Jake Trotter, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Strong and weak: TCU Horned Frogs

Since last week, we've been examining the strongest and weakest positions for each team in the Big 12 going into the fall.

We continue the series below with the TCU Horned Frogs:

Strongest position: Quarterback

Duh, right?

With its three-headed monster, Ohio State boasts the best collection of quarterbacks in the country. But no returning quarterback had a better overall season last year than TCU's Trevone Boykin.

Boykin, who began his career in Fort Worth as a running back before ending the 2013 season as a wide receiver, finally found a home in 2014 as a deadly quarterback in the Doug Meacham/Sonny Cumbie hurry-up spread offense. Boykin completed 61 percent of his passes, threw 33 touchdowns and finished fourth nationally in total offense. All while being the full-time starter at quarterback for the first time. All while adapting to a completely new offense.

With a season operating the spread now in his back pocket, Boykin could be even more lethal in 2015. Coach Gary Patterson said that during the spring, Boykin was making audibles to calls the Horned Frogs didn't even have in their playbook last season.

As for backup quarterback, Patterson called it his biggest concern of the offense (which also underscored just how loaded the Horned Frogs are elsewhere offensively), as senior walk-on Bram Kohlhausen won the No. 2 job coming out of spring camp. Still, there is talent coming up. Foster Sawyer and Grayson Muehlstein were highly talented signees last year. Ex-Texas A&M starting QB Kenny Hill has also revealed he's transferring to TCU, which boosts this position group even more.

Weakest position: Linebacker

Graduation completely wiped out the Horned Frogs at linebacker, where they featured one of the top one-two punches at the position in the country last season in All-American Paul Dawson and his hard-nosed wingman, Marcus Mallet. Key backup Jonathan Anderson also graduated, leaving TCU with a blank slate at linebacker heading into the offseason.

True freshman Mike Freeze actually won a starting job in spring camp on the inside, despite also missing his senior season of high school with an injury. Junior Sammy Douglas is currently atop the depth chart at strong side linebacker. But he is being pushed by another true freshman in Alec Dunham, who sits behind him on the two deep.

Freeze and Dunham could turn out to be the next Dawson and Mallet down the line. But the fact TCU is relying on true freshmen here shows it could be a rebuilding season at the position, which is sure to endure some growing pains.

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