Everyone wants to be the next TCU.
The Horned Frogs nearly completed the biggest turnaround in college football history, but were one win short of winning the national championship. Sonny DykesFirst year leading the program.
How did Dykes create a football miracle? A four-win team with multiple double-digit losses led to one of the most explosive offenses in the country, with seven comeback wins. How did he transform into a powerhouse that beat the odds?
Mid-tier programs across the Power Five are looking for these answers and are looking to recreate the horned frog recipe this offseason. A combination, right? The horned frog didn’t need a miracle. They added 14 transfers. Two of them became main tacklers.They turned from starters to backups Max Duggan at quarterback Chandler Morris I collapsed from my injury. They’ve also hired a staff of hungry risk-takers, especially at the coordinator’s place.
The procedure seems simple, but what TCU achieved was an outlier in sports where blue blood still reigns like Georgia and Alabama. Yet there are programs that don’t make it to the college football playoffs just before they become the next glass ceiling smashers. who are they? Well, I’m glad you asked.
This is not just a list made up of teams that can turn a four-win season in 2022 into an undefeated march to 2023 and a championship strut to the College Football Playoffs. A season like this rarely comes. And when that happens, those teams typically fail to win national titles (his TCU in 2022 and his Auburn in 2013). Context is everything. Many programs have hit their heads in college football’s blue-blooded bottom with his 10-win and his 11-win seasons over the past decade. But some are finally in a position to break through.
These are programs that are seen as a threat to the Blue Bloods thanks to their strong recruiting classes, veteran leadership, a sprinkling of magic from the Transfer Portal, and a coaching staff that can lead them to the Promised Land.
