TCU football notebook: Kendal Briles pleased with offensive progress

What’s the one thing that held TCU football back last season?

It wasn’t talent. It was execution, or a lack thereof in critical situations like the red zone or goal line.

How much differently would we view TCU’s season if Chandler Morris doesn’t throw two interceptions in the red zone against Colorado? Or if the Horned Frogs didn’t settle for three missed field goals in a three-point loss to West Virginia at home? The line between making a bowl game and spending December at home is often just a few plays.

Practice No. 7 saw the Horned Frogs take a deeper dive into situational work with the Horned Frogs starting practice with an extensive two-minute drill for the first- and second-team offenses.

There will be a heavy emphasis on situational moments like these over the next few practices. Coach Sonny Dykes said its imperative TCU shows progress on that front in order to get back to the program’s standards.

“We’ve had a lot of specific reps so far,” Dykes said. “We worked red zone, we worked goal line, we’ve worked two-point plays... We’ve had a chance to address a lot of different situations. As we’ve talked about many times, we were a historically bad situational football team last year. Obviously that’s something we needed to address.”

The media was able to watch the first- and second-team offenses Wednesday navigate the two-minute drill with different results. The starting offense got off to a strong start with Josh Hoover completing two out routes to Drake Dabney and Savion Williams. The pass to Williams had to be fitted into a tight window due to coverage from safety Jamel Johnson.

However, after a short scramble on first down, Hoover threw an incomplete pass on second, was sacked by Johnny Hodges on third down before his pass to a tight end ended up short of the sticks on fourth.

The second-team offense fared much better as Ken Seals started the two-minute drill hot with a strike over the middle to a diving Braylon James for a first down and another pass to Chase Curtis that picked up a first. After hitting Curtis in the flat for a short gain, Seals was able to draw the defense offsides and he launched a vertical pass up to the sideline to Blake Nowell.

Nowell made one of the highlight plays of camp as he kept his concentration and was able to reel the pass in after it was batted into the air. The offense experienced setbacks once they got inside the 10, but on fourth-and-goal Seals hit James again on an out-breaking route for a touchdown during the period.

While the starters may not have scored during the open media portion, the entire unit has taken a step forward since the beginning of camp with more conversions and scoring plays over the last few days of practice. Offensive coordinator Kendal Briles said he’s pleased with how the offense is progressing.

“I think some of our struggles (last year) were turning the ball over and taking negative plays,” Briles said Wednesday. “You’ve got to try and eliminate those things. We’ve done a really, really good job of protecting the football. We haven’t put the ball on the ground.

“I think guys being on the same page, having another year in the offense and they’re not thinking, just playing and reacting. I think they’re seeing things differently.”

Turnovers were frequent during spring practice as Seals and freshman Hauss Hejny got more action due to Hoover’s injury. With him back as the starter, the mistakes have been less frequent. It also helps that the Horned Frogs are much healthier at receiver and were able to make up some ground over the summer working out together.

“I’m very pleased with where we’re at, we all are offensively as a coaching staff,” Briles said. “The NCAA basically allows OTAs (organized team activities) in June, it allows you to continue to progress with your players.

“We’ve been able to put a lot on the guys and they responded. We haven’t had very many mental errors from guys that have been here and played.”

The progress has been steady and now an offense which looked overmatched at times during the spring is now beginning to hold its own against TCU’s attacking style of defense.

There’s still a ways to go before camp concludes and the focus turns completely to Stanford, but the Horned Frogs seem satisfied where they are currently as the program inches towards the halfway point of training camp.

TCU will return for practice No. 8 on Thursday at 8:45 a.m.