5 college football teams who could be the next TCU in 2023
By John Buhler
The 2022 TCU Horned Frogs may have changed college football, but are not that unique to it.
The 2022 college football season will be remembered for The Power of The Hypnotoad plucky TCU harnessed before getting Frogstomped by Georgia in the national championship game.
It was a cute story, but Sonny Dykes’ Horned Frogs will be back in some capacity going forward. They will need to recruit at a top-15 level to attempt to sustain this. Fortunately for them, they are the first Big 12 program to win a single playoff game. Lincoln Riley is in utter shambles right now. TCU will regress to some degree, but you cannot deny what Dykes did in year one at Fort Worth.
Whether it is 2022 TCU or 2013 Auburn, a sub-.500 Power Five team will come out of nowhere.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: You can’t deny the serious boom-or-bust potential with this new head coach.
- Page 2: No incoming head coach is better equipped of doing the lord’s work than this guy.
- Page 3: This traditional power has the right head coach, but their arch rivals are menacing.
- Page 4: No Power 5 program we cared less about in 2022 will be cared more about in 2023.
- Page 5: If the second-year “pop” theory works, this is the Power 5 team to bank on, alright.
College football: 5 teams who have what it takes to be the 2023 version of TCU
Kenny Dillingham has the potential to awaken this sleeping giant in The Valley
Look. I really want this work, but I do have major reservations about Kenny Dillingham taking over at his alma mater this soon. We are the same age, and I can barely trust myself to eat regularly. Then again, he is running a Power 5 program in a recruiting hotbed, and I am writing about… For upside reasons, I am utterly fascinated by what Dillingham could to taking over at Arizona State.
The Pac-12 is in the midst of a bit of a coaching renaissance. No easy wins will be had. Therefore, Dillingham will have no choice but to play up as he learns the ropes at his dream job. The good news for him is Arizona State is an ideal transfer portal destination. He did land Sun Devils legacy Jaden Rashada as his quarterback of the future. Can Arizona State be eight wins better in 2023?
Admittedly, I don’t see that happening, but this team is winning more than three games this fall. There is a certain positive upward trajectory Arizona State football has not had in years. He may be chasing the Ghost of Frank Kush forever in Tempe, but we have seen what elite Sun Devil football looks like not all that long ago with Jake Plummer and Pat Tillman (RIP) becoming college legends.
We are probably about two years away, but Arizona State is not going to stay irrelevant for long.