TCU football announces 2019 schedule, featuring Purdue and a backloaded Big 12 slate

TCU announced the 2019 football schedule earlier on Thursday, and it sets up nicely early on, with a harrowing finish.

TCU opens the season hosting Arkansas Pine Bluff, before they get two weeks to prepare for their non-conference matchup against Purdue on September 14th. The off week early on is a bummer, and it contributes to TCU’s hellatious November, but we’ll get there in a moment.

TCU’s trip to play Purdue is followed up by a home game against SMU - the last currently scheduled game between the DFW rivals. Patterson has made it known he would like to continue the series, which TCU leads all-time 51-40-7, but nothing has been announced about keeping the game beyond 2019.

The Frogs then enter into Big 12, or rather ease in, with a home game against Kansas before heading to Ames for a matchup against Iowa State. The Cyclones look to be a power in 2019, led by Brock Purdy at quarterback, but TCU is looking to avenge their 2017 loss in Ames that ended a perfect season.

The Iowa State game on October 5 is followed by a second bye week for the Frogs, as TCU prepares for a Thursday night game on the 17th, at Kansas State. I think it’s safe to say we all hate Thursday night games, but at least this one isn’t a home game. The benefit of this one, though, is that TCU then has nine days before they host Texas, looking to get back in the win column after the Longhorns snapped TCU’s 4-game winning streak against Texas this season.

The game against Texas kicks off a brutal six week stretch to finish the season. After UT, the Frogs play host to Oklahoma State and Baylor, before they spend two weeks visiting Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

The November 23rd game in Norman leads into a short week for TCU, as they wrap up at home against West Virginia on Black Friday.

If all goes well, TCU could start the season 6-0 before a brutal back-half of the schedule gets underway.

All in all, the Frogs have six home games, but three come in September, just one in October, and two in November. TCU also increases the number of out-of-state games they play rather significantly, with five contests taking place outside of Texas, compared to just two this season.