Editor’s note: Andrew Coker, a captain on the TCU football team, said the Frogs must learn from what went wrong Sept. 30 against West Virginia and make the necessary adjustments before visiting Iowa State on Oct. 7.

Every time we have a loss, especially a game we should have won, we really do a lot of self-reflection. The coaches ask us to think critically about ourselves and our plays. They do the same for themselves. You hope it leads to a charge, especially losing two now for a team that has really high expectations. Hopefully it really, really lights a match and inspires a change.

Courtesy of TCU Athletics

I thought that we had a wake-up call against Colorado, but I guess we have another one. We just have to take that wake-up call and try to get back on the right track.

As an offense, we discovered that we have to be on the same page all the time in order for us to go. We shot ourselves in the foot too much against West Vitginia, especially in the third quarter. Too many self-inflicted mistakes that could have been avoided. As an offense, we realized that we cannot manage those mistakes, and those mistakes really, really hurt us. We have to do our best to stay out of those situations.

It’s really just a heightened attention to detail. We have to really, really focus on the things that we didn’t do well and find a way to do better. It’s nothing drastic to change.

Iowa State is probably going be a similar game to what we faced last week. They have a really good defense. We’re going to have to show up on offense. We can’t have dry spells like we did. It’s going to be a test, and we’re going to have to rise to the occasion.

They’re just solid on all three levels defensively. They don’t do anything too crazy or too flashy. They’re just solid.

They run the same defense we run, the 3-3-5. They’re kind of the originators of it. It’s very similar defense, but it’s also slightly different. It definitely helps that we see it in practice. It just helps seeing certain coverages and fronts. Although the personnel is very different, you know what to expect, in a sense. It’s very helpful.

Honestly, it’s a really, really good atmosphere up there. It’s a hard place to play and they play really well at home.

We’ve had a good week. I’m excited to see what we do. 

Courtesy of TCU Athletics