FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU coach Sonny Dykes is very familiar with the nation's top two FBS passers. One of them is the quarterback for his team, and the other graduated from the same high school as the coach and is the son of one of his former baseball opponents.
Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson and TCU's Josh Hoover, both former Texas high school standouts who had to wait for their turn in college, are now ranked 1-2 in passing yards and touchdown passes. They will be on the same field Saturday in the 121st meeting of the most-played rivalry in Texas.
“Got a lot of respect for him and it’s going to be a fun battle," said Hoover, who will be playing at home.
Robertson is the national leader with 343 yards per game and 19 touchdowns, completing 158 of 248 passes (63.7%) for 2,058 yards and only four interceptions. He has multiple TD passes in each of his past 10 games — since having none against TCU last November. Hoover averages 315.5 yards per game, on 139-of-215 passing (64.7%) for 1,893 yards with 18 TDs and six picks.
“Josh and Sawyer are remarkably similar young men. They’re both young people who have strong faith. They’re both young people that have strong families, come from athletic families,” Dykes said. “Both are successful guys and guys that had to do things the right way. They're to me what college athletics is all about.”
Taking advantage of opportunities
Hoover, who is from Rockwall, Texas, initially committed to Indiana. He went to TCU as an early enrollee when Dykes, who had been recruiting him to SMU, was hired by the Horned Frogs.
After being the scout team QB for the Frogs during the 2022 season, when they were the national runner-up, Hoover got his first start midway through 2023 after an injury to starter Chandler Morris. Hoover threw for what is still a career-best 439 yards with four touchdowns in a 44-11 win over BYU, and has since remained the starter. Morris transferred last year to North Texas, and is now finishing his college career as the starter for 18th-ranked Virginia.
“My first start gave me a lot of confidence,” Hoover said. “I always felt like I was pretty confident in my ability, but you never really know until you go out there and actually get to go do it. ... After that game I was like, alright, I can do this.”
Robertson appeared in five games for Mississippi State in 2022 before transferring to Baylor. He got the first of his four starts for the Bears in 2023 after an injury to Blake Shapen, the quarterback who would leave at the end of that season and go to Mississippi State. Dual-threat transfer Dequan Finn then started Baylor's first two games last season before getting hurt, and Robertson took over as the full-time starter.
“He's special. We can't take him for granted,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said of Robertson. “I think his impact on our team and on our players, on our student body here, you can’t measure. I think he’s all of that, and the best is yet to come for him.”
Coronado connection
Dykes graduated from Coronado High School in Lubbock, Texas, in 1988. That was when his late father, Spike, was head coach at Texas Tech, where the younger Dykes played baseball.
Robertson was a 2021 graduate of Coronado, where he was a four-star QB recruit.
“I know his father well. We played sports against each other growing up. His dad grew up in Plainview, was a first-round draft pick in baseball, a lot better baseball player than I was,” Dykes said. “We tried to recruit Sawyer here when he left Mississippi State. So there’s a relationship there. ... Root for him every Saturday, except for this Saturday.”
Stan Robertson, the quarterback’s father, was the 40th overall pick by the Montreal Expos in the baseball’s 1990 amateur draft. He didn’t make the major leagues.
Hoover’s dad, Alex, was a linebacker at Colorado State and played briefly in the NFL.
Going head-to-head
The QBs have started against each other only once, when Baylor won 37-34 on a game-ending field goal last November. Robertson threw for 242 yards in that game, his last without a TD pass, and Hoover had 333 yards passing with two touchdowns.
Hoover was 24-of-29 for 412 yards and two TDs in a 42-17 win over Baylor in 2023, the last meeting in Fort Worth. Robertson's only pass in that game was a 2-yard completion in the closing minutes.
