TCU Football Preview 2026: The Horned Frogs Want To Be Better Than Good

All TCU has done is win 36 games with a national title appearance over the last four seasons, and yet it still has a hard time getting noticed.

In case you were wondering, no other team that’s been in the Big 12 over the last four years has won more.

© Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

And yet Colorado got all the love and attention, partly because of its win over TCU to open up the Deion Sanders era in 2023.

Texas Tech has been the cool thing the kids are all slamming to. BYU has been fantastic since joining the conference, and Arizona State made a grand entrance two years ago.

Meanwhile, TCU not only won nine games over the last two years, but it’s not happy with that, so here come the changes.

To get more into how good TCU has been, out of the eight losses in the last two years, two last season were by a total of five points, two in 2024 were by a total of four points, and four of the seven losses in 2023 were by one score.

But that’s the difference between the good programs and the elite. The elite win those close games.

So head coach Sonny Dykes is changing around the attack a bit to be more controlled, there’s more of an emphasis on great defensive play, and now let’s see if this all works.

TCU doesn’t have the portal talent of Texas Tech, or the underground buzz of this year’s Kansas State, or the national expectations of BYU or Utah.

But it does know how to win under Dykes, and now it’s time for the program to be noticed again.

– 2026 TCU Schedule Analysis

• Head Coach: Sonny Dykes (5th year: 36-17, 16th year overall: 107-80)

• Best Case / Worst Case: Play in the Big 12 Championship/A second losing season in four years

• Key Player: Jaden Craig, QB Sr.

• 2025 Record: 9-4

• Biggest Question: How fast can the pivot in offensive styles start to work?

Head Coach: Sonny Dykes (5th year: 36-17, 16th year overall: 107-80)

Best Case / Worst Case: Play in the Big 12 Championship/A second losing season in four years

Biggest Question: How fast can the pivot in offensive styles start to work?

• 1st Quarter Points Allowed: 43, 4th Quarter Points Allowed: 111

• Rushing Yards: Opponents 1,724, TCU 1,708

• Penalties: TCU 88 for 806 yards, Opponents 64 for 565 yards

1st Quarter Points Allowed: 43, 4th Quarter Points Allowed: 111

Rushing Yards: Opponents 1,724, TCU 1,708

Penalties: TCU 88 for 806 yards, Opponents 64 for 565 yards

Here comes the left turn.

TCU was second in the Big 12 in passing last season, and in 2024, and 2023. The high-flying offense worked enough to pull off a slew of wins, but it also screwed things up in key losses.

Kendal Briles is off trying the make the South Carolina offense fly – that should be fun with quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

In comes new offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis from UConn to start running the ball and toning down the tempo.

UConn did what TCU didn’t. With Sammis at the helm, the Huskies averaged 445 yards and 35 points per game, and most importantly, when it comes to TCU’s issues, they were No. 1 in the nation in fewest turnovers.

Two. UConn lost a fumble in a blowout win over FIU, and threw a pick in a win over Air Force. TCU gave it up 20 times – more on why this really matters in a moment.

It’s not that the running game was ignored, but the bread was buttered by throwing the ball. To do what the offense needs, the ground attack needs backs, and it has them.

Leading rusher Jeremy Payne averaged 5.7 yards per carry with 623 yards and five touchdowns. Landon Walker is a 225-pound back coming over from the Colorado School of Mines, and Jon Denman is a veteran who can handle the work.

Top receiver Eric McAlister is gone, but the Horned Frogs have weapons.

Jordan Dwyer is a terrific playmaker on the outside, Ed Small should do even more in the slot, and in comes Jeremy Scott from South Alabama after averaging over 17 yards per catch in his freshman year.

Replacing Josh Hoover won’t be easy. Curt Cignetti wanted the veteran high-octane passer to lead his Indiana Hoosiers to another national title, and now TCU has to replace him.

While that hurts – Hoover is obviously good – but landing Harvard’s Jaden Craig is hardly a consolation prize.

He’s a big, accurate passer, but now he has to show that he can handle the gig in Big 12 play. That’s fine, but there’s absolutely zero experience behind him.

Can the offensive line start blasting away more? It’s a line put together to pass protect and get going in an up-tempo type of attack.

It’s not like TCU is putting a square peg into a round hole now, but the idea is to pass protect as well as pound for an offense that needs more than 131 rushing yards per game.

Turnovers. This is what Dykes and TCU are trying to fix. The Horned Frogs turned it over two or more times in five games last season, and they lost four of them. They went 8-0 when they didn’t give it up multiple times.

Ben Taylor-Whitfield, OT Sr.
Of course quarterback Jaden Craig is the most important cog in the machine – we’ll get to him later – but the offensive line is the part that has to dominate from the start.

It’s a great-looking group with size and experience, and the 6-6, 315-pound Taylor-Whitfield, who started 22 games over the last two years, should be one of the key parts.

© Jacob Reiner-Imagn Images

It’s been the defense’s job to hold serve, and coordinator Andy Avalos has been able to make this work for several years.

