2022 Baylor Football Opponent Quick-Hitter: TCU

Opponent: TCU

Nickname: Horned Frogs

Kickoff: November 19th

Location: McLane Stadium (Waco, TX)

Conference: Big 12

Head Coach: Sonny Dykes (first year)

Last Year’s Record: 5-7

Notable Outcomes: Beat Cal 34-32; beat Baylor 30-28; lost to Oklahoma State 63-17

Key Losses: Zach Evans, RB; Ochaun Mathis, DE; T.J. Carter, S

Key Returners: Quentin Johnston, WR; Andrew Coker, RT; Dee Winters, LB

Strength: Linebacker. The Horned Frogs return two of their three starting linebackers from a year ago, including Dee Winters and Jamoi Hodge. Winters led the team in tackles last year with 74, and will bring great experience as the Horned Frogs shift from Patterson’s defense to a new look, 3-3-5 under coordinator Joe Gillespie.

Weakness: Secondary. TCU only returns two starters at its five cornerback and safety positions. Luckily for the Horned Frogs, they do return their tied interceptions leader from last season, cornerback Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson. Unluckily for the Horned Frogs, that team leading stat was only two interceptions.

Way Too Early Prediction: This is a big revenge spot for Baylor, as a major outlier loss to the Horned Frogs functionally kept the Bears out of the playoff last season. Normally, I would be worried about this type of game being a slight lookahead, as the Bears play the Longhorns next week. However, given TCU’s status as a rival and what happened last year, there’s no way Baylor will be overlooking TCU on senior day. Baylor should be able to pull this one out based on better talent at most positions, but as rivalry games tend to go, expect this to be a bit too-close for comfort.

31-28 Baylor