Chandler Morris says an 'angry' TCU team led to team success last year

At this time last year, nobody in their right mind would have chosen the TCU Horned Frogs as one of two teams to reach the national championship game in their first season under head coach Sonny Dykes. But they did just that, going undefeated in the regular season and appearing in a national championship game for the first time in program history.

Horned Frogs’ quarterback Chandler Morris recently spoke with On3’s Andy Staples, and was asked why he believes last year’s team was able to defy the odds and achieve what they did.

“I think it was the want to,” Morris said. “I mean that senior class they’d been through so much, they experienced a lot of adversity through their years at TCU and that really drove them and made them angry almost. And whenever there’s a TCU football team that’s angry, I mean you go back and look at it, they win.”

TCU’s 2021 season was highlighted by head coach Gary Patterson resigning in the middle of the year following a 3-5 start and a 20-season-long tenure with the program. The Horned Frogs ended the season with a 5-7 for the second time in the last three seasons, as their senior class only had one winning season to their names since their arrival in 2019, which was in a 2020 year impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic where their bowl game was cancelled.

But in the same way the Horned Frogs would rip off back-to-back double-digit win seasons in 2014 and 2015 following a disappointing 4-8 finish the year prior, an angry TCU team went out and dominated last year in impressive fashion.

“So I mean it was definitely just a chip on their shoulder and it was a mindset. And we had the talent, we just had to put it together and we did,” Morris said.

TCU’s anger worked in their favor last season, but will they channel that same fire this season?

The Horned Frogs enter the 2023 season ranked the No. 17 team in the nation, projected to finish fifth in the conference according to the Big 12 preseason media poll despite coming off of a national championship appearance.

And Morris returns as the team’s starting quarterback this season after winning the job last year following fall camp, but lost it following an injury suffered in Week 1 versus Colorado where Max Duggan would take over and the rest would be history for the Horned Frogs.

With Morris having a chip on his shoulder and TCU being doubted yet again heading into the season, an angry Horned Frogs team could be poised to beat the odds yet again.