TCU News: Kramer’s squad primed for breakout, GP doesn’t care about gamblers

Football:

WVU QB Grier, TCU DE Banogu headline Preseason All-Big 12 team | NBC Sports

A year ago, these two had quite the battle against each other. They will meet again, both with much bigger expectations, in Morgantown.

The puffs of white smoke continue to fly out the chimney, and we got a big one on Wednesday with the first unveiling of a conference’s Preseason All-Big 12 team. It’s just a preseason team, yes, but it’s actual football talk about the actual season that’s actually about to happen…. in seven more weeks.

West Virginia quarterback Will Grier earned Preseason Offensive Player of the Year honors and TCU defensive end Ben Banogu garnered Defensive Player of the Year accolades. Grier is easily the pass-happy conference’s leading returning passer; his 3,490 yards from 2017 place him more than 1,500 yards ahead of the pass-happy conference’s second-leading returning passer in Texas’s Sam Ehlinger (1,915 yards). Banogu leads all returning pass rushers with 8.5 sacks in 2017.

Injury reports? TCU’s Gary Patterson doesn’t know gamblers matter to Big Ten ADs | The Star-Telegram

This is the Coach P we have come to know and love before camp starts.

“There’s a standard. Our kids know what they have to do,” Patterson said. “The air conditioner was on the other day at the indoor and a couple came in and asked me to turn it off. They understand for us to get better — the new rules when they cut back on practices, you’re not going to get as many, so you really have to bunch everything in — this group here understands what you have to do.

”We have some big games early in the schedule. I’m actually really excited about the possibilities as long as we can stay healthy going into camp, which we are right now.

”But I’m never going to be too positive about anything this time of year.”

Ohio State season preview: TCU game looms large | Toledo Blade

Only Ohio State can be thinking about winning a championship in July **eye roll***

For The Buckeyes: The trip to Texas is arguably the second most important game on Ohio State’s schedule, simply because it means so much to its national championship hopes. If the Buckeyes win a ranked nonconference game away from home – as they did at Oklahoma in 2016 – they have a critical bargaining chip for the playoff and a room for a mulligan the rest of the season.

If OSU loses to TCU, it realistically has to run the table in the ruthless Big Ten East (though it does have Penn State and Michigan at home), and win the conference championship game to make it.

Stat That Matters: 260 – the punt return yardage accumulated by TCU wide receiver Kavontae Turpin on 16 total returns, an average of 16.25 yards per return. That ranked 11th in the country, and Turpin is back for another year. He also returns kicks, and is the type of special teamer who deserves serious attention from Ohio State’s coaching staff before this game.

Prognosis: TCU is a threat, but Ohio State is more talented at nearly every position and significantly deeper. If the Buckeyes can hit a few big plays, lean on J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber, and keep Robinson in the pocket, they’re in good shape to head home at 3-0.

Basketball:

First family of Fort Worth basketball still shining after careers at TCU, Kansas | The Star-Telegram

This is a great story on a trio of brothers who are some of the best to come out of Fort Worth, including one who starred for the Frogs.

Kevin really wanted to go far away from home. So, he verbally committed to UCLA before ultimately signing with UC-Berkeley. Almost immediately, he deduced he might not be a good fit for head coach Ben Braun and decided to transfer, thus costing himself a year of eligibility.

TCU had always shown interest in him and, after a campus visit and a few conversations with then-head coach Neil Dougherty (who passed away in 2011), he decided to go to a place where he felt wanted.

He made the right choice. Kevin averaged more than 13 points per game in his three seasons as a Horned Frog, earning Third-Team All-Mountain West Conference honors in 2008 and Second-Team All-MWC honors in 2009.

Volleyball:

TCU hopes to build off late-season success to make a 2018 NCAA run | Volleyball Mag

Jill Kramer in right on the verge of building a powerhouse in Fort Worth. Is this the year they turn the corner?

Last year was tough, but Kramer thinks the Horned Frogs, while young, could be in the NCAA discussion again in 2018.

If nothing, she and the seniors — Walsh, MacLean, Martin and Mexican middle Paty Valle — have been through it together.

“When you come in as an alumnus you can say that I’ve been in your shoes and I know what this place is about,” Kramer said. “And we all want the same thing for this program, so let’s get to work. How are you going to leave your legacy?

“That was the easiest thing for me to get across to that group and they bought in and followed us from the beginning. It was really, really great who they trusted us from the beginning.”