Intro we have a practice in the book Sunny Dykes has spoken with the media TCU is healthier than they've been in a long time and he seemed optimistic about what that could mean for this team we'll talk about that more next turn in lockdown horn frogs your team every day you are locked on horn frogs your daily podcast on the TCU horn frogs part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day that's right locked on horn frogs Sonny Dykes your team every day I'm your host Steph simx and please subscribe to the YouTube channel you can also subscribe wherever is you listen to podcast it's the perfect time to do that because fall Camp started today well I guess yesterday because you're listening to this on Wednesday I'm recording it down on Tuesday night but CCU is at the practice field we are starting the 2024 season soon and that means we'll have plenty of coverage right here on the lock time horn frogs appreciate you making this show your first listen Sunny D spoke with media after practice today and you know pretty typical like they're in shells meaning they're just in helmets and shorts right now not full pads yet not a ton that you can take from what they're doing right in the moment but I think Sunny had some good things to say and always interested to hear his perspective as he gets ready for the football season one thing that he mentioned right off the top was he just felt like the approach was better and he's been pretty forthright about this uh pretty much all a season last year was a failure by the coaching staff in getting the team ready [Music] and and he he mentioned the small details like he said even how they ate breakfast and warmed up and just approached everything with a purpose he thinks was much better than the way they went about things last season he's talked about giving the team too much time off last year he had that very famous quote after the Colorado game where he discussed how he just felt like the Buffalo are more ready to play more excited to play than TC was that day which was crazy at the time and it was honestly pretty indicative of what the season ended up looking like for the frogs but they' they got through practice one he likes what they're bringing to the table and I'm not gonna harp on it too much longer because it's in the rearview mirror I will say I think we can give Sunny the benefit of the doubt right now um he usually seems to have a pretty good read on his football team however I'll believe it when I see it like I think the Stanford game will tell us a lot about where this team's mentality is what they can do with the talent on this roster and the coaching staff shuffled around a little bit and so just how much that has actually improved because last season it just didn't work they weren't ready to rock and roll uh they got off to a bad start I think getting off to a bad start didn't help the team it really hindered them in what they did throughout the season but not being able to bounce back from that loss early in the year uh was was really devastating and it proved itself over the Year by missing a bowl game and you know not getting any football beyond that Josh Josh Hoover Hoover looks healthy now he didn't do a ton today at least during team sessions but he was throwing the football around he ran with the ones looks like he's in good shape I think the team as a whole he talked about them being healthy as well but the biggest thing for the offense and really for this team's hopes and general en are a healthy Josh Hoover I think this is a guy that you can win football games with I don't know if he is an elite QB uh I don't think he is right now I guess I should say maybe he can develop into that through the years I think we do have to allow him to grow and make mistakes and make things happen but I feel like TCU has done a nice job this off season of trying to build the plane around Josh U they're they're trying to set an environment for him where he can be successful where he can be himself and he can um emphasize the things that he does well and play Within himself and sunny talked about that in the press conference today he's like look one of the big things for him and for all young quarterbacks is you got to figure out when to just take the completion and it can be frustrating whether it's in Fall camp or it's during the season if that checkdown is there to just continually allow yourself to take those easy throws take those positive plays because you you want to take shots down the field you want to be explosive offense and there's a time and a place for that but last season whether it was the Texas game that game against Oklahoma at times we saw Josh could be really special but we also saw the decision making the interceptions the turnovers those were killers and you can't have that if you're gonna be a better football team this upcoming season that has to change and I think he knows that and I think coaching staff knows that going into the season so protecting the football that's football Football 101 101 right like that's if you get the football book for dummies you open it up to page five and they're talking about limiting turnovers and winning the turnover margin battle and all those things but especially for this offense if you're going to be a team that goes fast and doesn't really worry about time of possession or playing complimentary football then you can't also be a group that turns the ball over like if you're gonna have the occasional quick three and out you gota there's got to be some give and take you can't also set up your defense in bad situations where they can't make things happen because you're giving other teams Prime field position during big moments in the ball game so uh that has to improve and Josh knows that Sunny knows that it's just something to watch one player that he mentioned and I talked about this guy yesterday as just someone kind of under the radar that I've sort of lost track of throughout the offseason when talk about the wide receivers as Dal right he said he thought Dal had a really good practice and I mean he's got all the physical gifts and there's been I think most people that are projecting what TC's depth chart is going to look like on the outside receiver spot it's been saon Williams Eric McCallister and I feel like that's ultimately gonna be who it is at least to start the season but I do believe there's a place for d right and the more that he can push in Fall camp and say hey these are not the only two guys that can play the spot like I can also be a force um on the outside making plays being a deep threat yards after the catch so that would be a huge boost to this offense because you're gonna need multiple options at that position and inside wide receiver I feel pretty good about I you got JP Richards coming back uh major ever har potentially um in in others but that outside receiver spot less depth so if denen Wright and step up and be a key player for them and that's a huge thing he also talked about how the team just