Craig voted captain before his first TCU snap
Teammates voted transfer quarterback Jaden Craig a team captain before his debut, and TCU opens the season this morning in Dublin against the same North Carolina team it beat in Bill Belichick's first game last year.
Craig earns the armband before his debut
Sonny Dykes' team held its annual captains' vote deep in fall camp this month, and the result says everything about how fast Jaden Craig has taken over the quarterback room: the Harvard transfer, who hasn't played a Power 4 snap yet, was one of five players his teammates picked to lead them into 2026. He's joined by linebacker Hudson Hooper, safety Jamel Johnson, defensive lineman Ansel Din-Mbuh and offensive lineman Ben Taylor-Whitfield, five players the program says represent its three pillars — tough, physical, disciplined. It is a fast turnaround for a guy who was throwing to Ivy League corners a year ago; TCU's own account of his arrival is worth a read.
TCU Football turned the announcement into the latest episode of its "Carter Boys" series, posting that fall camp had reached "a defining moment" as the vote happened. One person around the program put it more bluntly to On3's Pete Nakos before camp even opened: Craig "is the best quarterback we've had here since [Ryan] Fitzpatrick," a name Harvard people don't throw around loosely given he set the school's all-time passing record there. A captain's patch before a single snap is the kind of vote of confidence a hype video can't fake, and it's the story to watch as Craig actually lines up under center for the first time this morning.
TCU last played on New Year's Eve, and won
The Frogs haven't taken a competitive snap since December 31, when they closed out last season by holding off USC 30-27. It capped a finish that saw TCU win three of its last four after a rough middle stretch, with Jordan Dwyer doing plenty of the damage — 54 catches, 730 yards and 7 touchdowns on the year, the exact numbers that make his game-time call today worth watching closely.
Eight months later, the schedule-makers handed TCU a rematch nobody was thinking about when this slate was built. North Carolina is the same program the Frogs blew out 48-14 last Labor Day in Bill Belichick's very first game on a college sideline, and now it's the opener again — just in Dublin instead of Chapel Hill, and with almost nobody from either two-deep who played in that one.
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Covers' aggregated injury table lists TCU with two game-day questions. Wide receiver D. Ezukanma is out with an undisclosed injury, reported Thursday, and it's not expected he plays against North Carolina. Jordan Dwyer is listed as Questionable with a foot injury reported Friday — a real doubt, not a formality, and one that lines up with reporting from On3's Pete Nakos and Pete Thamel that Dwyer made the trip to Dublin but has been battling the injury all offseason and will be a game-time call.
Add to that defensive lineman Zach Chapman, who Nakos reports is not expected to play after missing fall camp with an injury of his own. Chapman has 6 career tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks, production TCU's front will miss against a UNC offense that's breaking in its own new quarterback and coordinator. None of these are officially confirmed absences beyond Ezukanma, but between the table and the wire, it's two key names the Frogs may be without this morning.
Kickoff at Aviva Stadium, finally
All of it — Craig's debut, the captain's vote, the questions at receiver and up front — funnels into an 11 a.m. kickoff this morning vs. North Carolina. TCU opened as a 7.5-point favorite, with the total set at 47.5, a number that reads low for two teams breaking in new quarterbacks and figuring out new systems in real time.
North Carolina finished last season the way the whole year went for Belichick's first team, closing 2025 with a 42-19 loss at NC State. That context makes TCU the clear favorite on paper, but Dublin openers have a recent habit of humbling them — three of the last four have gone to the underdog. The Frogs will find out by early afternoon which kind of Week 0 this one is.