Sonny Dykes on Josh Hoover's first start: 'He's playing well'

The TCU Horned Frogs are in complete control of their Week 7 matchup against the 4-1 BYU Cougars. As the Horned Frogs headed to the half with a 31-8 lead, the ESPN team covering the game caught up with their head coach, Sonny Dykes, to get his thoughts on the first half performance.

Entering into this Saturday’s game, TCU had more questions than answers at the quarterback spot as starting quarterback Chandler Morris went down last week against Iowa State. That injury allowed an opportunity for backup quarterback Josh Hoover to make his first career start. And, according to his head coach, Hoover has looked pretty good halfway through his first collegiate start.

“He’s playing well,” said Dykes. “He’s done a nice job of getting the ball to a bunch of different receivers. Our receivers, they’ve played for the ball; we dropped a couple. The fourth down, down here, that we failed to execute really hurt us, and that was a significant thing. But Josh has been great. He’s done a good job taking care of the ball for the most part and has done a good job running our offense.”

After last week’s loss against the Cyclones, Dykes wanted his program to get back to playing winning football; the same kind of winning football that allowed TCU to reach the national championship game last season, and beat Michigan in the CFP Semifinals. And so far through the first half, his players have stepped up to the challenge. But what must they do in the second half to maintain this lead and secure a victory at home against one of the hotter teams in the Big 12 this season?

“Well, the big thing is we get the kickoff opening the second half,” said Dykes. “So, we need to do a good job sustaining a drive, take care of the ball, (and) not give up big plays on defense. I think our defense played outstanding so far. And we gotta do a good job of keeping those guys off the field.”

If nothing else, TCU has played suffocating defense on BYU. They opened the game with a pick-six of the Cougars quarterback Kedon Slovis. Since then, the Horned Frogs’ defense has throttled BYU, limiting them to just 108 yards of total offense. They have also forced two turnovers, the aforementioned interception, and a fumble, along with allowing BYU to convert only one of their nine third-down attempts.