seems healthier uh especially when you compare it to fall Camp during fall Camp they had a lot of guys out he said today just handful of players in red jerseys meaning they had uh they were going no contact for the practice completely I do Working with veterans Wonder as we continue to push more towards college football being a professional sport which I know that's not everybody's favorite thing one thing that I kind of theorized about during spring practice was you had a lot of veterans sitting out like Avery Helm didn't get a ton of reps and I know he had a procedure over the offseason so it might just be coming back from that there were a bunch of other guys that were experienced players that didn't play I just I I have to think the coaching staff might look at these situations and say okay do we really need a senior a super senior a guy that's had three or four years of Eligibility on campus playing college football how much do we need him in Spring practice on a daily basis and that might already be happening maybe that's something that's always kind of gone into the the thought process of college coaches but I think especially now in in the world we're living in with nil and everything else there might be this idea of okay you know there's always like n there's always NFL veterans that don't really practice much at all and I don't think we'll get this far with it but there's that left tackle Tyron Smith's a great example he's with the Jets now was the Cowboys for a long time and he didn't really practice that much the last few seasons like he was always questionable or the listed on the injury report in some form or fashion because of some injury that was hampering him but then when the game came on and it was time to go play he was there to play football and I don't think it'll get that drastic in college sports but I wonder how much they look at workload and trying to um just get to a place where they're able to to manage what these guys are doing and protect their bodies throughout the off season so that when fall Camp hits they can just go full force and make it happen he also discussed how they're Schematically further along uh schematically and that's been another thing that he's mentioned multiple times this offseason is that giving the guys extra time off after the uh run in 2022 and also adding to the the puzzle the fact that you had a new offensive coordinator that was not a great recipe for success and so there were a lot of things that they were kind of behind the eightball on with install uh that they just couldn't simply catch up on and so I guess in similar fashion here you know they're in a better spot one because there's some continuity with this coaching staff not on defense but on offense and so they feel like at the moment they're much further along than they were last season we talk about understanding Kendall brow's offense and uh I think if if there's one thing that gives you optimism about the offense this upcoming year it is that that a lot of these guys should know this the scheme the verbiage the terminology really well and they shouldn't have to think nearly as much about what they're doing they should just be able to out there get out there and go play and that could be a big boost for this TCU football team and finally he talked Offensive line about the offensive line um and he said the good news is you got a lot of experience so they brought in a lot of players that have played played you know lots of snaps in the college ball level the bad news is a lot of these guys don't have experience with one another so you are breaking in pretty much a brand new offensive line and so communication uh understanding responsibilities getting all that streamlined it's going to be a process there's probably GNA be some Growing Pains but the challenge over this next month is they got to find the right Five Guys and they've got to get them up to speed as quickly as possible I think this is also a big year for AJ Ricker because last season uh it it just wasn't pretty and I know Personnel had a big part in that but they're scouting these o Linen in the portal and bringing them in so they need to hit on a few of them and also you at some point you want to develop and grow the guys that you're bringing through the high school ranks and they've done a great job of prioritizing that over the last few recruiting Cycles by getting multiple names in there and hoping that some of those players can hit but it's it's just I think it's a huge year for okay let's make sure we can we can do this at a high level block and and have an offense that is functioning well and being efficient this upcoming season so that's gonna be a huge key for this team and one of the Min challenges they try to find some more consistency in 2024 uh when we come back I I talked about a potential coaching upgrade or an addition to the coach in staff yesterday that's official and apparently it's not just one but it's two former head coaches that are now joining the staff as analyst we'll talk about that next year on lockdown horn frogs at your team every day game time if you need tickets game Sponsor time is the place to go if you're looking to get tickets to a Rangers game maybe an Astros game check out the game time app you can use promo code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase if you're watching on YouTube I'll get that up for you shortly so you can make sure you get it right but download the game time app it's super easy to navigate and it's a great app to use and one thing that I love about it I've said this before but they just make things really simple um they they tell you exactly where you're going to sit you you get a great view of what your seat's going to look like and what the feel the the uh the view of the field or the stage or whatever event you're going to but also there's no hidden fees they're they're very 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meals thanks for being a part of the lockdown Network so yesterday I talked about an Todd Graham interesting thing that was potentially happening with the TCU coaching staff adding Dana hogerson to the mix uh Dana longtime coach at West Virginia and then spend a long a few years at Houston so that's apparently happening according to Sunny Dykes and then he also mentioned another name Todd Graham Todd Graham who's been at Arizona State also a former head coach in Hawaii um in Sunny said they're both talented people that I've known for more than 20 years both have been very successful and have a unique perspective they can help us win Graham went 106 and 72 as a head coach at Rice Tulsa pit Arizona State in Hawaii he did resign in Hawaii in 2021 and it wasn't a big great circumstances basically the players were like hey we don't like this guy we don't like how he treats us we don't like his style of coaching we're not play for him anymore and so he moved on but Todd has been a friend of Sunny's for a long time and I remember a few years ago I think it