TCU News: “I think this might be by far the best running back group we have as a total group.”

Football:

NCAA approves model to start college football on time as TCU, others add safety measures | The Star-Telegram

This is a great sign for the hope of fall sports on college campuses.

“This is the culmination of a significant amount of collaboration in our effort to find the best solution for Division I football institutions,” said Shane Lyons, West Virginia’s athletic director who is the chair of the NCAA’s Division I Football Oversight Committee. “Our student-athletes, conference commissioners, coaches and health and safety professionals helped mold the model we are proposing.”

Several programs have brought in players to begin voluntary workouts this month. Several schools have announced players testing positive for coronavirus, but every school has laid out plans to handle those situations.

TCU hopes its next wave can keep a dip from turning into something more dire | The Athletic

Oh look, The Athletic remembered that TCU is still a thing. But this is legitimately an exceptional preview.

TCU will be young but not necessarily inexperienced at cornerback due to injuries that forced young players into action a year ago. As Patterson put it, “It’s the position we need to grow up the most.” The Frogs need to replace Jeff Gladney, who had been an anchor on the TCU defense since the latter half of the 2016 season. Both starting spots will be open competitions. Expect sophomore Kee’yon Stewart, who earned six starts as a true freshman, to come into camp with an edge. Patterson is thrilled to have big, speedy redshirt junior Noah Daniels back at corner after he suffered a season-ending injury in fall camp that required surgery. Sophomore Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson — L.T.’s nephew — has a chance to start, too; he played in all 12 games last year and earned his first career start against Baylor. Junior Tony Wallace, who redshirted last year and came to TCU from Independence Community College, could round out the group.

Around Athletics:

TCU’s Ukaegbu to take part in NCAA’s Pathway Program, which grooms future ADs | The Star-Telegram

If you’ve ever met Ike, you’ve undoubtably come away impressed. He’s an athletics admin star in the making. This is an unbelievable opportunity for a deserving person.

“An opportunity like this is going to expose me to other aspects of athletics outside of compliance,” said Ukaegbu, who has been at TCU since May 2014. “It’ll help me immensely to hopefully get that opportunity to become an athletic director. I’m grateful and excited to participate in the program.”

The program is designed to prepare senior-level administrators to become athletic directors and conference commissioners. The participants are selected by groups to promote cultural diversity and equity.

Ukaegbu, 35, is the only representative from the Big 12. Angela Marin, the associate athletic director for compliance and senior woman administrator at UT-Dallas, is also part of the program.

Swimming:

RETURNING CONFERENCE POINTS: TEXAS IS M. BIG 12 FAVORITES, TCU YOUTH RISES | Swim Swam

Swimming might not be a TCU sport you’re thinking about, but this is a program on the rise.

We’ll take a bit of a bold call and pick TCU over West Virginia, which would be the first time since 2015 that the Horned Frogs beat the Mountaineers for second in the conference. TCU’s freshmen last year outpaced West Virginia’s by a massive margin – TCU freshmen scored 280 and West Virginia freshmen 108. WVU loses 46 of those freshmen points from the outgoing Armstrong. TCU’s scoring was really centered on its freshmen and sophomores, and we could see a big leap there from young swimmers adjusting to the college level.