The Horned Frogs haven’t been a rock defensively, but too many teams were able to throw effectively because there wasn’t enough pressure being applied. That should change this season.

The defensive ends are mostly back. Paul Oyewale only came up with two sacks, Zach Chapman is more of a run defender, and Koron Hayward comes in from Western Kentucky to try adding a bit more flash.

The secondary is full of veterans. The defensive backs are good, but they need some help from that pass rush.

Jamel Johnson is a star at one safety spot. Vernon Glover is a physical corner who broke up six passes, and the portal brought in reinforcements.

Kalen Carroll is a great-looking corner from Central Michigan, and Jacob Fields made 146 tackles over the last two years for Louisiana Tech.

Both starting tackles are back, and they bring the bulk. Ansel Din-Mbuh and Connor Lingren are both 305 pounds, and Markis Deal is a 6-5, 325-pound big body who’s back on the nose.

The linebacking corps has to find two fantastic ballers in place of Kaleb Elams-Orr and Namdi Obiazor, who combined for 228 tackles, six sacks, and 15 tackles for loss.

Max Carroll was the understudy behind Elams-Orr, making 34 tackles with four tackles for loss. He’s ready to do more, and Michael Short – the team’s only transfer portal signing at the position – is a good-sized option from Virginia Tech for the middle.

Stop the run. Again, TCU has size up front, and it has the linebackers to clean everything up. But now it all has to work better.

The Horned Frogs allowed teams to get to at least 130 rushing yards six times and went 2-4. They were 7-0 when giving up fewer.

The pass defense. The defensive backs might be there, but they need to come up with more big things. They also had to deal with offenses that bombed away when they tried to keep up.

The Horned Frogs were dead last in the Big 12, allowing 246 yards per game, with 200 or more nine times – only Iowa State threw for fewer than 160.

Jamel Johnson, S Sr. 
Not everything was wrong with the pass defense last season. Johnson is one of the Big 12’s best all-around safeties, coming up with a Big 12-high five picks to go along with his 96 tackles.

• Convert to the new offensive style in a hurry, and make it work right away.

• Chill out on the penalties and turnovers – be more measured and controlled.

• Get more out of the pass rush and far more out of the pass defense.

Convert to the new offensive style in a hurry, and make it work right away.

Chill out on the penalties and turnovers – be more measured and controlled.

Get more out of the pass rush and far more out of the pass defense.

Jaden Craig, QB Sr.
For all the worrying about losing Josh Hoover – he really is good – he’s a 6-2, 200-pound bomber who threw too many picks in the former style of TCU offense.

Craig is a 6-3, 230-pounder who can run, is Harvard smart, and he was able to do with the Crimson what Hoover failed to do with TCU – keep the interceptions to a minimum.

Can this pivot to the new style of offense lead to more wins?
Yeah, there’s a shot this might be a step back to take a giant leap forward, but TCU won nine games in each of the last two seasons, and came achingly close to winning several more. 

No, it’s not like TCU will stop throwing, but this is a change.

Utah, November 21
The TCU schedule is a problem for so many reasons — more on this in a moment — and few Power Four programs have a harder November to deal with. It ends with a brutal final two weeks against Utah and at Texas Tech.

You don’t want to need a win in Lubbock to close the season, but that’s what will happen if TCU can’t pull off the Utah win.

It’s like all the Texas teams want to keep up with Texas Tech, and that’s exactly what TCU’s transfer portal class looks like.

It went big with high-end talent to add to an already outstanding base of returning players. It didn’t seem to target any one area, but as long as Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig is good, everything else will work fine.

Noah McKinney, OG (Oklahoma State)
The 6-4, 330-pound interior blaster started out at UNLV, went to Oklahoma State, and now rounds out the TCU offensive front that should be a major positive.

Josh Hoover, QB (Indiana)
It’s not that he was underappreciated. It was more like he was lost in all the noise of the other Big 12 quarterbacks and teams.

He threw for 9,627 yards and 71 touchdowns, but he also threw 33 interceptions. Now all he has to do is replace Fernando Mendoza and win a national title with Indiana – no pressure.

• Jeremy Scott, WR (South Alabama)

• Michael Short, LB (Virginia Tech)

• Cheta Ofili, EDGE (Texas Tech)

It needs to keep being emphasized – TCU was terrific over the last few years.

Forget that 5-7 blip of 2023. This was the only current Big 12 program to play for a College Football Playoff national title since … ever.

Going 18-8 over the last two seasons was impressive, even if it didn’t seem like enough. This year, don’t be shocked if and when the Horned Frogs continue to be great.

CFN Prediction: 9-3

Here’s the problem. At least going into the season, Cincinnati, Colorado, Iowa State, and even an improved Oklahoma State seem to be among the weakest of the Big 12 teams, and TCU misses all of them.

It also misses Arizona State, but it has to go to Texas Tech, Arizona, and deal with a dangerous UCF team in Orlando.

There are enough landmines to lose a few games, but if this shift in styles all works, this won’t be one of college football’s surprise-not-a-surprise teams.

Advertisement