might have been Dave Wilson Dave Wilson wrote the story today from ESPN he might have been the one that wrote this story I'm referencing as well but he talked about Sunny Dykes being a part of that air raid tree that Todd Graham's a part of also uh Dana hogerson Todd Graham most of his experience was on the defensive side of the ball but Todd has been just someone who's kind of the sounding board for him through the years and he's brought them in at times at his different programs whether it's SMU or TCU and just said hey could you observe practice could you see what we're doing and could you give me a good idea about is is this right is it wrong are we on the right track and Todd's been very honest with him and back in um 2022 before the season he was like hey uh I think this team could win the Big 12 and sunny was sort of like what and he was like no I I really think just watching you guys I feel like you have the talent you have the physical gifts the tools to be really good and that was of course before anybody had any expectation for what TCU could be and well I guess technically didn't turn out to be right but they did even bigger things by winning the the playoff game and going 12 no during the Big 12 regular season making the big and so all that was super encouraging and he was one of the first people that sort of saw the vision of what they were doing um I love this on a lot of different fronts but the main thing is it's just more experience in that room that gives you the ability to to make things happen and I do wonder if this allows Sunny to focus on some different things like I know the world of head coaching now is just so much different and there's so much responsibility these guys have a ton on their plate and possibly having hogerson and Graham on the staff former head coaches he can offload some things to them and it allows him to sort of be that CEO that he wants to be as far as what their roles are going to be um hogerson is going to do some Advanced scouting for them and he's going to focus on defenses on the schedule that they're going to play and basically he's gonna be like hey this is how I think we can attack them um and Graham's also gonna do some scouting for them but it's going to be with a unique perspective as a defensive guy he's going to kind of evaluate TCU offense and say all right here's here's what you're doing here's what you need to do better when you attack defenses and you can't like these are the weaknesses on the offense that defenses are going to attack so very specific things and I said like this is what big programs do you know Nick Savin had a huge coaching staff for years um and others have done similar things Kirby Smart that Georgia has a ton of analyst on his coaching staff it's it's just a way to kind of load up and keep you know keep things fresh and understand um what you're doing so I I love the thought process I like that you're just bringing on smart folks and you know there will be some um I guess complaints about well these guys weren't super successful head coaches but you're not asking them to be head coaches you're asking them to do specific things that they can excel at because of their experience and because of their background in coaching so I think this is a great fit and it should be something that TCU fans are excited about uh Todd Graham and Dana hogerson both joining the coaching staff for this upcoming season as analyst when we come back we'll talk about a new commit for the 2025 class and uh some of your thoughts from yesterday's show it's locked on horn frog your team every day eBay Motors if you are worried about eBay Motors your vehicle worried about finding the right part for your vehicle don't keep worrying about it don't let that stress you out go to eBay Motors today they have the eBay guaranteed fit program how it works you put the makeing model of your vehicle in their system 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TCU got involved here um I think this is just scouting on tcu's part this is a guy that they think has a chance to be really good and they're saying you know what we we trust our evaluation here and we're going to go with it and um I think at the back end of a recruiting class when you've got so many names already in place at different positions this is the type of chance that you can take uh and you can say hey this is a guy that's more of a developmental project that's okay you know tcu's got a number of Blue Chip players that should be ready to contribute right away and maybe this is a guy that you spend some time putting weight on but it could pay off later on watching his tape just briefly I mean he moves really well he's got great quickness um and a lot of the traits that you want to see from an interior defensive lineman and at the moment he's not like topping out 300 pounds but I think there's there's room on his frame to kind of grow and develop and then also another part of this is in this new defense um you don't necessarily have to have that Dominic Williams type that you've had in the past that's just a a true nose guard that can function well in a a three down linan system where they're taking up a lot of space so Blake robinet All Saints defensive lineman um TCU decided know what we Scout this guy we like him and we're gonna move forward with them he's added the 2025 class of course the big news in this class is Adam schoel quarterback at Columbus High School and who was committed to Oklahoma State um he flipped he flipped to TCU so you know his uncle uh Aaron was a longtime player his his dad Matt was a longtime player his cousin John is um GNA be part of 2025 classes as well his his dad and uncle went on to play in the NFL and have successful careers after the time at TCU so it made sense that he would make this move and again I think coaching staff did a really great job getting him on board after losing uh Tai Hawkins and so that was a great job by sunny and Company making sure they got that done and making sure they had a guy um who was going to be a big part of of this class moving forward and continuing to build it even though they've got it mostly squared away the guys they want to get and then one more kind of random housekeeping note here I saw Jamie plunet report yesterday that TC is going to play TC's basketball they're going to play Arkansas on an exhibition game uh John caliper made the move from Kentucky to Arkansas this offseason so Frog's gonna play the hogs at Dicky's Arena on November 1 um we constantly go at Jamie about not having a strong non-conference schedule and I guess technically this is a game that doesn't count but hey it is good competition and a lot of those scrimmages are kind of closed doors scrimmages so it'll be cool to see them in action and kind of where they're at because that's a super talented Arkansas Squad that they'll be playing we'll be back tomorrow uh more news about fall camp and everything else going on TCU athletics it's lock on horn frogs your team every day