TCU’s trip to Orlando started looking familiar in a hurry.
The Horned Frogs piled up too many penalties, couldn’t find enough rhythm on offense and watched their defense spring leaks at the wrong times in a 21-13 loss to Central Florida on Saturday at Acrisure Bounce House. It was the same kind of self-inflicted mess that haunted them in the season-opening defeat to North Carolina, only this time it came against a UCF team starting a backup quarterback.
“I’m very, very disappointed in our performance today,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “I didn’t see it coming, I thought we would play better.
I thought we were starting to develop a little bit of confidence offensively. And then we just had a really bad performance today.”
TCU had a late opening to make things interesting. Trailing 21-13 in the fourth quarter, the Horned Frogs moved into position to tie after senior quarterback Jaden Craig hit senior wide receiver Jordan Dwyer for a 29-yard gain to reach midfield with 4:43 left.
Craig pushed the offense to the UCF 19, but the drive collapsed from there. A free rusher came through to sack him on second down, turning it into third-and-17, and then Craig was pressured again and floated a pass too high.
UCF safety Antione Jackson intercepted it with 1:48 to play.
That turnover finished off TCU’s third of the day and snapped the Horned Frogs’ two-game winning streak. Now they have to regroup fast, with No. 9 BYU coming to Fort Worth next week.
Penalties kept sabotaging TCU at every turn. The Horned Frogs matched a season high with 11, and the damage showed up in the biggest spots.
After halftime, TCU drove to the red zone on its first possession and looked ready to seize momentum. Instead, back-to-back penalties - a false start and a holding call on senior left tackle Ben Taylor-Whitfield - stalled the push.
Craig was then sacked on the next snap, and TCU ended up settling for a field goal to trim the margin to 14-13.
The defense wasn’t clean either. On UCF’s next possession, the Knights reached the TCU 27 and then benefited from three penalties on five plays, helping them march to the TCU 3. Fort Worth native and former Keller Fossil Ridge standout Landen Chambers finished it from the 1 to make it 21-13 with 12:25 left.
TCU finished with almost three times as many penalties as UCF, which had four, and Dykes said the number told the story.
“We just made so many mistakes, the biggest issue is we had 11 penalties,” Dykes said. “It was obviously a critical thing in the game.”
There was at least one bright spot for TCU: Dwyer looked like himself again. After missing the first three games of the season, the senior receiver returned to the lineup and wasted little time showing why his absence mattered. He wasn’t on the field for the offense’s first two snaps, and when he finally entered on third down, sophomore slot receiver Ed Small fumbled a possible first down that led to a UCF touchdown.
Once Dwyer got rolling, though, he changed the feel of the offense. On TCU’s second possession, he caught a 43-yard fly route against tight coverage for his first grab of the day.
He later made a sideline catch with one foot in bounds on a high throw from Craig. By halftime, Dwyer had three catches for 64 yards, and he finished with five receptions for 100 yards.
“He’s different and it shows up,” Craig said. “You can just tell, he’s a stud. It was really good to have him back.”
Even with Dwyer back, TCU still couldn’t get the ground game moving. The rushing attack was stuck in neutral for the second straight week, and it was even less effective against UCF than it had been against Arkansas State.
The Horned Frogs managed only 32 rushing yards in the first half and averaged just 2.1 yards per carry. UCF kept shifting its defensive front just before the snap, and when it wasn’t doing that, it used stunts to blow up run plays.
TCU didn’t have a run longer than 10 yards until midway through the third quarter. Junior running back Jeremy Payne fought for 48 yards on 15 carries, but there was never enough consistent push to matter. Without a run threat, UCF was able to heat up Craig, who was sacked twice in the second half and under pressure far more often than that.
Dykes said the problems started up front.
“Gave up too much penetraton at the point of the attack,” Dykes said. “We didn’t do a good job cutting guys off on the backside.
Had to drop back and throw the ball too much and put pressure on us... We gotta be able to run the ball and take pressure off our quarterback.
We just consistently could not run the football.”
The secondary, meanwhile, had a rough day after looking much better against Arkansas State. Facing backup quarterback Keyone Jenkins, TCU’s defensive backs struggled to hold up early. Jenkins had thrown for just 86 yards against Georgia State, but he was sharp against the Horned Frogs, completing 19 of 20 passes for 160 yards.
UCF repeatedly worked the middle of the field, and the big strike came late in the second quarter. On a pivotal third-and-15 after TCU’s pass rush had pressured Jenkins on consecutive plays, tight end Caden Piening slipped free up the seam for a 19-yard touchdown that put the Knights ahead 14-10.
Scott Frost’s game plan made life easier for Jenkins, with quick throws underneath and chances to attack TCU’s safeties in space. The Horned Frogs came in determined to make Jenkins beat them by taking away UCF’s run game, and they did that part well.
UCF finished with just 106 rushing yards. But the pass defense couldn’t match it, and that proved costly.
“I thought he did a good job, he made some really good throws in some difficult situations,” Dykes said. “I thought he did a good job taking care of the football. I think that was the biggest thing.”
In Other News...
Josh Hoover Is Bringing TCU Fans Old Concern To Indiana
Josh Hoovers move from TCU to Indiana has given Hoosier fans a familiar kind of quarterback debate, one that felt like it might have been left behind after Fernando Mendozas departure. Hoover has shown enough to keep the offense moving, including stretches of effective work against Northwestern, and Indianas running game has helped cover for some of the unevenness behind him.
Still, the passing game has not consistently looked like a reliable weekly threat, and that is where the concern starts to creep in. For Indiana, the question is whether Hoover can tighten up his consistency and deliver the steadier version of the offense the Hoosiers need, or whether the same doubts TCU fans once knew are about to follow him into a bigger spotlight. [Read more 🡒]
TCU Opens Big 12 Play With A Depth Test Fans Will Notice
Big 12 play arrives with the kind of availability report that can shape a game before the first snap. TCUs latest listing for the matchup with UCF shows nine Horned Frogs out, a group that includes both offensive linemen and defensive players, while a few previously questionable players have moved to probable. For a team trying to settle into conference play, that kind of turnover puts the spotlight on depth as much as game plan.
UCF is dealing with its own losses, with leading tackler Lewis Carter and starting quarterback Alonza Barnett III both ruled out. That leaves this opener looking less like a clean conference reset and more like a roster-management test on both sides, where the teams that absorb the absences best may gain the early edge. [Read more 🡒]
TCU Let Another Frustrating Big 12 Opener Slip Away
TCUs Big 12 opener turned into another frustrating afternoon, one where a promising start faded under the weight of missed chances and a defense that could not get enough stops. UCF walked out with a 21-13 win, and the Knights had plenty of reasons to feel good about how they controlled the game late, especially with Keyone Jenkins nearly perfect through the air and the defense coming up with multiple takeaways.
The Horned Frogs spent the second half trying to find any rhythm, but the offense was held to just three points after halftime and never fully recovered from the momentum swings. UCF improved to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play, while TCU was left to sort through a loss that felt avoidable for long stretches before the final drive put it out of reach. [Read more 🡒]