The Horned Frogs have yet to have their first full practice with live tackling, but some questions are beginning to be answered.

Here are five observations from TCU’s first week camp:

Early impressions of Hoover

After showing his potential filling in for Chandler Morris last season, there’s a ton of pressure on Hoover this season as he’s the clear-cut starter at quarterback. While he missed meaningful reps in the spring, Hoover hasn’t shown signs of rust. During the team periods open to the media, Hoover has been in command of the offense and continued to show off his arm strength even on short and intermediate passes.

It’s been a point of emphasis by Sonny Dykes for Hoover to learn to be okay taking the short completions instead of going the long ball and Hoover has avoided any turnover worthy plays so far in camp after having a turnover in every game he appeared in last season.

It should be noted that the offense is still running some of its basic concepts in the open portion of practice. There’s been a lot of run-pass options (RPO) plays to the flat or on a swing screen to a running back. As camp intensifies, it should be expected that the offense will be more aggressive and let Hoover take his chances down the field.

Defense still setting the tone

Through the early portion of camp, the defense is still ahead of the offense with the unit gaining the edge in most of the team tempo period. On Sunday, the first-team defense kept the starting offense out of the endzone. Cornerback LaMareon James started the period by breaking up a touchdown pass to Savion Williams.

After a solid gain by Cam Cook, the defense limited the offense to a short gain on a RPO pass and then Nana Osafo-Mensah blew up the final play for a negative yardage. These types of outcomes have been common so far in practice with the offense only scoring only one touchdown in the open portion of practice. It’s important to remember, these aren’t game like scrimmages in the spring and the media is often only allowed to watch about four plays each for the first-, second- and third-team defenses.

The offense is also still trying to gel after having many of its receivers, like Dylan Wright, limited during the spring. Still it’s encouraging to see the progression and new wrinkles of TCU’s new aggressive defense.

Linebacker rotation

Competition in the linebacker room should be fierce with so many talented options vying for just two positions on the field compared to three in the old 3-3-5 defense. So far Namdi Obiazor and Johnny Hodges have taken most of the first team reps with the defense, but Cal transfer Kaleb Elarms-Orr had a terrific spring and has continued to make plays with the second unit.

On Sunday, he had a tackle for loss deep in the backfield and also appears to be the linebacker Avalos will depend on when the Horned Frogs go to a dime defense, which includes six defensive on the field instead of five. Between Obiazor, Hodges and Elarms-Orr that’s two players with all conference honors and another in Obiazor that led TCU in tackles with 84 last season. Obiazor seems the most likely to be the every down backer, but all three seem poised to play a big role.

The Horned Frogs have good depth behind them with Max Carroll and Shad Banks. Carroll has been working with Elarms-Orr on the second team and continues to take positive steps in his development after a productive spring. Banks seems to be working back from an injury and has had limited participation in team practices, but he’s been dressed out everyday.

Early standouts

Led by Memphis transfer safety Cam Smith, many of the transfers have continued to make strong impressions

Smith showed he was a ball hawk in the spring, forcing numerous turnovers in multiple practices. While the chances for the interception haven’t come yet, Smith has still been a standout during team periods and one on ones.

Smith looks to be in the lead to start as the third safety with Bud Clark and Abe Camara. Smith isn’t the biggest player, but plays with a tenacity that always seems to allow him to find himself around the ball. On offense Eric McAlister routinely makes some of the most impressive catches during one on ones. His leaping ability and length allow him to win the 50/50 balls more often than not and McAlister even had a one-handed grab in the endzone at a practice last week.

Trey Sanders has also had some good moments at running back and scored the only touchdown during the open media portion of practice when he took a reverse for over 20 yards for a score. Sanders also had a long reception on a wheel route from Hauss Hejny that was almost a touchdown in an earlier practice.

What about the other quarterbacks?

TCU reserve quarterbacks Ken Seals and Hauss Hejny have had solid camps so far. Seals continues to show he was the ideal second quarterback for TCU. He gets the ball out to his receivers quickly, has a solid grasp on the offense and usually makes good decisions. He did have a near interception in Sunday’s practice, but it was broken up by Jack Bech who played a little defense on Channing Canada to break up the pick.

Aside from that, Seals has been efficient in the RPO game and completing shorter passes underneath. Hejny has avoided turnovers that plagued him at times in the spring and also showed his scrambling ability when he took off and made a defender touch the ground with an impressive juke move. Of all the quarterbacks Hejny has been the one that’s been most aggressive pushing the ball down the field and the next step is to improve the touch on those deep shots to give his receivers a chance to make a play.

Still, the improvement in decision making is evident with Hejny and the coaching staff has also experimented with different packages to get him on the field.