No. 7 TCU will play against Texas Tech in Fort Worth on Saturday with the set of Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff on campus.

The pregame show, with football-analyst hosts Rob Stone, Urban Meyer, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn will be set up on the Kelly Lawn in front of Amon G. Carter.

Leinart and Bush spoke on why they chose Fort Worth to host and what they were excited about going into the matchup.

“We haven’t been here before and TCU is having a great season,” said Leinart. “It’s a great story, it’s a great season, it’s a great football team… a legit football team.”

TCU has started the season 8-0, including wins over four opponents who were ranked at the time. The Frogs were ranked No. 7 in the first college football playoffs rankings. Bush and Leinart agreed that TCU should probably be ranked higher in that regard.

“I think TCU is the true No. 4 team in the country, they have more impressive wins,” said Bush.

“I think they deserve to be higher, and a lot of that is brand bias,” said Leinart.

Brand bias has come up a lot in talking about what teams should be ranked in front of the other. The SEC is often looked at as earning the most brand bias because teams like Alabama and Georgia have constantly proven themselves to be college football powerhouses.

In this case, Leinart points to Clemson, an ACC team, getting brand bias over TCU, a Big 12 team. He said TCU is a smaller-market team without the extra support that comes with being an east-coast or west-coast team.

“Hey, by the way we’re (TCU) here, our resume is better than Clemson, our schedule is probably tougher than Clemson, we got a Heisman-candidate quarterback, we’ve got one of the best offenses in the country,” said Leinart. “But we’re still behind a one-loss team.”

Clemson is 8-0 and ranked No. 4. The one-loss team is Alabama, who is 7-1 and ranked No. 6, one spot ahead of TCU.

“It shows the lack of respect at this point,” said Leinart.

One of the issues with the ranking Bush brought up was the timing. They came out after two of the opponents that TCU faced dropped out of the AP Top 25 rankings; Oklahoma and Kansas.

“Some of the teams that TCU played, they were all ranked teams when they played them,” said Bush. “How do you know that [TCU] wasn’t the team that exposed that team’s weakness and helped other teams beat them.”

Bush noted the 48-0 win Kansas State had over Oklahoma State last week after TCU beat OSU in double-overtime the week before.

Despite the ranking, both hosts said the ranking is out of TCU’s control.

“The only thing you can control is what you do on the field,” said Bush.

“They have to go out and dominate every game they have left on their schedule if they want to get that respect,” said Leinart. “You win, you stay undefeated and you give yourself a chance at the end.”

The Frogs need to do that starting with their matchup against Texas Tech.

“Texas Tech is sneaky good,” said Leinart. “It’s a great matchup, and it’s also a TCU team that’s undefeated and right there in the hunt for the playoffs.”

Bush and Leinart were adamant about the player they were most excited to watch.

“I love Quentin Johnston,” said Leinart. “He’s arguably one of the best receivers in college football.”

Bush said it almost verbatim, adding that “it’s never a bad decision to throw it to Quentin Johnston. We’ve seen him make plays all over the field.”

Those deep passes to Johnston, who has tallied 577 receiving yards for 4 touchdowns against conference opponents this year, came out of the hands of quarterback Max Duggan.

Duggan, who lost his starting job to transfer Chandler Morris last season, took over quarterback duties after Morris sustained an injury in TCU’s first preseason game against Colorado.

He took the opportunity and ran with it, literally.

The 6’2”, 210-pound senior from Council Bluffs, Iowa has collected 276 rushing yards and 2,212 passing yards in his 2022 campaign. Leinart and Bush noted how important it is for him to be able to be a dual-threat athlete.

“Speaking to the run-game, I think that also includes Max Duggan. It’s Kendre Miller first, but Max Duggan is a huge part of that run game with his ability to extend the play with his legs or go get a first-down and keep the chains moving is everything.”

They also praised his intangibles.

“Max is a great leader, so there isn’t anyone better for a football team to take on that role,” said Leinart.

This is because Duggan and his crew have always looked forward after a win. Earlier in the season Duggan said it was important for the team to focus on the next game despite the national media attention because it “only matters if you keep winning and they’re talking about you at the end of the season.”

It’s almost exactly what Leinart added.

“There’s a lot of football left to be played and the minute you start to overlook a team and get complacent, that’s when you get beat. It doesn’t matter who you play,” said Leinart.

For Miller, TCU’s running back who has accrued 851 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns this season, has run for over 100-yards in five of his last six games.

Together, Bush said Duggan, Miller and Johnston help the Frogs play complimentary football.

“The run sets up the pass. Those deep throws that Max Duggan is able to hit has a lot to do with Kendre Miller being able to hit those holes and forcing the defense to play honest.”

Looking forward, especially into the matchup against Texas Tech, the analysts said TCU needs to get off to a much faster start. It’s something that head coach Sonny Dykes and the rest of the team have bet adamant about.

“A fast start is important for them because you’re at home, you want to keep the crowd in it,” said Bush. “You want the loudness and you want it to be a hostile environment for Texas Tech.”

TCU has had some slow starts lately, trailing Oklahoma State and Kansas State by double digits going into the second half. In the week after, they were down by a touchdown after the first quarter against West Virginia.

“They’ve done a great job at coming back and shown they’ve had a lot of heart and a lot of fight,” said Bush.”[But,] going deeper into the season, the games don’t get easier, they get tougher because there’s more film on you.”

It means there’s more pressure on the Frogs with a hard road to playoff contention.

“They have to be undefeated, that’s for sure, and every game has to be a statement game,” said Leinart.

“You really wanna focus on each week and one game at a time,” said Bush. “One thing you never wanna do is get caught looking ahead.”

Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show will start at 9 a.m. and will last until kickoff at 11:00 a.m. They will be located at the Kelly Lawn in front of the Amon G. Carter stadium student gates.