TCU’s plan to stop Michigan revealed, and it’s misguided

Sonny Dykes’ plan to for TCU to slow down Michigan should work out fantastically, in theory.

Let’s just say Sonny Dykes and the TCU Horned Frogs are going to need to harness all the power The Hypnotoad could ever hope to provide if they want to beat the Michigan Wolverines in the Fiesta Bowl to reach the national championship.

Dykes’ Horned Frogs became the first Big 12 team not named Oklahoma to make the College Football Playoff. Although TCU came up short in its conference title bout, the Frogs did enough in its perfect regular season to merit national semifinal inclusion. Of course, they have to go up against an undefeated juggernaut in Michigan to have any shot at playing for a national title.

Dykes appeared on The Herd With Colin Cowherd ahead of the Fiesta Bowl. While the TCU head coach gave Jim Harbaugh’s program a ton of credit, his team’s plan to slow down the punishing Michigan offense is as much of a pipe dream as it is misguided. If TCU were to pull this thing off, then, by all means, that is fantastic for them. However, that approach is not beating Georgia, too…

Dykes wants to stop the run and have Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy be the one to beat them.

"“That’s gonna be the big challenge for us — stopping the run and make the quarterback beat us. He’s certainly capable of doing it, but we gotta stop the run because that stops their offense,” said Dykes on The Herd With Colin Cowherd about trying to stop the Michigan offense in the Fiesta Bowl."

It is not like McCarthy is a total scrub at the position, as he was a former five-star coming out…

Frankly, McCarthy is the biggest reason why this year’s team could potentially upset Georgia.

Sonny Dykes’ reveals TCU’s misguided plan to stop the Michigan offense

Yes, in theory, this is the way to beat Michigan. However, TCU does not have the players or the defensive depth to pull this off. Run defense is not the Frogs’ forte defensively, while Michigan won the Joe Moore Award for the best offensive line in the country for the second year in a row. In short, Michigan’s offensive strength is a huge weakness for TCU’s middling run defense.

Even if TCU were to slow down the run to put the ball in McCarthy’s hands to try to win the Fiesta Bowl, he has more talent than his predecessor Cade McNamara. It became apparent that Michigan needed to make the change at quarterback after how the Orange Bowl went vs. Georgia last College Football Playoff. McCarthy helps close the gap on Georgia to make Michigan stronger.

The best way for TCU to beat Michigan is to steal a few possessions away from the Wolverines’ offense and try to muddy it up a bit. Of course, this game is being played in pristine conditions inside of a dome, but you get the picture. Perhaps what TCU needs to do is to take a page out of Chris Klieman’s Kansas State playbook, you know, the team that actually won the Big 12 this year.

TCU can beat Michigan, but beating Michigan and Georgia back-to-back is probably too daunting.

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