TCU Athletics
Max Duggan leading the charge at TCU.
TCU announced last week an athletics center and renovation expansion project totaling a whopping $40 million. The architects might need to be recalled to draw up an expanded trophy case.
The laurels keep pouring in for TCU’s football team, which set itself apart from the Big 12 and much of the rest of the nation in 2022.
On Thursday night, man-of-the-hour Max Duggan, the protagonist in the story of our college football season, won the highly coveted Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.
Not too bad for a guy who wasn’t even the starter when the season kicked off in Colorado.
Meanwhile, teammate Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson has been named the Jim Thorpe Award Winner, presented to the top defensive back in college football. Head Coach Sonny Dykes, who led a TCU rebound from 5-7 a year ago to the College Football Playoff, was selected national coach of the year.
All three announcements were made in front of a live national television audience on The Home Depot College Football Awards on ESPN.
Presumably, the Horned Frogs are not falling into the trap of resting on any of these laurels. There is well-known saying about the pitfalls of doing that. Bigger things are ahead. No. 3 TCU will play No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl in a national semifinal on Dec. 31.
Duggan became the first TCU player to win the award, named for the Horned Frogs’ Heisman Trophy-winning star quarterback — No. 8 in our hearts and whom we’ve forgiven for being born in Dallas — who led his team to the national championship in 1938. Duggan was chosen over Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Southern California’s Caleb Williams, like Duggan, also both Heisman Trophy finalists.
Duggan's trip up the East Coast began this week. He went to Baltimore to receive the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and will be in New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation on Saturday. The Heisman, of course, is in play for Duggan, who was named a finalist this week for college football’s most coveted individual award. His chief rivals are Stroud and Williams, who is considered the favorite.
Take that with a grain of salt. TCU itself was far from a favorite entering the season. A preseason poll forecast the Horned Frogs finishing seventh in the Big 12. That prediction wasn't exactly Ezekiel prescient stuff because the ultimate result was something akin to a weatherman forecasting snow in these parts. The wisest of weather sages, a Mr. Taft, once advised that you don’t predict snow in North Texas until you see it.
So, until we receive news that Duggan hasn't won the Heisman Trophy, we're not believing any of the prophesies.
Duggan has accounted for more than 3,700 total yards, including 3,321 passing, and 36 touchdowns. Duggan led the Big 12 in passing yards and TDs thrown, 30. He has also thrown only four interceptions on 368 passing attempts.
Duggan was the second TCU quarterback to be selected an O’Brien finalist. Trevone Boykin was a finalist in 2014 and 2015.
Hodges-Tomlinson is the second defensive back from TCU to win the Thorpe Award. Tre’von Moehrig, now a defensive back for the Las Vegas Raiders, won in 2020. Hodges-Tomlinson led overall ballots as a 55.56% first-place vote favorite in nationwide voting.
Hodges-Tomlinson was a leader on TCU’s defense and became one of the most reliable players for the 2022. He played the most snaps (857) among cornerbacks in the Big 12.
Hodges-Tomlinson recorded 42 tackles, including two for loss, three interceptions, 11 passes broken up, and a forced fumble.