TCU News: Frogs Thump Ponies

Football

TCU recap: Horned Frogs route SMU, 33-3 | Fort Worth Star Telegram

John Diarse had his second good game in a row, and it looks like he’s building up a good relationship with Kenny Hill.

Graduate transfer receiver John Diarse took the first offensive snap of the second half 75 yards for the first touchdown of the game after the Horned Frogs took a 6-3 lead at halftime. Diarse finished the game with six catches for 139 yards. This came a week after Diarse set a previous career-high of seven catches for 97 yards in TCU’s 41-20 win over Iowa State.

Kenny Hill helps No. 21 TCU pull away from SMU | USA Today

Hill threw for 452 yards and two touchdowns. That could easily have been 500 yards if his receivers didn’t drop about five passes in the first half. The big TD play to Diarse sparked the sideline in the second half, and it was all good from there.

“Immediately it energizes everybody,” Hill, who was 31 of 45 passing, said of the long touchdown. “On the sideline, it was kind of dead. Everybody was in it, but it was kinda dead and we hit that play and everybody just sparked up.”

TCU defense ‘rises to the occasion’ stopping SMU cold 33-3 | Fort Wort Star Telegram

It had been a long time since TCU picked off a pass, but it happened twice on Saturday night.

They had gone 181 pass attempts without a pick, since the first quarter of last year’s game against Baylor, when Orr corralled one.

Someone’s in a ‘lot of trouble’ at TCU | Quotables from SMU-TCU | Fort Worth Star Telegram

Gary Patterson was in a much better mood postgame than he was after Iowa State. However, when someone brought up Austin Schlottman’s potential injury, he became very upset.

"We'll see if he plays next week. I heard the radio group announced something. Whoever told them, I'll fire. Let me say that to you. Because it's not our job, it's illegal to be talking about injuries. So, bottom line to it is, whoever did it is in a lot of trouble when I find out who it is."

An SMU player put this completely brutal targeting hit on a defenseless TCU receiver | SB Nation

Darrion Milines absolutely leveled John Diarse, but Diarse is too strong for any of that business to keep him out of the game.

He catapults himself into an obviously defenseless receiver who doesn’t see him and isn’t doing anything even remotely football-related (not that it’d be OK if he were). He hits him around the head and neck.

Fortunately, Diarse returned to the game and has put together a couple of catches. But that doesn’t make Millines’ hit any less reckless or obviously illegal.

Forgotten at LSU, Diarse finds spotlight with Frogs | Fort Worth Star Telegram

Patterson is glad he’s here, and he cited Diarse’s maturity as being a plus for this team.

“He’s been in big games,” Patterson said. “This is not his first rodeo. He played in a lot of big games when he was at LSU.

“He transferred because he wanted to catch more balls.”

WR Desmon White steps up in place of injured Turpin | Fort Worth Star Telegram

He could be a force for the rest of the season, even if Turpin manages to return at some point.

He averaged 24.7 yards per attempt on three first-half punt returns, including a 14-yarder that put the Frogs in position for Graf’s 46-yard field goal that tied the game, 3-3.

White also added a career-high six catches for 49 yards as part of the receiver rotation, tying John Diarse (6 catches, 139 yards) for most catches by any TCU player. One of White’s receptions came on a 77-yard drive that produced Graf’s 20-yard field goal that put TCU on top, 6-3, at the half.