Happy Homecoming!

The Frogs welcome Kansas in a game that will be interesting for a number of reasons:

• The Frogs want to keep this march up the polls going by getting to 7-0.
• Kansas always seems to give the Frogs headaches.
• The weather could play a factor late in the game.
• A chess match will be waged between Gary Patterson (and the TCU defense) and former TCU offensive coordinator Doug Meacham, who now directs the air raid at Rock Chalk.

Former TCU co-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham on the Frogs’ sideline in 2016. Meacham is now the offensive coordinator at Kansas. (photo by Leo Wesson)

KU is led by offensively by quarterback Peyton Bender, who’s thrown for 1,391 yards on the year and mostly looks for wide receiver Steven Sims, Jr. Sims has become a major weapon in this offense since the dismissal of the Jayhawks’ best player, LaQuvionte Gonzalez, just one day before the team opened fall camp. Gonzalez played his first two years of college football at Texas A&M. Last year, he caught 62 passes for 729 yards and was considered the go-to guy in the air raid. When KU runs the ball, they like to go to #10 Khalil Herbert and his 84 yards per game, but he’s been injured. Without Herbert, a running game that put up 367 yards a month ago vs. West Virginia suffers.

TCU’s defensive line will be a stern test for the KU offensive line, which is still trying to get center Mesa Ribordy back in the lineup.

The KU Defense is led by linebacker Joe Dineen, Jr. He has 77 tackles on the year and is an old-school player who seems to find his way to the ball on every play. Defensive end Dorance Armstrong, a Texan from Houston’s North Shore Senior High, says he wasn’t recruited by TCU, and that’s reason enough to make the Frogs pay. Kansas has 37 players from Texas, proof that KU Coach David Beaty’s promise to bring players from the Lone Star State to KU has been fulfilled.

The Jayhawks, losers of five in a row, will need emotion and all the stops pulled out for this one. Last week in a 45-0 loss to Iowa State, Kansas had 106 yards of total offense and were never in the game.

Tomorrow’s primetime game on Fox is KU’s first on the network since the 2008 Orange Bowl. It’s also its first night game on a major network since a 2009 loss at Texas.

We’ll talk to you on the TCU Sports Network at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

Until then,

Kick ‘Em High!