TCU’s captains decided it was time to get everybody in the same room.
After the Horned Frogs stumbled through a 21-13 loss at Central Florida in their Big 12 opener, the team’s leaders held a players-only meeting Monday as the season starts to feel like it needs a course correction. TCU is 2-2 overall and 0-1 in league play, and No.
10 BYU is next, coming to Fort Worth for a 6 p.m. Saturday night game.
The captains at the center of that move are senior quarterback Jaden Craig, senior offensive tackle Ben Taylor-Whitfield, senior safety Jamel Johnson, senior linebacker Hudson Hooper and senior defensive tackle Ansel Din-Mbuh.
“We got together to talk about the state of the program and things that we saw as leaders,” Craig said Tuesday. “We just addressed a lot of those things to make sure that everybody on the team has 100% confidence in what coaches are doing and what we’re doing.
That led to a player only meeting and I think that went really went well. That’s just one step in the right direction, we’re looking to come together as a team.”
The need for that kind of reset comes after a start that has gone sideways in games TCU expected to handle. The Horned Frogs were favored in losses to UCF and North Carolina, and both opponents still found a way to beat them despite their own issues. North Carolina went through a tumultuous offseason that included the departure of its general manager and defensive coordinator, while UCF was down to a backup quarterback after its starter was injured.
For TCU, the result has been a little soul-searching before the season even reaches its midpoint. Players-only meetings can signal tension inside a locker room, but veteran defensive tackle Markis Deal said this one felt necessary rather than dramatic.
“I think it was big,” senior defensive tackle Markis Deal said. “A lot of the players - you got guys that don’t want to speak their mind in front of coaches and stuff like that. So to get in front of the team and have everybody speak their minds and understand what are people are feeling so that we can break it down together and all become one.”
That player-driven approach fits what Sonny Dykes has wanted since he arrived in Fort Worth. He has long pushed for the program to be led from within, a model that previously leaned on players such as Max Duggan, Steve Avila and Quentin Johnston.
This year’s version of that leadership has been forced to take on more responsibility earlier than anyone wanted, but Dykes said he was encouraged by the way the captains stepped up.
“I think those guys took initiative,” Dykes said. “They felt like we haven’t performed as well as we need to.
They understood that, we obviously did not need to point that out to them. Our guys are highly invested.
As I’ve said from the beginning, I like this team. I like the fact that they really like each, they care about each other.
So I was pleased that those guys wanted to get together and talk about some things and try to do everything within our power to play better.”
The coaching staff is looking inward, too. Dykes said he and his staff are reviewing everything inside the program to figure out what has caused the sluggish start and what needs to change.
“We’re disappointed, we’re hurt, but we realized if we sit around and pout about it, that’s not going to make it better,” Dykes said. “We’re obviously evaluating every aspect of our program, trying to figure out why we’re not playing as well as we need to play to win games.”
Before the season, Dykes made it clear that TCU’s path in the kind of tight games it expected to play would come down to two things: winning the turnover battle and cutting down on penalties. So far, that formula has not held.
Against UCF and North Carolina, TCU piled up 22 penalties and four turnovers in one-score games. That kind of self-inflicted damage is enough to sink any team, and it has left the Horned Frogs scrambling to clean things up quickly.
“We’ve got to figure out as a staff and investigate every reason why that’s been the case because it’s been a huge point of emphasis for us since January,” Dykes said.
With players and coaches both digging in, TCU is trying to pull itself together before the season drifts any further from the goals it had in mind, including a run at a Big 12 title game appearance.
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For TCU fans, the bigger takeaway is how quickly the pressure points in the Big 12 keep shifting from week to week. The conferences upcoming slate includes several matchups with clear ranking implications, along with game times and broadcast details already in place, so the path ahead is not just about wins and losses but about who can keep pace in a crowded race. [Read more 🡒]