TCU Football Countdown: 12 Days

Outside of who will replace the Frogs dynamic duo at linebacker from a year ago, the biggest question - and question mark - heading in to fall camp for TCU is who is going to be the backup to Trevone Boykin? If, and God forbid we have to cross this bridge, #2 were to miss any significant time for the Frogs, there are a bevy of names vying for the role of replacement, but we have yet to establish a clear-cut winner in the race to be the backup to Boykin.

One of the contenders, and one of the two names Gary Patterson has leaned on when asked who has the early lead, is redshirt freshman Foster Sawyer. The first thing you need to know about Foster is that the kid absolutely bleeds purple. A Fort Worth native, by way of All Saints Episcopal School, Sawyer comes from a long line of Frogs, and signing on to be the signal caller of his hometown team was a dream come true.

TCU was always the place, it seemed like, but it came down to them, Oklahoma State and Alabama. I never doubted TCU once I felt like that's where I needed to be, and that's why I committed. I signed at this time last year, in my mind.

Another thing to like about the 6'5" gunslinger is academics - the opportunities TCU provided off the field and in the classroom specifically were a huge factor in his final decision. And one last thing you have to know about #12 - the kid can flat out sling it. Listed as a pocket passer, Sawyer has a rifle for an arm and the accuracy to match. I was, well I have to say unfortunate in this instance, to see this kid in high school; I put a negative on that because he played in the same league as the school I teach and coach for. And boy, those ASES teams put a hurting on us more than once, often do to the proficiency of their signal caller. I have a couple of third party connections to his family as well, and by all accounts, he is a great kid. Easy to root for, an an excellent ambassador for TCU football, and our University as a whole.

A consensus three star recruit, he may have been underrated simply based on the level of play he saw week in and week out as a member of the SPC, a private school conference located throughout Texas and Oklahoma. With his size and arm strength, he drew attention from many of the big schools across the country, even receiving and on-campus visit from Nick Saban himself. The #2 QB coming out of Texas and the 13th ranked pocket passer in the nation from the class of 2013, Sawyer passed for just a shade under 3,000 yards as a senior, complementing his 48 touchdowns against only two ints. While it appears that former walk-on Bram Kohlhausen is currently the favorite to land behind Tre on the depth chart, GP has said the gap between him and Sawyer is not far at all. With Kenny Hill eligible in the fall, the 2016 QB competition should be wonderfully intense as well.

My best Foster story is when one of my students, who played cornerback for our football team, came in to class on a Monday morning so excited to show me a clip from the game the previous Friday night. It was Sawyer lobbing a perfect ball right over his head and in to the arms of the wide receiver he was checking for a touchdown. The kid was a little bummed that he got burned, but being a big TCU fan himself, he was more excited to see the then committed QB playing so well and dropping dimes that were almost undefensible. And, that young man just enrolled at TCU as a freshman, so he will get to watch him less up close, but in a more enjoyable venue, 12 days from now.