LISTEN! KillerFrogs Podcast Episode 173: The Dykes Era Begins
TCU began the Dykes era on a high, winning at Colorado 38-13. Nathan Hernandez, Shannon Brazzell, and Sean Foushee discuss what they liked about the Frogs' season opener and what they expect to see this season.
The Podcast begins by pointing out the game began a little rough for the Frogs. As Sean says: “The first half began a little sketchy but overall I felt really good about the game.”
Listen to the Entire Podcast Here
59:18
Defense becomes an immediate focal point. Sean asks Shannon, “a defensive guy” how he felt about the defense. “As a defensive player that shares the history of TCU’s defense, it was really disheartening over the years when the defense isn’t there . . . that being said, I was impressed. Damonic (Williams), I believe, the freshman who is 17 years old. My God! What a beast. You’re going to have to double team that guy. As a linebacker seeing linebackers, that’s what we had. That’s our formula. You’ve got to have a linebacker to run your defense. For me, coming out of that game, I said that defense is solid across the board. If we can stay healthy, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with. We were fast! I mean we were fast! If we can stay healthy, we’re going to be good.”
Nathan agrees that the defense of the past was disheartening, but the new defense is capable of turning that around. “The thing that got me excited, what made me confident in this defense is we had hats on bodies. Every year we’ve had one or two guys wallowing. Now we had everyone swarming the football. When the running back got the ball, it wasn’t two seconds until there were at least five jerseys around him. And that’s the biggest thing that got me excited. I love seeing that. That’s what got me so disheartened for so long. People looked like they didn’t want to be there. But they looked hungry on Friday night.”
The subject moves to special teams briefly before the guys discuss offense. As Sean put it: “The tone of the season was set of the opening kickoff with a face mask. At my house, things got thrown up in the air, we were like ‘great, here we go again.’ But immediately right after that Davis takes a punt to the house and I tell you what from that point on, special teams . . . I wasn’t worried at all.”
Nathan replies: “I was actually kind of happy with the face mask. It showed, to me, they have a little fight in them.” Shannon says: “We’ve always had some special guys . . . more than not, special fast guys if we can just be perfect on one play, it can change the dynamics of our season.”
(Of Derius Davis): “This guy can go. If you give him a chance, and you don’t make a holding penalty, he’s going to be the guy that changes the game for us. We’re going to need that guy for us in the Big 12 to take us to that next level. We’re going to have to score points on special teams. That guy is special. That little big man is special.” They all agree that Davis will break KaVontae Turpin’s record, unless all the other teams in the Big 12 watch the video and decide not to punt to him.
The group shifts to offense. Chandler Morris had a little bit of a shaky start, according to Foushee. Brazzell says he likes what he’s seen from all three. “Morris had a shaky start, but it started picking up. We all got to see what every one of them can do. Let’s say Duggan starts. He could have started slow and we’d have that conversation. Bottom line, I like what we saw from all three quarterbacks. Now, the negative thing to me is we’ve got to make a decision. Go with a quarterback and roll with it so we can develop that deep chemistry. But we don’t want to rotate quarterbacks. ” Foushee says: “Let’s not do quarterbacks by committee.”
More generally, Foushee says: “One thing I was really excited to see that we haven’t seen in seven or eight years was a set with two running backs behind the quarterback, who can also run, creating a triple threat. We’ve been asking for something like this for a while.” Nathan says: “We’ve always had a good job of having a solid group of running backs. We’ve always had three running backs that all had the potential to be starters. It’s good to see it. But, I gotta make sure they’re gonna use it. We’ve always had it but we haven’t always used it. This can be a running team if it needs to be. You can’t be at 3rd and 2 and throw it. If you have them, use them.”
They conclude with an optimistic prognostication for the season. Nathan says: “Everybody’s bought into the process.” Sean says he would give “everyone an A” for the first game of the season. Shannon agrees and asserts: “This is literally going to come down to health, coaching and who can make adjustments fast. That’s what it’s going to come down to in the Big 12. I just feel very comfortable where we are, given our history, given the coaching changes. I think it's a hell of a start. I love the energy. I love the kids responding to the new coach. I love what I saw.”
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