After an another embarrassing loss, TCU must now convince its talented QB to stay on

The quiet concern surrounding the TCU football team is now as loud as their beloved Frog Horn: Will they check out? Who leaves first?

After orchestrating one of the more embarrassing home losses in recent memory on Friday night against 16.5-point underdog Houston, all of the ugly possibilities are on the table for TCU. It’s the first week of October, and if the transfer portal was open today you have to wonder which Horned Frog players would have jumped in.

TCU people are confident that quarterback Josh Hoover will not leave, but, in this era, who rules out such a scenario?

This is where college football is: Teams in seasons headed, or stuck, in the ditch are increasingly vulnerable to the “check out,” as well as the wandering eye. There are zero consequences for the player who exercises their power to do whatever they want.

“This is a pretty devastating loss. These guys are hurting in the locker room,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said after the loss to 1-4 Houston. “They’re embarrassed. I’m disappointed for our fans. They deserve better than this.”

TCU is 3-3, and 1-2 in the Big 12 with both defeats coming at home in front of a fan base that he will soon witness has checked out. This will be, and is, sad to watch develop. A team that was in the national title game two seasons ago is in a ditch.

Beginning in 2021, TCU has been in this position of being forced to address the concerns that their best players will transfer after the season. Running back Zach Evans was one of the first, and TCU didn’t try to do anything other than the hold the door for him when he went to Ole Miss.

Wide receiver Quentin Johnston and defensive back Tre Hodges-Tomlinson were a “concern,” but they were convinced not to look elsewhere and were integral parts to the team that reached the title game.

But 2024 feels dramatically different than those early days of the portal, and NIL.

With the willing cooperation from both ESPN and Fox, TheBigSEC10 has carved a wide gap from the Big 12 and ACC; that has created a scenario that the teams in those “lower” leagues are de facto talent developers for Alabama, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Oregon and every other team in “higher” leagues.

When TCU’s best defensive player from last season, lineman Dominic Williams, transferred in the spring to Oklahoma for a lot of money, it wasn’t just a depressing development for Dykes’ team but every other school in the league. No one in the Big 12 wants to think they are the Cleveland Guardians or Kansas City Royals, and ultimately they’re best players will leave for the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees.

As long as the transfer portal remains as easy as Uber and the money/atmosphere in TheBigSEC10 is that much greater than the rest of college football, this is the current perception, and reality, that both the ACC and Big 12 will fight every spring, summer, fall and winter.

Something that former TCU head coach Gary Patterson openly moaned about during his final years was the fact that coaches had to continually recruit players to their teams while they are on the roster, and playing.

One of the bigger fears stemming from the team’s 5-7 season last year was that highly regarded wide receiver Savion Williams would transfer in the spring. TCU kept him.

The focus now will be on Hoover, the second year quarterback who has shown all of the traits that many quality TCU quarterbacks have before him. He started young, has had struggles, but the ability and talent are there. Andy Dalton, Trevone Boykin, Kenny Hill and certainly Max Duggan all went through some variation of this evolution.

Hill, who transferred to TCU from Texas A&M, was not here as long as the others but all of these quarterbacks went through their issues. In their final year or two, they all combined to lead the program to the Fiesta Bowl, Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl, Alamo Bowl, a playoff win and an appearance in the national title game.

But that feels like a lifetime ago. Because the rules of college football are different, and exist now in name only.

By all accounts, Hoover and his family like it at TCU as well as the coaching staff, and are committed to seeing this work. That’s today.

All of these scenarios are fluid because a player doesn’t need to sit out a season after they transfer. All of these scenarios are fluid because a player can easily transfer to another school to make more money, and potentially be in a “better situation” to win.

TCU has six games remaining to figure it out, and “recruit” the players they want to keep, starting with a quarterback who will be in demand.