WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – All nods to youth and to the head coach’s comfort level notwithstanding, TCU found its quarterback here Saturday night.
Which seems an odd thing to say, perhaps, after a contest in which the Horned Frogs completed only 8 of 24 passes for 75 yards.
But this is a TCU season to dream on, not to just play for another Cheez-It Bowl invitation. And Max Duggan, a high school 12th grader just one September ago, fed the imaginations Saturday by helping lead the Frogs to a 34-13 win over the Boilermakers.
Of course, you won’t hear the head coach making any announcements yet. Gary Patterson dispenses lineup changes only on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know.
“We’re still going to have two guys play — they’re both going to play,” Patterson said, deflecting the inevitable postgame question Saturday night. “You guys, you’re not going to get an answer all year, so that we understand.”
Patterson was being properly respectful of graduate transfer Alex Delton, whose maturity and leadership – he was named a team captain – have been embraced by the locker room and by the coaches. But at some point this season, TCU is going to have to pick one over the other, and Saturday hinted that that time may be nigh.
Delton started for the second week in a row, but he struggled. His first pass was intercepted. His three possessions produced only three first downs, none of them through the air.
Duggan, meanwhile, entered the game midway in the first quarter and played the rest of the game, except for one drive just before halftime. Delton ended up logging 18 plays at quarterback; Duggan played 64.
You can draw your own conclusions. The freshman’s lone sporadic deficiency was a lack of passing touch on short passes. Receivers not named Jalen Reagor were of little help.
“We have to catch the football,” Patterson said. “If we’re going to beat other teams, we’re going to have to catch the football.”
At the same time, the coach added, “Max is going to have to understand that he can’t always throw a fastball. Holy moly — the guys probably have dents in their hands.”
The play-by-play sheet listed two dropped passes. I counted at least four or five. The receivers had all summer to get accustomed to Duggan’s passes – and Duggan to them.
“We’ve got to throw a catchable ball,” Patterson said. “He’ll learn all that. But it’s good to win and learn from it, not lose and learn from it.”
As for the drops, he added, “You’ve got to catch it. We’ve got to get Taye Barber back. We’ve got to get Mikel Barkley back.
“Players didn’t make plays. The guys who were dropping were all redshirt freshmen.”
Duggan’s performance, however, shouldn’t be measured in aerial yards. Rather, he was an increasingly steady influence as the game went on.
Think about it – a freshman from the upper end of the Corn Belt, from Iowa, playing in front of 60,037 in a Big Ten stadium, and he handled it like an upperclassman.
“I think Max played really well,” said senior running back Darius Anderson. “I think he played real poised. He didn’t seem nervous at all. Played real calm and relaxed.”
Offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie helped by not overloading Duggan’s plate. The TCU offensive line pushed gaping holes into the Boilermakers’ middle all night long. Anderson rushed for 179 yards, and Sewo Olonilua gained 106.
TCU finished with 346 yards on the ground. Purdue had 23.
Duggan made his last throw midway in the third quarter. The Frogs did not attempt a pass in the final 22 minutes of the game.
Purdue’s lone touchdown of the night came with 3:40 left in the game on a 54-yard pass play from Jack Plummer to Amad Anderson.
“The score says it all,” Boilermakers coach Jeff Brohm said. “It was a dismal performance by our football team, a dismal day for all of us.”
Being drubbed at home in front of a black-shirted full house didn’t help Brohm’s mood, nor his assessment. Patterson, for his part, wasn’t high-fiving after the game, as if he’d just knocked off, say, Ohio State.
The Frogs coach knows he probably is going to have to complete more than eight passes to win on most Big 12 nights.
But it’s a start. Unsteady quarterback play was an undesirable feature of TCU’s season-opening win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Duggan squelched some of those concerns with his play here Saturday night.
Don’t be surprised, if the coaches start Delton against SMU on Saturday. Coaches like experienced quarterbacks, especially against a longtime rival.
Another game like Duggan had at Purdue, however, could prompt a sudden, official coronation. After all, it’s a season to be anchoring dreams, not waiting for some third-tier bowl invite.
