TCU News: The Frogs lose a promising QB to injury

Football:

Injuries force TCU backup QB Matthew Baldwin to end his football playing days | The Star-Telegram

This is such a bummer for Baldwin, and obviously hurts TCU’s depth.

Baldwin’s mother, Mindy, said it was a difficult decision for the family to make. At the end of the day, though, three knee surgeries and a nagging back injury forced Baldwin to move on from football.

“We thought this break would be the perfect chance to get his back well,” Mindy Baldwin said. “He did PT, various shots, a nerve ablation, but nothing has worked.

“We are all so heartbroken that Matthew won’t be suiting up this year, but we will be cheering those guys on.”

Baldwin and coach Gary Patterson met earlier this month and came to the conclusion.

For TCU, losing Baldwin is a blow to the quarterback depth chart. He was the most highly-touted quarterback on the roster behind starter Max Duggan.

Is TCU still in contention for Nebraska transfer JD Spielman? | Horned Frog Blitz

The Frogs could really use a veteran, experienced receiver.

A native of Minnesota and the son of Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, many were predicting that Spielman would return home and be part of the PJ Fleck’s program at Minnesota. However, according to folks up in Minnesota, the Gophers are not pursuing Spielman.

Spielman is in limbo right now in terms of his eligibility for next season. He did not graduate from Nebraska so if he was to transfer to an FBS program, he would have to get a waiver for immediate eligibility for the 2020 season.

Sources have told HFB that Spielman has 11 hours to graduate.

Around Campus:

Students will have the option to take fall semester online | TCU 360

The school intends to be on campus, but for students not comfortable or able to return, this is a good option. That being said... faculty aren’t given that same choice.

The provost said she was not comfortable with having courses with more than 40 people meet in person.

For courses with fewer than 40 people, she expressed confidence that there is a space on campus where the class can be socially distanced in accordance with health guidelines.

“Our mission is teaching in a classroom,” she said.

This prompted some pushback from faculty at the meeting, who asked why some professors are certified to teach fully online courses if classroom teaching is the university’s mission.

Dahlberg said the goal is to limit online courses to 30% to 40% of all courses and avoid a tipping point that may lead to fewer students paying tuition.

“Students at TCU right now did not enroll for an online education,” she said.

TCU faculty expressing lack of confidence in university leadership amid pandemic | The Star-Telegram

This developing situation isn’t athletics related, but it’s critical to the overall health of the campus.

“At this point, I tabled the discussion indefinitely to give the Faculty Senate executive committee time to figure out what the next steps should be,” said Sean Atkinson, an associate professor of music theory and chair of TCU Faculty Senate. “I’m meeting (Thursday) with constituents all over campus — other faculty, staff, students — to ensure that all the voices on campus have a chance to say what they need to say about this.

“No one is taking this lightly. Everyone has a really heavy heart that this is the discussion that we have to be having right now. The TCU community, the entire community of students, faculty and staff, we really want TCU to be the best it can be and want to make sure we have a real voice in decisions that shape our future. That’s really the crux of the problem.”

TCU reports 25 more students test positive for coronavirus | The Star-Telegram

Wear. A. Mask.

An exact number of how many TCU students and employees were tested is not known.

Of the 64 cases, eight have direct on-campus impact: three students, three employees and two contractors. The indirect cases include 54 students and two employees. The group of indirect cases includes students who may live outside the DFW area.

Direct impact is characterized as a person being on TCU’s campus within two days of symptom onset or receiving a positive test.