The program with six conference titles since 2002, TCU returns 10 offensive starters, seven on defense and touts its record over the past three seasons as the Big 12’s second best both overall and in league play.
Sounds pretty good for 2017. It might be, too.
But there’s more to that story. Why has TCU seemingly taken one step back for every leap forward since it joined the Big 12 in 2012? For all the successes of 2014 and 2015 -- and it was quite a two-year run with 23 wins in 26 games -- what happened in 2016, when the Horned Frogs, picked to finish second in the Big 12, finished fifth?