MMQB: King of the Hill

What a weird game right?

The Frogs looked like the better team, but for some reason the game came down to the wire. At the same time, I don’t want to sound cocky, but I was never really worried that this team would take the L on Saturday. Despite the very sluggish first half, the Frogs were a few plays away from fully dominating that game on all 3 fronts.

But before we dive deep into this game, the weekly tradition:

(I know I was off last week so I missed BayLLLLLor losing to Kansas State)

*Clears throat* BAYLOR IS 0-5 EVERYONE.

Okay now down to business...

The Good:

TCU won against a ranked team! Could we have won more comfortably? Sure. But there’s something about ESPN College Gameday appearances and TCU vs. WVU resulting in a close one. Regardless, a win is a win and I’ll take it. I can’t say that the attention of College Gameday didn’t have me worried, but the Frogs managed to win even when they weren’t playing great. That’s a sign of a good team and good coaching right there.

The MVP of the game is TCU’s punter. Adam Nunez put on a clinic and pinned WVU inside the 10 yard line 5 times. FIVE-DAD-GUMMED-TIMES. It made a huge difference in the plays WVU was able to run early on in drives and kept the Eers offense from getting going early in the game.

I believe there was also a player that had a trifecta of offensive touchdown’s scored? Oh what’s his name again?

K

E

N

N

Y

H

I

L

L

B

A

B

Y

What a game from Kenny. I know it wasn’t the prettiest game of his career, he threw off his back foot more times than I would like, he threw it to the outside when he had Reagor on the inside with space (miscommunication?), but man did he play with so much heart that it made me want to cry tears of joy. His stats on the day were 15/28 for 188 yards and a touchdown. Nothing too special but I will say he really should’ve been 18/28 because of a couple of drops (don’t @ me). I’d be ashamed of myself if I didn’t mention the absolute DIME he dropped to Jalen “is my father” Reagor. It was a gorgeous 48 yard bomb to Reagor who pretty much just ignored the defender next to him. Of course Hill only had one touchdown that he threw through the air. He added another one on a glorious pass from Turpin the QB.

What a spin move. Of course his biggest touchdown of the game came when he willed himself into the endzone, with help from a solid block from Kyle Hicks, to give TCU the lead with 2:43 left in the game.

Another game, another great showing by the defensive line. They gave up a long rush for 38 yards, but other than that I thought they played very well. Ben “OSTRICH EGGS” Banogu pancaked Will Grier and added another name to his sack list. There was constant pressure in the backfield and Grier was never really able to get comfortable. I will say this, he’s a slippery guy and was able to escape like three other sacks, but the boys need to be able to make tackles in the back field if they want to truly demoralize the other team.

Also special props to Texada and Orr in the secondary. I know it wasn’t the best game from our secondary, but Texada had a huge sack on a corner blitz, and Orr caught an interception that was the turning point of the game for TCU. This defense will give up big plays here and there, but they seem to be making as many plays as they give up.

The Western Virginia jokes were also great this week guys. I saw a lot of TCU fans with Western Virginia signs and it was awesome. I also have to give a shout out to all of the West Virginia fans that took the joke in stride. I’m really glad a lot of them didn’t take it too seriou—-.

This last one is very near and dear to my heart. The fans were so great this week. It was an awesome scene at College Gameday. It was packed and people were camping out in the commons just to get a good spot the next day. It was a great sight to see all of the game day signs that could be seen all across the commons. It was a dream come true to see Ol’ Crimson in person as well, and Lee Corso put on the Frog head for his 300th pick. It was so worth getting there at 4:30 in the morning because of the fans. Then late in the game, the Carter got crazy loud and the energy of the crowd was electrifying. Shout out to all of the Frog fans that showed up for this one!

The Bad

The game plan was really a head-scratcher in this one. Why Darius Anderson only carried the ball 9 times? I have no idea. The coaching staff probably knows something that we don’t and we’re 5-0 so I won’t flip any tables today. However, when you are facing the rush defense that is ranked 115th in the country and you don’t pound the ball, I’m going to have questions afterwards. Maybe it’s because the ‘Eers had two weeks to prepare for our run game? Did the injury to Patrick Morris really hurt our ground game that much? I don’t really know but let’s hope that our running game gets back on track next week in Manhattan.

Like I said before, it wasn’t the best game from our secondary. However, other than getting beat deep twice, I don’t think the Frogs got outplayed. Jeff Gladney and Ridwan Issahaku got banged up in this one so let’s hope they are able to recover quickly or else I may end up losing more years off my life thanks to TCU Football.

Yes the game was close, but a lot of that can be attributed to us not really playing to our strengths and some TCU WVU weirdness was at play as well. I’m sure the attention on us didn’t help anything but I have a feeling the Frogs will be a lot more focused next week. Speaking of...

Don’t sleep on Snyderball next week:

The Frogs travel up to Manhattan, Kansas to play the other team that wears purple in the Big 12. Gary never sleeps on the Wildcats, and lets hope that this team doesn’t either. While I’m okay with an 11 am kickoff on the road, I am a little nervous about #Bodyclockgames after seeing the Sooners fall at home after an 11 am game. I know the Cats are 2-3, but please don’t get caught snoozing on Snyderman. He’s a sneaky one.

More on Kenny

Really quick I do want to touch on a few things regarding our quarterback. Anyone who’s read any of my work on FoW, knows where I stand when it comes to Kenny winning the Heisman. Which is first in line, in fact I’m already on the train, but let’s slow down with the Kenny for Heisman hype right now. I know Jake Trotter tweeted out that Kenny should be a Heisman candidate, which caused me to immediately levitate 7 feet off of the ground, but let’s pump the brakes on that real quick. Not saying don’t show Kenny love, just wait to hype him up. What I’m saying is wait until TCU wins the Big 12 title game, where Kenny throws for 400 yards and runs for 100 more, AND THEN HYPE HIM UP SO MUCH THAT THE HEISMAN VOTERS CAN’T DENY GIVING HIM THE AWARD. That’s the dream.

On a more serious note, if you didn’t get to see the piece that ESPN ran on Kenny during College Gameday you need to watch it. It was a great walk through of Hill’s time at A&M and his journey to being the guy at TCU. If it doesn’t put a smile on your face or a little tear in your eye then you either have no soul or are Scott Boase.

Play of the game

This week was another easy one. I’m always tempted to choose a Kenny touchdown, especially when he’s throwing gorgeous touchdowns to “Baelen” Reagor, or making spin moves on receiving touchdowns, but this week’s play of the game has to go to John Diarse for very obvious reasons.

Number 4 on West Virginia actually has to refer to Diarse as “Sir” from now on. That wasn’t the only time that Diarse ended that man’s career. He trucked him later in the game too. I’m already screaming as Diarse mosses this guy, but the fact that he just stiff arms him into the ground before he even completes the catch is just something that belongs in a museum. Oh and then he is so hyped up that he almost spikes this guy with the ball is just the stuff of legends. Frame it and play it on repeat please. Just like this:

-Sko Frogs.