Welcome back to another edition of What Did We Learn. With the return of the football season, my weekly article returns, a two-year-long tradition now. At the end of every weekend, I release my weekly “what did we learn”—an opinionated editorial detailing what Frog fans can take away from the week before that might not appear in the box score.
Welcome back, I took a hiatus last week, because well frankly, I didn’t learn anything. Now, after the TCU Horned Frogs beat the West Virginia Mountaineers 23-17, I still feel like I didn’t learn anything from the game.
They won, which is what matters. Who cares what the stats say, who cares how the game goes, because they won. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t ugly, and it was closer than it should have been, but they got their second road win of the season.
Now, they have a bye week, before a brutal four-game stretch that determines what this season becomes, and what it could fail to be, so what did we learn from this weekend?
Oct 18, 2025; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; TCU Horned Frogs head coach Sonny Dykes on the sidelines during the first half of a game against the Baylor Bears at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images / Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
Let’s take a step back. The Frogs are 6-2. That record matters, and the wins matter. The losses matter too, though. They avoid a second half collapse, and they handle business in Manhattan, and the Frogs are 8-0 and probably ranked in the top-12. Those losses did happen though, and now they have their toughest four game stretch of the season, and they could finish from 6-6 to 10-2.
For eight quarters this season, out of 28, this team has looked like the one that they were talked about before the season started, dominating teams. The rest has been a puzzling mess, asking what happened and where that team went. The frustration lies in the fact that they have shown it, shown what they can be.
It’s not just an overall game perception either, with moments throughout the contests also mind-boggling. At times, the offense is fluid, with a balanced attack that’s a work of art to watch march down the field. Then, other drives, they abandoned what worked, opting for screens and slants that defenses have no problem sniffing out.
There might be a lot of “what if” at season end regarding the two losses, they also might not matter as well. They can still backdoor their way into the Big 12 championship, they can still find a way to make none of the losses matter, but now all they have to do is win.