Steven Johnson: TCU has handled its business, but now the real season starts

It’s been so-far, so-good for the Horned Frogs to start the 2024 season as TCU’s 45-0 win over Long Island Saturday moved the Horned Frogs to 2-0.

There’s been noticeable improvement with the defense. The Horned Frogs pitched a shutout and had dominant stretches against Stanford. Josh Hoover has picked up right where he left off last season with 620 yards and four passing touchdowns with zero interceptions.

There’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic if you’re a TCU fan. But in reality, we’ll learn a whole lot more about the Horned Frogs in the next two weeks than we did in the first two games.

The Horned Frogs will go from playing a lowly FCS team and maybe the worst team in the ACC to facing UCF and SMU in back-to-back weeks.

UCF will enter the Big 12 opener in the same position as TCU. The Knights started the season with wins over New Hampshire and Sam Houston State, two teams it has a significant talent advantage over, but that shouldn’t be the case when TCU hosts UCF at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

It’s an opportunity for both teams to prove they contend for a Big 12 title in a league that suddenly seems more wide open than anticipated.

Take a look across the landscape of the league over the first two weeks and it’s hard not to get 2022 vibes. Utah entered the season as the preseason favorite, but quarterback Cam Rising suffered another injury in the Utes’ win over Baylor. It’s not expected to be serious, but Rising could be out for a few weeks.

Utah is a drastically different team when he’s not in the lineup. Then there’s Kansas State, which was lucky to escape with a road win over Tulane.

Kansas? Jalon Daniels hasn’t looked like his old self yet with four interceptions in two games, already tying a career-high for most in his career.

Oklahoma State? The Cowboys were thoroughly outplayed by Arkansas and needed giveaway after giveaway to pull out the win in overtime at home. Alan Bowman remains the biggest question mark for that team.

Texas Tech? The Red Raiders needed overtime to beat Abilene Christian and were blown out by Washington State in Lubbock this past Saturday.

Arizona? The Wildcats gave up nearly 40 points to New Mexico and were in a dogfight with Northern Arizona in Tucson. All of this is a long winded way of saying that the thought of the Horned Frogs contending for a spot in the Big 12 title game isn’t as outlandish as originally thought.

However, before we can start talking about making a return trip to Arlington, there are still some things TCU must clean up entering conference play and that starts with the offensive line.

So far, TCU has been really good in pass protection, considering the competition. But the run blocking has left something to be desired.

“I thought our pass protection was really good, I don’t think we run blocked as well as we should have,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “Two weeks in a row we’ve played teams that have really changed their schemes going into the game. This was a lot different than we expected to see. We’ve got to do a better job of adjusting.”

TCU is averaging just 3.3 yards per carry on 71 carries so far. Cam Cook has shown flashes of being a really good running back with four touchdowns in two games, but the Horned Frogs will need more balance to contend in the Big 12.

Hoover can carve up any defense, but TCU also wants to be able to punish teams up front with their physicality and so far the Horned Frogs haven’t been able to do that consistently. It’s been one of the reasons the offense has got off to slower starts in the first two games.

TCU scored just seven points on its first three drives against Stanford with a turnover and missed fourth down conversion. Against Long Island, the Horned Frogs scored 10 points on their first three drives, but the touchdown was set up by a special teams blunder by LIU. TCU had to settle for two long field goals on the other drives.

You have some leeway to start slow against a Stanford or LIU, but against a team with firepower like UCF, a slow start could lead to a 14-0 or 17-0 deficit. The Horned Frogs understand that starting faster will be imperative in league play.

“We definitely got to get more serious, start faster,” Cook said. “We can’t give them no type of chance to think they can stick around. We’ve got step on them from the jump.”

A fast start against UCF means a fast start in a wide open conference, we’re moving to the next phase of TCU’s schedule and it’s time to see how the Horned Frogs really stack up with their league peers.