It is over, everyone we are FREE! This team cannot hurt us anymore (or so I think).

It’s time to turn to the offseason, unwind, and never think about the 2021 TCU football season ever again.

Alright let’s start with the bad first.

The Bad:

-Terrible TCU run defense one more time, with feeling: The run defense gave up 279 yards on the ground to the Cyclones (242 of which belonged to Breece Hall) along with 4 rushing TD’s. While normally it’s good to see some sort of consistency from this team - the consistency came in the form of an absolute porous run defense.

-Offensive line, also consistent but not in the good way: Ya’ll know what it is. Same thing for the past 4 years. OL couldn’t get anything really going and didn’t give Duggan a ton of time in the backfield and gave up 5 sacks on the day. This could be going in the GOOD section but a certain position coach just coached his last game at TCU! Hopefully the new coaching staff (whoever this may be - writing this Sunday night where everyone and their mother is changing coaches) will be able to develop an at least AVERAGE OL.

-Rushing game couldn’t get much going either: I know we were down to our last scholarship RB on the team (along with a backup CB playing RB) and was able to eclipse the century mark in rushing yards on the day, but that number feels pretty deceiving. The Frogs couldn’t get much going on the ground all day and the scoreboard reflected that.

-Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong: TCU didn’t have a ton of turnovers, nor did they get annihilated by penalties, they just got outplayed once again. Another ass kicking to end the season. This team has gotten curb stomped by Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State over the span of 5 weeks and I think riding this far without a true HC just took its toll.

The Good:

-The season is over: Not to be the guy that celebrates bad things unironically, but in all seriousness we don’t have to think about this team for another 8 months. I’m sure everyone is all pretty exhausted from the ups and downs of the season, as well as the drama that came from it. Of course the losses made us all feel like hornets stuck in a nest that was being kicked around like a soccer ball for 13 weeks.

-A New Era is Upon Us: While I did just say we don’t have to think about this team for another 8 months, we are about to be in the Dykes era (if this changes by the time this goes live or changes shortly afterwards do not shoot me). TCU now has an offensive minded head coach that hopefully won’t be punting from the opponent’s 40 yard line anytime soon. His coaching staff appears to be off to a promising start, so we’ll have to see if they can hit the ground running in 2022. I truly do believe that TCU is only a handful of realistic tweaks to jumping back into contention in the Big 12 - even before the realignment happens - and if Dykes can make next season at least FUN as opposed to these past 4 kicks to the teeth then I think he’ll get the fans on his side. I’m genuinely excited!

He’s not Gary, for better or worse, and he’s most certainly not going to be as good of a HC as peak Gary Patterson was. That does not mean he can’t get us far and take us to the conference championship game (and maybe beyond) but for now he’s got a lot to prove to us. First step is proving that he can do a better job with the program than what has been happening the past 4 years.

Play of the Week:

Blair Conwright for 6 - the underrated receiver makes another play in his last appearance on the year.

Next Week:

Well the season is officially over so at this point there is nothing on the schedule. Down the road though I’ll do a couple of season in review posts. Whether it be recapping the season as a whole, the best of/the worst of, and maybe some random things about the Big 12 uniforms etc.

Signing off one last time for the 2021 season. We made it through everyone!