TCU is entering a key moment in fall camp, and Saturday’s first scrimmage should tell the Horned Frogs a lot about where they stand.
The team has already gone through multiple full-padded practices and some game-simulation work this week, but Sonny Dykes said the next step is a lot closer to the real thing. The goal on Saturday is to strip away as much of the coaching presence as possible and put players in live, pressure-heavy situations.
“We’ll do some live stuff tomorrow and some situational work,” head coach Sonny Dykes said Friday. “We’ll get the coaches off the field and just work on communication.
We’ll do everything we can to create as many game-like situations as possible just to get our players comfortable playing football and understand the importance of those situations. We’ll do a lot of that tomorrow.”
A big part of that evaluation will center on TCU’s new offense, which Dykes said has taken a noticeable step forward in practice this week. The improvement, in his view, goes beyond splash plays.
“It’s been good, there’s a maturity and an expectation to go out and to perform at a high level,” Dykes said. “We’re gonna make mistakes and there were some we made today, but we’ve got to continue to do things the right way. You don’t worry about the outcome, focus on the process, keep your head and do things the right way, not most of the time, all the time.
“I think our percentage of doing things properly is better. I think we’re more disciplined, I think there’s a lot more accountability.”
That discipline will be under a sharper microscope Saturday with referees expected to be on hand. TCU has spent camp stressing the need to cut down on pre-snap penalties on offense and coverage mistakes on defense, and the scrimmage will give the staff a better sense of how much progress has actually been made.
“It boils down to which team is going to be the most disciplined, which team is going to execute the best under pressure,” Dykes said. “I felt like those we were areas we needed to improve.
And the way you do that, I think, is you have to lead with discipline. You’ve got to have elite accountability in order to have elite discipline.
And so what’s what I’ve been really pleased with.”
Saturday could also start to separate some of the battles that are still unsettled. Linebacker is one of the biggest ones, especially with the first full tackle practice giving the staff a real look at who might start alongside redshirt junior Max Carroll.
Senior transfer Michael Short is still the leading candidate, while redshirt junior Michael Teason remains out of practice. Anthony Williams and Hudson Hooper could also use the scrimmage to make a move.
“I’ve seen some good and some bad, kind of what you expect,” Dykes said. “I think Max has been consistent up to this point, I think he’s playing with some confidence. You could tell he’s got experience of playing in this defense and banked a lot of reps.
“(The linebackers) are a group of talented guys. Teason’s been on the shelf for a little bit, hopefully we’ll get him back relatively soon.
But there’s a number of that have the talent to do it. Right now consistency isn’t where it needs to be and that’s why we practice every day.”
Tight end is another spot worth watching, and junior Kari Ashley has become the top vertical threat in that group. Dykes likes the size and ball skills Ashley brings, but he also made it clear there’s still a long way to go.
“Kari is a unique guy, great size and ability and length, and he tracks the ball exceptionally well for somebody his size,” Dykes said. “He’s making a big jump from junior college to TCU, that’s a significant jump. There’s a different level of expectations, accountability and consistency he’s got to have.
“He’s improved drastically from the spring, but it’s still not where we want it to be because he’s capable of being a really, really good and elite player.”
For Ashley, Short and plenty of others on the roster, Saturday is more than just another practice. It’s a checkpoint on the road to the season opener against North Carolina, and a chance to show how much this team has already absorbed - and how much is still left to clean up.
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