The TCU Quarterback Situation

What does the TCU quarterback situation look like? This quote via the Star Telegram should sum it up nicely:

â€œTrevone needed to watch the game. He needed to watch what was going on and see what he needed to do. Youâ€™re going to keep seeing it. Weâ€™ll see how his shoulder is on Monday.â€ â€” TCU coach Gary Patterson on replacing QB Trevone Boykin with Tyler Matthews for two series.

In short, the Horned Frogs were, as usual, absolutely awful on offense. The issues on this football team all center around the quarterback position, where Trevone Boykin has largely failed in two seasons to duplicate any semblance of the success alleged incumbent starter Casey Pachall should have. As it stands the formula to beat TCU is simply score 14 points and play defense.

To truly grasp this mess, one must go back to last season, when a cascade of shame hit TCU on its way into the Big 12. First was the loss of multiple players in the large scale drug use/dealing incident, which was a black eye for the school to begin with. With that embarrassment still in the minds of many, the situation became worse when Pachall was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated on October 4, 2012.

At the time, Pachall was enjoying a fine season, having thrown for 948 yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception, including 300 plus yard games against Kansas and Virginia. The Horned Frogs were 4-0 at the time and ranked 15th in the country.

With Pachall gone, Trevone Boykin took over, and many were excited at the thought of what the dual threat quarterback could do. When he took over as starter, he largely disappointed, throwing for 1978 yards, 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in leading TCU to a 3-6 finish and a bowl game loss. He was also good for about 45 yards rushing per contest on average.

All was not lost, however, as Boykin and the defense (mostly the defense) did engineer a 20-13 win over Texas. In that contest, Boykin threw just nine passes for 82 yards and an interception. He also ran for a season high 77 yards against the Longhorns.

Entering the 2013 season, Gary Patterson chose to let Pachall back on the team, and he earned the starting job back. His numbers were not impressive before breaking his arm in the second game, as he threw for just 175 yards and an interception in two games.

Enter Boykin again, who has led the team to a 3-3 record since taking over as the starter against Southeastern Louisiana, but he has had abismal numbers. Boykin has thrown for 1152 yards, five touchdowns, and seven interceptions this season. Boykin’s saving grace, if there is such a thing, is rushing for over 70 yards twice, one being a 100 yard game, and 293 yards overall. It has been well established Boykin can’t play from behind, as he’s thrown six of his seven interceptions when tied or losing the game.

In his last start, as we mentioned, he was benched for yet another quarterback, Tyler Matthews, who has only thrown three passes and completed none in extremely limited action. Matthews was a four star quarterback out of Kansas, so there is ability but no game experience.

So what does this mean for Texas? TCU has a great defense, including an experienced secondary which landed two guys on our our Horn Sports Mid Season All Conference team, so the throwing duties are going to be much trickier for Case McCoy with far less margin for error. This means the staff will want to run the ball upwards of 70% of the time, and will need to be playing with a lead to do so.

In order to have the lead, Texas must play solid defense. One thing Boykin can do well is run the read option, a Longhorns killer the last two years, but something I expect Greg Robinson to take away, daring Boykin to win with his arm, which is a disaster waiting to happen.

With a week to prepare, Tyler Matthews would be a better option to push the passing game, but his first start/extended action won’t be as prime against a defensive coordinator who made a living out of confusing NFL signal callers.

Rumor has it Pachall may be a â€œsurpriseâ€ starter, but even then, he did not look good coming out of fall camp, and will be rusty. Greg Robinson is probably not the best guy to come in against â€œrustyâ€.

Bottomline, the quarterback situation in Fort Worth is marginal at best, and one you should expect the Longhorns to exploit to their advantage this weekend, provided the Horns stop the run.

We’ll have continuing coverage all week right here.