Editor’s note: The Frogs beat BYU 44-11 on Oct. 14 behind freshman quarterback Josh Hoover. Coach Sonny Dykes said leading to the game that players were desperate to turn the season around. Offensive lineman Andrew Coker breaks it all down in his weekly diary as TCU looks for a little revenge Oct. 21 at Kansas State. 

We started getting to that point of desperation, with the backup quarterback and were’re in a critical moment in the season where it can really turn one direction. I think that’s really what Coach Dykes meant by desperate.

It’s a turning point we had to make. We had to figure out what team we want to be, who we are as people and who they are as coaches, and I think we answered the bell.

Courtesy of TCU athletics

We had to throw the ball a whole bunch, but we knew that going in. BYU was a team that wanted to have one more player than we could block. They were a team that wanted to stop the run. So what we tried to do was spread them out early by throwing the ball to try to get them out of that, and they stayed in it. It worked out, though.

That was a good, 4-1 BYU team. They beat Arkansas at Arkansas. They’ve done good things. The fact that we can show up and play like that shows you what kind of team we can be. Now, we have to show up every day and keep getting better and keep dominating the little things, but that shows us what we can do.

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We have to stay focused. Football is the most humbling sport out there. I think all sports are poetic in humbling you, in a sense, but football is a most humbling. Just when you think that you figured it all out, and you’ve got the players, coaches, facilities and everything, it’ll drag you right back down.  

 We don’t have to worry about that with Josh Hoover. He has always been ready. Nobody prepares like that guy. You saw what he did last week, and it’s the same thing this week. He was texting me stuff that Kansas State was doing, and I hadn’t even watched tape yet and I watch it early. 

Sunday, we’re only watching the previous game. I usually watch it a little early, and he texted me before we even watched the last game’s film. “You see what K-State is doing?” I was like, “I’ve only watched four plays.”  

 You want to try to never circle games on the calendar, but this one means a little bit more. A lot of those Kansas State players have what we want. We don’t have a Big 12 championship ring because of them last year. That’s what we wanted, and they have one.  

They had a first-round pick at defensive end last year. They still have a good defensive end, and the defensive line, in general, is solid. They have they have a freshman linebacker who’s still trying to figure thigs out. Besides that, they have an older group. 

 They’re a good team. They’ve had some hiccups this year just like we’ve had. Whoever goes into the game and plays the cleanest ball probably is going win the game. 

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