LISTEN! KillerFrogs Podcast Episode 175: Cooking Ribs On The Skillet
In this story:
The Frogs bring home The Iron Skillet with a 42-34 win over the Mustangs in Coach Sonny Dykes' return to The Hilltop. Shannon Brazzell, Nathan Hernandez, Nick Howard, Ryann Zeller, and Sean Foushee break down what they liked from the game, go over some of the surprises across the Big 12, and look forward to the 11 a.m. kickoff against the Sooners in Fort Worth this Saturday.
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56:40
The podcast begins with Sean asking Shannon about the performance of the TCU defense, who “did something we haven’t seen against SMU for the last couple of years, and that’s that bend-don’t-break philosophy . . . this defense is starting to kind of come together.” Shannon responds: “I’m loving our defensive play . . . the defense played a solid game. SMU’s quarterback is a great quarterback and he didn’t have his day with us . . . We forced him to throw throws we hadn’t seen him try to throw all year. The game was a lot more TCU than SMU. It’s going to be exciting here for our Frogs, gonna be a big year.”
Nathan agrees the defense “did great. They’re swarming the ball. It’s exciting to see, and that’s what gives me the most hope because we’re going to need that. Big 12 has a lot of offensive power, so we got to get hats on the ball, people who are free got to make a play, can’t have a lot of missed tackles. Towards the end of the game, they got a little tired and missed some tackles, which led to a couple of SMU’s scores to keep it close. I understand, our defense was on the field a lot and it was apparently so hot on the field to melt a play clock. So I’ll give them a little bit of credit. But as it starts to cool off a little bit, we’ll be all right. We just can’t play against the refs and the team.”
Sean moves the discussion to the game day experience for the fans, pointing out that, especially on Twitter, people complained of “water running out. Concessions being terrible. It seemed that SMU was not prepared at all for a sold out stadium. And I think what we saw on TV it wasn’t a sell out.” Nathan argues it was about “80 percent capacity the whole game.” Sean asks Nick if TCU has matured a bit on the defensive side of the ball, to which Nick replies: “Definitely, especially with all the changes they’re going through. It’s only the third game. They just continue to adjust. The D-line is holding its ground; I’d like to see more pressure from them, but that’s what you get when you switch to a 3-3-5, more of a plug-and-play type of defense than a rotational flow, which was the 4-2-5. I think Coach Gillespie is doing a good job sending some blitzes up the middle, some pressure up the middle, which caused some trouble for Mordecai . . . and also with the clock malfunction, they charge all them students 80-thousand a year and they can’t get that fixed?”
The discussion moves to offense. Sean brings Ryann into the discussion by saying: “We’re putting up a lot of points and this was not exactly our starting quarterback to start the season, and Chandler Morris is expected to be ready to go for Oklahoma. So Ryann, big question from TCU fans, who starts Oklahoma? Is it Max Duggan’s team or does Morris get a chance to start?” “That’s probably the hardest question ever to answer," Ryann replies, "because you want to get a player out there who can give the team the best opportunity to win and that may be the quarterback they have no film on, but then again Duggan is not throwing interceptions like he did last year. He’s doing great and you hate to take the wind out of his sails when he’s done everything you’ve asked him to do. It comes down to who gives the team the best opportunity to win. And then it comes down to sitting them down and the coach explaining everything so there’s no hard feelings. I honestly don’t know who it is. I think you put the best quarterback out there to win that particular game. I don’t know who that is.” Nick, being a big Max fan, says “it’s a big improvement from last year. I’d like to see Chandler Morris, if he is able to come back, to get revenge against his former team."
Later, Sean points out the problem of making any big predictions because “if you watch any football, over the course of this season you know that anything is possible. And if you watch Big 12 football, especially the last couple of weeks, you know that it is nothing if not unpredictable . . . Shout out to Kansas. Did anybody think Kansas at this point would at the top of the Big 12?” “Not I,” Shannon volunteers. “They showed glimpses last year,” Nick suggests. Sean concludes “it’s anybody’s game, this season. The Oklahoma game, in Norman, against Kansas State is proof of that. I wasn’t expecting Kansas State to win. And to see Oklahoma lose, especially in a week with the Frogs on Saturday here in Fort Worth, I know there are a lot of fans out there really worried, but I see it a different way. I think Oklahoma’s vulnerable, and I think these Frogs can take it to them.” Nick thinks it will be “a good matchup. A very good defensive matchup. They’ve had some big improvements, TCU has some big improvements. I could see it being a low-scoring game. But I know the Frogs have a bitter taste from how last year went. So I can definitely see TCU trying to come out on top this year.”
Ultimately, everyone agrees that Big 12 football is much like last year’s Big 12 basketball season. When it comes to what might happen next, who wins and who loses, nobody knows anything.
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