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Reps, reps and more reps. That's what TCU got out of its Week 2 bye. There was, after all, no need to go back to the drawing board. The Horned Frogs' new Air Raid-inspired offense did too many things right in a 48-14 win over Samford back on Aug. 30.  Gary Patterson wasn't joking this week when he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that TCU's offense hasn't installed anything new in four weeks. No need. The offense's successful launch made it easy to devote the first week of September to preparing for anything Minnesota might try Saturday.
Changing schemes worked wonders for Week 1. The number of plays (96), total yards (555) and first downs (33) the Horned Frogs put up against Samford were new single-game highs since joining the Big 12 in 2012. The offense matched its Big 12-best of 21 plays gaining 10-plus yards, and its 355 passing yards were second-best since 2012. TCU enters this week averaging an offensive snap every 20.2 seconds. That clip is right up there with the Big 12's fastest offenses, Texas Tech (19.2 seconds) and Baylor (19.9). Patterson no doubt appreciates all of this data, but in a wide-ranging interview in April about offensive renovation, the head coach said he's setting no goals or benchmarks for offensive production. "Still comes down to scoring one more point," Patterson said. Even back then, Patterson was already starting to look ahead to facing Minnesota, a ground-and-pound team with the No. 2 rusher in the Big Ten (David Cobb) that, as Patterson admiringly put it this week, can lull you to sleep and then run you over. "I haven't been worried about anybody else except a little bit of Minnesota," Patterson said this spring, "because of how many tight ends they use. If we were running the old offense, I wouldn't worry about it, because we saw it [in practice]." So in fall camp and the bye week, Patterson dedicated time to making sure his defense got comfortable facing those power sets that TCU has little use for today outside of the goal line. Another fall camp philosophy of Patterson's that hasn't gone away: He reserves the right to play backup quarterback Matt Joeckel, the Texas A&M graduate transfer who was beat out by Trevone Boykin. He wants to have both quarterbacks up to speed, and though Boykin is undoubtedly the starter, the two are still listed as the co-No. 1 QB this week. What Patterson and co-offensive coordinators Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie need to see this week, against a Gopher defense that currently ranks 94th in FBS in total defense, is Boykin's advanced ability to manage the offense and get the Frogs out of bad looks and into the right plays with his pre-snap decision-making. "Running the offense, execution, running it when they don’t have numbers in the box, throwing it when they have too many, doing all the things that a quarterback has to do to manage the game and operate it,” Patterson told the Star-Telegram this week. “Doug does a great job on the sideline seeing all that. You’re going to get some different coverages, possibly more man coverage in this ballgame. So now you’ve got to beat 1-on-1s. There’s the first thing you’ve got to see that you got better at.” But here's the upside: After this weekend, there's another bye and another chance to get better before playing an SMU team whose coach resigned this week. Get past Minnesota and this September can't get much cushier for the Horned Frogs. By the time they face Oklahoma at home on Oct. 4, it'll finally be time to cash in on all those extra reps.
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