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Football:
TCU football gearing up for June 15 return, players excited for some normalcy | The Star-Telegram
The players seem confident and that’s what matters.
TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati hasn’t heard any concerns from football players about returning to campus for voluntary workouts on June 15. Instead, Donati said, there is a sense of excitement.
“Everything I have heard has had a ton of genuine excitement about getting back to some normalcy,” Donati said.
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TCU plans to welcome its players back to campus on June 15, the first day the Big 12 is allowing its schools to do so. Oklahoma announced Tuesday that it wouldn’t welcome players back until July 1.
Every program and school is free to manage and handle the circumstances as they feel best fit amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With the signing of Zach Evans, Richardson was the odd man out.
Dominic Richardson is no longer part of TCU’s 2020 football class, coach Gary Patterson confirmed on Wednesday.
Richardson, a three-star prospect out of Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City, has been granted his full release from his national letter of intent. He’ll be able to pursue any other school.
Richardson was ranked as the No. 52 running back prospect nationally and No. 8 recruit from Oklahoma by 247Sports. He helped Bishop McGuinness to the Class 5A state championship game last season.
TCU safety Ar’Darius Washington is a game changer | Pro Football Focus
Paired with Moehrig, Washington is part of the most dynamic secondary in the conference.
Washington’s awareness, ability to read the quarterback’s eyes, and route concepts on a given play are elite. Below is a Cover 2 play. Washington flips his hips and cuts across the field to undercut this route for an interception. It is such an incredibly impressive play, as his backpedal and footwork have to be incredibly smooth to allow this to happen. When a defensive back, especially a safety, has these types of instincts and ball skills, they are an incredibly valuable part of the defense.
This one is all route anticipation. Washington mirrors the receiver’s stem and keeps himself square so he can pull the trigger and come downhill when needed. With a slight inside shade, Washington does a great job of not losing that leverage and, most importantly, not over pursuing on the route after it looks like the receiver could carry this vertically. The receiver gets bumped and fails to attack Washington’s leverage, but still, Washington reads the receiver’s hips and breaks on this ball to make an impressive interception. That speaks to his fluidity, click and close, and ball skills as well.
A redshirt freshman being this keen on route combinations is rare. Washington can change his reads and process through a route combination so quickly. Notice how he is focused on the slot fade here, but immediately recalibrates for the hitch and goes over the middle of the field.
We have heard this story before...
When you study Oklahoma State’s pre-Bedlam schedule, you’ll notice one prominent trip hazard: the Oct. 3 Big 12 opener at TCU.
Gary Patterson watched his TCU defense give up 223 rushing yards to OSU’s Chuba Hubbard last season. Never before had anyone run for as many as 200 yards against a Patterson defense.
In a 34-27 Cowboy victory — played only a couple of days after OSU wide receiver Tylan Wallace sustained a season-ending knee injury on the practice field — Hubbard averaged 11.2 yards per attempt and scored on a 92-yard dash.
After that stumble in Stillwater, Patterson’s squad finished 5-7. For a coach who in 2002-17 had 11 seasons of at least 10 wins, 5-7 must have been sickening.