TCU Football: 2017 season preview, predictions

Offense

The TCU offense was going to be worse in 2016. There is no alternate universe where a team can return only two starters and put up similar numbers. This is even more true when one of the losses is the best quarterback your program has ever had. Trevone Boykin left with the school records for career passing yards, completions, and touchdown passes.

TCU was a middling Big 12 offense last season. They averaged 31 points per game, which was 52nd nationally but 8th in the Big 12 and 11 points off their total the previous year. Their total yards per game were down 100, to 463. Most of that came from the decline in the passing game.

Senior Kyle Hicks returns this season as the starting running back after a 1,042-yard, 12-touchdown year.

The Horned Frogs also bring back their top nine pass catchers. Although, it’s debatable whether Kenny Hill and his coaches are happy with that continuity. The Frogs’ dropped more balls than any other team last season. Hicks had the most catches on the team last season with 47 and was third on the team in receiving yards.

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Preseason All-Big 12 selection Austin Schlottman anchors an offensive line with four seniors and a sophomore that played in 12 games as a true freshman.

Will Hill be ‘Trill’?

It is somewhat unbelievable Kenny Hill is even on TCU if you flashback to the beginning of his career. Hill was supposed to be the next big thing at Texas A&M after Johnny Manziel. Many people called him “Kenny Football” as an ode to his predecessor.

After one start, “Kenny Trill” was born. Hill threw for 511 yards and three touchdowns while completing 73.3 percent of his passes in a 52-28 win at No. 9 South Carolina. Unfortunately for Hill and the Aggies, that was the high point.

Worsening play, including a propensity for interceptions, and an arrest for public intoxication spelled the end for Hill in College Station.

In his first season leading the TCU offense, Hill was productive. He threw for 3,208 yards with a 61.1 completion percentage. He also ran for 609 yards and 10 touchdowns. Regrettably, the interceptions followed him from A&M. Hill threw for 17 touchdowns against a league-worst 13 interceptions.

There are definitely reasons to believe his senior year will be better for Hill beyond the obvious of another year of experience. First, there is almost no way the receivers drop more than 35 balls again.

X-factor KaVontae Turpin was banged up last season but is a key weapon for Hill when he is healthy. Turpin was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team as a kick and punt returner.

Finally, Patterson brought in former Cal coach and Air Raid offense expert Sonny Dykes as an offensive analyst and consultant. If you’re going to run the offense and can’t get Mike Leach himself, Dykes is the next best thing.