TCU QB commit Max Duggan impresses at The Opening Finals

The Opening Finals took place in Frisco over the weekend, and the Horned Frogs were well-represented in the form of QB Max Duggan, a four star commit out of Council Bluffs, IA. Duggan, who holds 24 offers, announced to TCU on April 15th, and reiterated over the weekend that he is solid to the Frogs. “I am completely shut down. I’ll enroll early,” Duggan said after day one of The Opening.

Choosing the Horned Frogs wasn’t an easy decision for Max, but he’s confident in his choice, because of the coaches that he is placing his football future in. “TCU, what stuck out to me, was Coach Patterson. He’s been around forever, he’s built the culture the right way. That’s something that I want to be a part of, where the culture is already built and people aren’t going to be leaving for better jobs. Coach Cumbie, he develops his quarterbacks the way I want to be developed, and the relationships I built with the coaches and the players [made it my choice]. It felt right, it felt like home.”

The event opened with skill work featuring quarterbacks, wide receivers, and tight ends. Duggan is the QB of Team Dynamite, which also features TCU targets Jameson Williams and Marcus Washington, and he shared snaps with Ty Evans, a Colorado commit. Max is definitely doing some recruiting while in Frisco, but is careful not to put too much pressure on guys as they make one of the biggest decisions of their life. “There’s been a couple guys that I’ve spoke to. I’m not trying to get up all in their business or anything, but I am definitely willing to answer questions”.

Duggan took a while to warm up, firing high on a couple of end zone routes, but once he settled into a groove - and found some chemistry with his new targets - he looked sharp on a variety of throws. There is a lot of zip on his ball - he made the out-route throws look easy, and displayed nice touch on the deep balls. He has excellent footwork on his drop backs, and moves around fluidly in the pocket. He certainly looks the part of a big time gunslinger.

Duggan said all the right things off the field, making note of TCU’s loaded QB room (Shawn Robinson will be a junior in Max’s freshman season, Justin Rogers either a redshirt freshman or true sophomore) but reiterating that he not only welcomes the competition and challenge, but also the opportunity to make each other better, and thus, the Frogs better as a whole. “When you go into a quarterback room and you have competition, you’re going to make every guy better around you. I think that’s the best thing.”

Duggan’s competitive spirit showed up this week as well, as he earned the 11th best Football Rating score at the Nike event this weekend, the only QB in the top 20, and better than some of the most highly touted athletes in the country.

Though Max struggled in the 7on7 portion of the event, completing just 37-54 passes with three touchdowns and two interceptions, there is no reason to cool the excitement over this developing talent. Duggan is far from a finished product as a quarterback; a four sport athlete, Max has divided his time between football, basketball, baseball, and track in high school. That athleticism paid off in the combine testing portion of the weekend, but there is plenty of room for development as a pure QB. I expect that his multi-sport skills will ultimately help him to be better behind center once he gets into TCU’s off-field training program and into the QB room with Sonny Cumbie, Robinson, and Rogers. He is really solid mechanically and appears coachable, so I have no doubt he can be an impact player in Fort Worth down the line.

Check out some of his throws from the weekend as well as a photo gallery below. Frog fans should absolutely be excited for Max Duggan in Funky Town come 2019!

Grid View