TCU head coach Sonny Dykes had to shuffle quarterbacks last year due to a Chandler Morris injury. It turned out just fine as the Horned Frogs went to a national title game.
This year, it looks like Dykes will do the same thing. Only this time, he’ll make the move seven weeks into the season.
Morris was injured at Iowa State last week and had to walk off the field on crutches. Dykes said his starting quarterback will be week-to-week with a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his knee.
It means TCU will turn to redshirt freshman Josh Hoover as BYU comes to town on Saturday.
“Chandler basically did the same thing he did to his knee last year,” Dykes said on his weekly TCU television show. “... Probably going to be at least a month. So Josh Hoover has an opportunity now to step in and take over. Excited about what he can do.
“It is going to be a different team with Josh as our quarterback. We will see how we go from here.”
The wrinkle will complicate things for the Cougars. They are coming off a bye week and presumably spent plenty of their efforts preparing for Morris.
The Oklahoma transfer has thrown for 1,513 yards and 12 touchdowns this year. There wasn’t extensive tape on Morris as a one-year starter, but it was more than Hoover. The Dallas native threw just four passes before Saturday. In his relief of Morris, Hoover went 11-of-19 for 119 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
“They are going to have a capable guy,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. “The last guy they had as a backup took them to a national championship game.”
Sitake was referring to Max Duggan, who nearly won the Heisman Trophy last year after he took over for Morris. But the two situations are quite different.
Duggan was a three-year starter heading into last season. When Dykes came in from SMU, Duggan lost his starting spot in fall camp. He had a proven body of work prior to being put back as the starter.
Plus, the timeline was different. Morris got hurt in his first start against Colorado. Duggan played the entire year other than 27 pass attempts. This is a mid-season change.
“The thing we got to do is focus in on the things [Hoover] likes and he is good at,” Dykes said on Tuesday. “That has been the big challenge for us offensively this week. Number one, what can we execute consistently? Number two, what is he comfortable with and what does it he like... It will be a little bit of a moving target as we go through it.”
Dykes said he wouldn’t have to limit the playbook this week. It is more about tailoring the calls to him.
Hoover is from Rockwall-Heath, a 6A football school in Texas (the highest division). He threw for nearly 10,000 yards in his career and led Heath to deep playoff runs as a junior and senior. He won five playoff games during that stretch, and Heath went 21-5 in two years.
He was one of the first quarterbacks Dykes recruited when he got to Fort Worth.
BYU defensive back Crew Wakley said the change to Hoover isn’t all bad. During the bye week, he said defensive coordinator Jay Hill spent more time on TCU’s scheme rather than individual players. At this stage in the season, Dykes likely can’t make significant scheme adjustments in under a week.
“It is unfortunate for him,” Wakley said of Morris. “I’m sure that will come up [in meetings] for us. But it doesn’t really change much for us. They could have anybody out there and we are going to have our game plan and execute it.
Follow @kevinreynolds30