The Texas Christian University Horned Frogs are on the road this week, as the team faces one of its more significant challenges yet early in the season. The Oklahoma University Sooners will look to derail Sonny Dykes and Max Duggan, who have gotten TCU off to a hot 3-0 start, on Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma.
Duggan regained his starting role for the Frogs when off-season transfer Chandler Morris went down with a knee injury in Week 1. Since then, Duggan has been an efficiency machine and is currently ranked 9th nationally by ESPN.
Duggan has 695 passing yards and eight touchdowns. He also has not turned the ball over.
Lining up Saturday for OU will be quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who has amassed 78 receptions on 117 attempts through four games.
His most recent performance was a 330-yard, four-touchdown outing in a 41-34 loss to Kansas State. Like Duggan, Gabriel has been careful with ball placement and has not thrown an interception.
After struggling in pass coverage against SMU last week, Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson will look for a rebound against OU and the prolific passing offense.
Hodges-Tomlinson was flagged for multiple violations in the win over SMU last week, including holding and pass interference calls that extended drives.
TCU ranks last in the Big 12 and 107th nationally in pass defense according to ESPN, a stat that first-year OU head coach Brent Venables isn’t likely to overlook.
The Sooners will need to tighten up on third-down defense against TCU. The unit was 10-of-19 last week against the Wildcats, a figure that factors into the Sooners’ 131-of-132 ranking for offensive time of possession.
If the defense can’t get off the field on third down, it will only be a matter of time before Duggan and the offense find ways to score.
The real breaking point of the game will be whether the TCU defense can respond to the numerous weapons that OU fields, particularly receivers on the perimeter that open up quick passes that don’t offer the pass-rushers opportunities to get home.
It is likely that OU will challenge TCU’s defense with power running behind Eric Gray.
Gray has racked up 400 yards in 2022, turning in three out of four 100-yard games so far. He will be a challenge for a defense that is surrendering 100.7 yards per game.
The betting odds have OU at a 6.5-point advantage as of Wednesday, which reflects the fact that OU has beaten TCU 10 of 11 times since the Frogs joined the Big 12.
OU will be departing the Big 12 -along with Texas- sometime around the 2025 season to join the SEC, while four new campuses will become members of the Big 12 before then.
TCU has not defeated Oklahoma since 2014 under then-coach Gary Patterson. Bob Stoops, now the head coach of the Arlington XFL team, headed up the OU sideline during the 37-33 TCU win.
That was the last time that TCU triumphed over OU on the road since back in 2005, a period of time about which most of the players who will take the field Saturday likely have only the faintest of memories.
