TCU made a coaching change on Sunday after another frustrating offensive showing in a loss to West Virginia, with head coach Sonny Dykes firing co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach A.J. Ricker.
Ricker had been with Dykes for years, first on his SMU staff during the 2019 and 2020 seasons before following him to TCU in 2021.
The Horned Frogs’ issues up front have been hard to ignore all season. Through seven games, TCU has allowed 20 sacks, a number that leaves the team ranked 119th nationally. The run game hasn’t offered much relief either, with the Frogs sitting 124th in the country at just 110 rushing yards per game.
Against West Virginia, TCU did at least show more life on the ground than it had against some other Power Four opponents, finishing with 112 yards on 35 carries. But even that modest production wasn’t enough to keep the offense from bogging down at key moments.
Every TCU possession crossed midfield, but the Frogs came away empty on four of those drives. One ended with an interception, another with a fumble, a third on a failed fourth-down attempt and the fourth on a missed field goal.
West Virginia’s defense has taken its own lumps lately, but the unit did enough to get stops and create turnovers when it mattered. The Mountaineers had allowed 220, 265, 141 and 233 rushing yards in their first four Big 12 games, making TCU’s offensive struggles even more glaring in a game the Frogs still could not finish.
Dykes’ postgame comments made the frustration clear. He pointed to the numbers and the missed chances, then laid out why the result felt so hard to explain.
“We outgained them almost two to one. The time of possession was almost two to one.
We were 8/14 on third down; they were 4/12. I mean, all the things that you look at that you say, ‘Okay, you’re going to win the game.’
We had 29 first downs; they had 17. We almost doubled them in first downs, almost doubled them in yards.
We almost doubled them in time of possession; we converted over 50% of our third downs, they converted 30% of theirs, and you lose. It’s just a matter of not being able to make plays in critical situations, and it’s happened to us over and over and over again this year.”
That frustration came after TCU managed to score 20 points against a West Virginia defense that had been struggling badly in recent weeks. The Mountaineers’ best outing against a Power Four opponent before this had been against Virginia, when they allowed 27 points. Since then, they had given up 41, 45, 52 and 42.
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The real concern for the Mountaineers is whether that protection holds long enough to matter once the case gets deeper into the process. A court-issued stay could still change their availability, though legal experts believe that first request is likely to be denied. If that happens, the matter could keep moving through further proceedings and potentially into the appeals process, leaving West Virginia to navigate the start of the season with two important names still in limbo. [Read more 🡒]