FORT WORTH — The always highly anticipated season opener at TCU is in the database, and one thing is crystal clear: The quarterback situation is as cloudy as the vision of a guy who had one too many of those $7 canned beers, the newest enhancement to the fan experience at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Bigger even than that big screen in the north end zone.
True to the word of coach Gary Patterson, curiously vowing recently to have a bigger right hand in the doings of his offense, true freshman quarterback Max Duggan just about shared snaps with graduate transfer Alex Delton in the Horned Frogs’ 39-7 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the FCS with the best band in the land of the Toothpick State.
The results were mixed.
Duggan looked good, if showing the inconsistency expected of a quarterback his age playing in his first game at this level since leaving the high school varsity program at Lewis Central in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
With few exceptions, that’s not an easy jump for anybody at any position, but particularly at that position. But the game didn’t appear too big for the strapping 6-foot-2, 190-pounder, who was 16 for 23 for 165 yards with a touchdown passing and rushing. Duggan found Jalen Reagor for 37 yards in the third quarter that increased the TCU lead to 29-7.
He also showed off an arm that would have made Uncle Rico squirm with envy, putting the Z-I-P in zip.
Delton’s passing numbers weren’t as impressive. He went 10 for 22 for 119 yards.
Delton also ran the ball well, doing what he did so well at Kansas State, going for 67 yards on seven carries with a long of 54.
In the defense of both QBs, Horned Frogs receivers didn’t have the best of openers. Drops by a few and a fumble by Trevontae Hights on a long catch-and-run from a Delton completion, which would have led to more points, perhaps six, were memorable lapses. On special teams, Reagor uncharacteristically muffed two punts.
“I feel comfortable with either one,” said Hights, a senior from Yoakum already chasing a graduate degree while running routes. “They’re both great leaders, both can put the ball where you want to and make plays with their feet. [Duggan] looks like he’s done it before. He has all my trust. I know he trusts his receivers.
“We know the quarterback is going to put it where it needs to be.”
It’s unclear what the objective is of the revolving quarterback. Surely the hope is one seizes control of the job by the start of the Big 12 season, though the thought of keeping defenses on their toes with one a thrower and one a runner seemed compelling while watching the game and wanting one of those $7 beers.
To further complicate, Patterson noted in his postgame news conference that Mike Collins, who played much of the second half of last season, might get a shot at this as his health improves. He’s been battling some sort of foot problem.
Moreover, Patterson said Ohio State transfer Matthew Baldwin of Texas QB High, Lake Travis, won his eligibility appeal with the NCAA and would be eligible immediately. Baldwin, a 6-3, 215-pound redshirt freshman, wouldn’t seem to figure much into the equation, considering he, too, is still recovering from injury.
Other than throwing that flame into the discussion – he jokingly said he might move one to safety or nose guard — the coach was reticent about Duggan or Delton, saying it was hard to make a full accounting without watching the tape. He noted that neither threw an interception.
As a general rule, he said, he believed on offense, “We’ve got to speed up our tempo.”
His primary concern was in the red zone.
Surely place-kicker Jonathan Song got a game ball. Song kicked five of the Frogs’ six field goals with a long of 38 yards.
That was all good news. Not so much is why: The offense continually stalled out like a flooded Ford.
“That was the place I thought we have to get better at it,” Patterson said. “They weren’t that great against [the defense] in fall ball. We’re going to have to get a lot better down there. The best way to get better there is we have to run the football.”
Field goals, the coach noted, won’t get it done in the inflationary Big 12. The Frogs got inside the 20 seven times and scored touchdowns only twice.
“We just have get out there and execute. That’s all it comes down to,” Hights said of the red zone. “It’s just execution. It’s the first game, too. It’s early on. We’ll get it together, for sure.”
That’s true. Both lots of room and time to improve.
It also appears this quarterback situation will require more time to sort out.
Bartender, beer me.
