The TCU football program is rebuilding at the perfect time

The TCU football program may not be an exceptional one today, but the Horned Frogs definitely have the potential to be one soon.

Not even 10 years ago, the TCU Horned Frogs were quite the promising program, being regarded as a dark horse to make the College Football Playoff. But now, they are lucky to even reach a bowl game.

In response to such an upsetting downfall, the school recently parted ways with veteran head coach Gary Patterson, who was at the team’s helm for the majority of its success in the 21st century.

In other words, TCU is in full-on rebuild mode, in regards to both its on-field performance and sideline management. But while that is certainly news that no fan ever likes to hear, a bounce back for the Horned Frogs might not take overly long to develop.

A hastened return to relevance would predominantly ride on the upcoming changes being made to the Big 12.

Over the course of the next few seasons, the league will see a drastic change in membership, with both the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners heading off to the SEC. But while a loss of that magnitude is nearly impossible to recover from efficiently, the Big 12 has decided to bring in four powerful Group of Five programs, which is definitely better than nothing.

The move to consistent Power Five competition is never an easy one, though, no matter how good you’ve been against smaller foes in recent memory. With that said, all four will surely see a dip in formidability for the first few years in their new home.

This means that the TCU Horned Frogs will have a window of time in the near future that can be used for taking advantage of the noticeable drop in Big 12 toughness, and how hard could it possibly be for them to do that?

For reference, the Horned Frogs are going into this approaching season coming off of a 5-7 run from 2021; the only time that they’ve had fewer wins than that in the last two decades was in 2013 (4). Last season was also just their second time being ineligible to make a bowl game since that same year.

Simply put, the ugliness of the rebuilding process for TCU is just now starting to turn its head, so these next few falls will serve as the perfect opportunity for the Horned Frogs to get out as far ahead of it as possible.

Again, climbing back up is never easy, nor is it promised — even in situations such as these. However, don’t be surprised if TCU returns to hitting eight wins or so come four years from now.