Meet Your Insider
Well, howdy, Frog fans, and welcome to The Cover Window! I'm Ryder Galloway, your TCU insider. I'm a Stockyards cowboy who became a finance guy, so I wear boots with a quarter-zip and I explain defenses as cattle drives. You've got your point riders, your flank riders and your drag riders, and when everyone holds their spot, nobody gets loose. I travel with this team and I live with this team. Fair warning: if something goes wrong, anything at all, I will probably blame Dallas. Flat tire? Dallas. Missed field goal? Dallas. When we win, it's "Yeehaw!" and my hat goes flying. When we lose, I mutter about Dallas some more. And the best sound in football is me hollering "Yeehaw, that's a turnover!" Every week you'll get the players, the coaches and the matchup, Fort Worth style.
The School in 60 Seconds
TCU has a national title on the wall. The 1938 Horned Frogs went 11-0, beat Carnegie Tech 15-7 in the Sugar Bowl and won the national championship. Quarterback Davey O'Brien won the Heisman Trophy that year. The 2010 team went 13-0 and won the Rose Bowl, and in 2022 Sonny Dykes led TCU all the way to the College Football Playoff national championship game. Home is Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, listed at 46,000. Not one bit of that history happened in Dallas. And the rivalry with Baylor has a name now, the Revivalry, and we just won it in Waco. Ten more minutes on that and I'd be throwing my hat again.
The Coach and the Scheme
Sonny Dykes was hired on Nov. 29, 2021, and in his first season he took the Frogs to the national title game. The 2026 numbers say defense is driving this herd. TCU allows only 12.2 points and 264.2 yards a game. Opponents average 2.88 yards a carry and 172.2 passing yards, and the Frogs have 14 sacks. Every rider is holding his spot. The offense throws for 282.3 yards a game and averages 24.0 points. The run game needs work, at 3.27 yards a carry, and the blockers have given up 17 sacks. Turnovers are close: 9 lost, 8 forced.
Players to Know
QB Jaden Craig: 1,694 yards and 10 TD. At Baylor he went 21 of 36 for 294 yards and two touchdowns.
WR Jordan Dwyer: 6 catches for 150 yards at Baylor. WR Ed Small: 7 catches, 91 yards and a touchdown in that game.
RB Jeremy Payne: team-high 429 rushing yards and 2 TD.
DE Koron Hayward: three of TCU's four sacks at Baylor. S Jamel Johnson: intercepted a pass at Baylor. LB Hudson Hooper: team-high 33 tackles.
The Conference Picture
TCU is 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12, 2-1 at home and 1-1 on the road. The Frogs are not ranked. All three losses were close: 15-10 to North Carolina at a neutral site, 21-13 at UCF and 17-10 at home to BYU. The offense needs to catch up to this defense, and a home win would get us back to.500 in the league.
This Week: West Virginia (4-3) at TCU (3-3)
Saturday, Oct. 24 · 11 a.m. CT (noon ET) · Amon G. Carter Stadium · ESPN2. Forecast: 74 degrees and mostly sunny.
Last week: TCU won the Revivalry at Baylor 17-6. The defense held the Bears without a touchdown and kept them scoreless in the second half. West Virginia beat Cincinnati 45-42 on a 35-yard field goal as time ran out.
Our offense vs. their defense: West Virginia allows 34.0 points and 483.9 yards a game, and 310.1 passing yards. Craig to Dwyer and Small should have room to run.
Their offense vs. our defense: this is the big cattle drive. West Virginia runs on 72% of its plays and came into last week averaging 295.5 rushing yards a game. QB Michael Hawkins Jr. leads FBS in rushing touchdowns, and RB Cam Cook is fifth in rushing yards. Our run defense allows 2.88 a carry. Cincinnati held them to 134 rushing yards last week, but Hawkins threw for 464.
Series: West Virginia leads 8-6.
One more set of numbers for the notebook: this team has 14 sacks and has allowed 17, with 8 takeaways against 9 giveaways, and it has 7 rushing and 10 passing touchdowns.
Availability: I found no official availability report for either team as of Oct. 18, 2026.
What decides it: (1) Can our front keep Hawkins and Cook boxed in? (2) Can our offense finally get the run game going? It's averaging 3.27 a carry. (3) Turnovers. Yeehaw time.
And to Jolene Buckhannon, West Virginia's insider: ma'am, I hear you don't miss. Neither does our defense. Welcome to Fort Worth, where the West begins.
Local Flavor (unsponsored, not an ad)
Watching in Fort Worth? The original Fuzzy's Taco Shop on Bryant Irvin Road. Tacos, not Dallas.
My call: TCU Horned Frogs 34, West Virginia Mountaineers 22.