TCU Football: Will Horned Frogs be pretenders or contenders in 2021?

It was not that long ago that TCU football had won 11 games in three out of four years and they were the biggest competition year in and year out for Oklahoma in the Big 12.

Erratic quarterback play and regression on defense has led to seasons with 5-7 wins over a three-year span and there are some out there wondering if Gary Patterson has anything left in terms of winning football and contending for conference titles after 21 seasons at TCU.

I think this is about to be a big bounce-back season for the Horned Frogs and I think they can contend for a spot in the Big 12 championship to play Oklahoma.

Patterson has long been regarded as one of the best coaches in all of college football and it is hard to disagree. He’s 178-74 in his time at Fort Worth and he has had TCU in big bowl games and contention for spots in the BCS title game and playoff spots. Since moving to the Big 12 from the Mountain West in 2012, TCU has been a little bit more up and down, which is to be expected when you see a giant leap up in weekly competition.

The biggest reason the Horned Frogs have not been able to get back to contention is their inability to find and develop a quarterback.

When they nearly made the playoff in 2014, Trevone Boykin was the face of the program and TCU had one of the best offenses in the country and if you ask a Horned Frog fan today, they will say they should have been in that season. My point being, whenever TCU has a good quarterback, you can expect this team to not only contend for Big 12 titles but even bigger prizes.

I think TCU has found their guy in Max Duggan and that will have this team as the most underrated heading into 2021.