Johnny Hodges in the upcoming game vs. Michigan Wolverines
This past weekend saw the end of the 2022 college football season and for Johnny Hodges and the TCU Horned Frogs they had a pretty good go of things all things considered. Ending the season with a 12-1 record, which breaks down to 9-0 for the conference and 3-1 against other teams outside of the Big 12, unfortunately picking up their only loss of the season this weekend against the Kansas State Wildcats, a 31-28 overtime loss. But winning 12 of their 13 games so far this season is something they can absolutely shout about.
But, there are still potentially two more games left to play, of course there is the Fiesta Bowl, which is the game we’re specifically here to talk about today and then potentially the College Football Playoff National Championship. Where, if they were to get through the Michigan Wolverines who went 13-0 this season overall, they’d face off against the winner of the Peach Bowl. The 2022 Peach Bowl will be the Ohio State Buckeyes playing off against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Johnny Hodges has been quite the revelation for the TCU Horned Frogs this season. Source: TCU Athletics
Today, I’d like to take a look at how the Horned Frogs have played this season, particularly Johnny Hodges. But before we get to him I want to point something out, there were a total of 22 Horned Frogs players who received recognition for their performances this season in the Big 12. Including Quarterback Max Duggan who was chosen as the Offensive Player of the Year. Special Teams player of the year went to Derius Davis and then Johnny Hodges was selected as the Defensive Newcomer of the year. Not only that but Sonny Dykes was chosen unanimously as Coach of the Year. Fun fact, the Dykes are only the 3rd father-son duo in college football history to win the Coach of the Year award, with Sonny's dad Spike winning it for Texas Tech in 1996. Here is a list of the All-Big 12 recipients from TCU, taken from gofrogs.com
TCU All-Big 12 Recipients
Individual Awards
Max Duggan, Offensive Player of the Year
Derius Davis, Special Teams Player of the Year
Johnny Hodges, Defensive Newcomer of the Year
Sonny Dykes*, Coach of the Year
First Team
Alan Ali, OL
Steve Avila, OL
Derius Davis, KR/PR
Max Duggan*, QB
Quentin Johnston*, WR
Griffin Kell, PK
Kendre Miller, RB
Josh Newton, CB
Dee Winters, LB
Second Team
Johnny Hodges, LB
Honorable Mention
Taye Barber, WR
Millard Bradford, DB
Bud Clark, DB
Andrew Coker, OL
Brandon Coleman, OL
Derius Davis, WR
Jamoi Hodge, LB
Dylan Horton, DL
Jordy Sandy, P
Jared Wiley, TE
Alan Ali, Offensive Newcomer of the Year
Steve Avila, Offensive Lineman of the Year
Tre'Vius Hodges-Tomlinson, Defensive Player of the Year
Damonic Williams, Defensive Freshman of the Year
Johnny Hodges started his college football career over at Navy, where he actually swapped to Football from Lacrosse. Before signing for TCU, Hodges applied for 60 different colleges and only heard back from Northwestern who said he "wasn’t good enough". For a player with 50 tackles in 2021, that’s pretty wild. 2022 Big 12 coach of the year Sonny Dykes, however, recognized his talent.
Boy did that turn out to be a fantastic pickup. This season Johnny has seriously run the show. He upped his numbers from 2021 where he had 50 total tackles (22 solo, 28 assisted) and 1 sack, to 76 tackles (37 solo, 39 assisted) and 2 sacks this season. Helping the Horned Frogs to an excellent 12-1 season, keeping things tight at the back as the team only conceded a total of 325 points. Not bad at all.
This season, his best performance came when the Horned Frogs dominated Texas which only converted one of thirteen third downs. They held the Longhorns to only 3 offensive points and 199 yards, which was a season-low for the Longhorns. Not only that but they limited the Longhorns rushing to 28 yards. The question remains, can he continue this fantastic form in the postseason?
With the postseason starting on 30th December, what do the experts think about the upcoming fixtures? Starting with the Fiesta Bowl, we checked over a few of the legal sports betting apps and sites in Maryland to see what the best odds where and it’s looking like most sportsbooks are giving this one to Michigan Wolverines, the best odds we found were 19/2, a $5 stake on the Wolverines would return $6.90, however if you think the TCU Horned Frogs will bounce back from their season closing loss, you can pick them up for somewhere in the region of 5/2, which would see a $16 return from the same $5 stake.
While we’re here, we might as well take a quick look at the Peach Bowl odds too, the Ohio State Buckeyes finished their season with an 11-1 record, with their only loss coming against the Michigan Wolverines in November. The Georgia Bulldogs however went 13-0 this season and that is reflected in the odds, the best odds we found for the Georgia Bulldogs were in the region of 9/20, which would return $7.25 from a $5 stake and then if you fancy the underdogs, the Buckeyes can be had for 11/5, that would see a $14 return from $5. Not too bad.
This is what it all boils down to, the College Football Playoff National Championship trophy. Can TCU bring it home? Source: ESPN
Okay then, Frog fans. What’s the thought process here, do we think we can do it? Are TCU going to the College Football Playoff National Championship? Or is this all she wrote, an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl and then celebrate the season we’ve had? Of course the team wants more and they won’t be happy unless they bring home that trophy? It’s going to be quite the challenge as the Georgia Bullfrogs look to be the first team to go back-to-back since they changed the trophy in 2014. It has been a fantastic season and things could still get better. We’ve got our fingers and toes crossed for you TCU!
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