The Horned Frogs received a nerve-wracking season opener on the street towards Stanford on Friday Aug. 30.
Regardless of two essential turnovers and 7 penalties for 100 yards towards TCU, it defeated the Cardinal 34-27 at Stanford Stadium.
“What it comes right down to is effort, and we performed exhausting,” mentioned TCU linebacker Johnny Hodges.
That effort was obvious on the offensive aspect for TCU reaching 23 first downs and 457 complete yards.
The principle energy was the passing assault, as quarterback Josh Hoover totaled 353 passing yards and two touchdowns. He linked effectively with vast receiver Jack Bech, with caught six passes for 139 yards and a landing.
Broad receiver Savion Williams was one other vibrant spot for the Frogs; he led the crew in receptions with 11 and scored TCU’s first landing of the season on a strong goal-line fade.
The usage of play motion and run-pass choice performs from offensive coordinator Kendal Briles gave open seems for Hoover throughout the center of the sector, the place he was extraordinarily correct.
Two fumbles within the first half restricted TCU’s offensive unit to solely 10 factors, however they responded within the second by avoiding giveaways and scoring 24 factors.
Defensively, defensive coordinator Andy Avalos lived as much as his fame of producing stress for opposing quarterbacks, because the stress was on for his first sport on the Horned Frog teaching employees.
TCU’s protection sacked Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels 4 instances and compelled him to flee the pocket all through the sport. Because of this, the Cardinal solely threw for 165 yards and transformed on 33% of their third down alternatives together with three conversions by a defensive penalty.
The most important third down cease got here late within the 4th quarter as edge rusher Marcel Brooks captured his second sack of the day to place the Cardinal offense in 4th and 17.
TCU’s protection struggled early on the bottom permitting 99 rush yards within the first half however held Stanford to solely 24 rush yards and 10 factors within the second half.
The Frogs efficiency improved within the second half, however enchancment is important shifting ahead.
“Clearly there are issues we have to clear up however once we wanted to make performs, we made performs,” Hoover mentioned.
“We had been mentally powerful. After we needed to get stops, we acquired stops. After we needed to rating touchdowns we scored touchdowns,” head coach Sonny Dykes mentioned.
TCU made sufficient performs to get pleasure from a 1-0 begin to the 2024 season for now, and can host LIU at Amon G. Carter Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. CDT. Will probably be televised on ESPN+.