TCU's Max Duggan has Carved his own Path to the National Championship
Georgia fans are no stranger to an underdog story when it comes to a quarterback. Stetson Bennett’s journey from walk-on to defending-national champion is a more well known story to students in Georgia than those of James Oglethorpe and Asa Griggs Candler.
So when it comes to the story of TCU’s Max Duggan - the quarterback who will look to become the first player to lead his team to a win over Georgia in over a year - fans of the Bulldogs may be the least surprised at what a kid who was benched early in the season can do.
Duggan and Bennett do share quite a few commonalities within their journey: both come from hard working families; both put up crazy numbers in high school; both lost quarterback battles in the preseason prior to leading their teams to a National Championship Game (Bennett in 2021, Duggan in 2022); both were Heisman Finalists in 2022.
While there may be similarities, Max Duggan has created his own lore. The son of a high school coach in Iowa, Duggans was named the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year in 2018. A 4-star prospect, he chose TCU over the likes of Texas, Georgia, Ohio State, and Notre Dame.
His career at TCU started with a quick elevation to starter, taking over in Week 4 of 2019. As a freshman, Duggan led TCU to just a 5-7 record, but did upset #15 Texas.
As a sophomore, Duggan led wins over Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State. At 6-4, the Horned Frogs qualified for a bowl, but the game was canceled due to Covid. Though Covid took away a bowl game, the procedures put into place around college football may have saved Duggan from severe medical problems. A routine screening prior to the season revealed that Duggan’s suffered from Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a rare birth defect that can cause tachycardia. Duggan underwent surgery to correct the defect, but had to have emergency surgery following the procedure due to a blood clot. He rebounded from both procedures.
Duggan’s junior season was when his career reached a critical point. TCU had just finished 5-7. Gary Patterson, who had been the coach at TCU for 22 years - longer than Duggan has been alive - was fired. It was time for a change in Fort Worth. That change came in the form of Sonny Dykes.
With Dykes came a challenge. Duggan was no longer guaranteed his starting spot. Nothing is guaranteed on a team that finished below .500 and fired its coach. Leading up the 2022 season, Max Duggan was unseated as the starter by Chandler Morris, a quarterback that had started a few games in 2021 and showed plenty of promise.
In the days of the Transfer Portal, Duggan seemed primed for a move. Two more seasons of eligibility, plenty of tape, losing your job when a new coach comes in; all the ingredients were there, but Duggan preserved, telling head coach Sonny Dykes that he would be the nation’s best backup.
Morris was injured in the season-opener, opening the door for Duggan’s magnificent run. Under his guidance, TCU has averaged 474 yards per game in 2022, and is now one win away from its first national championship since 1938.
“Knowing how Max can step into a huddle and command the respect of a team, it blew my mind,” says Justin Kammrad, who was Duggan’s offensive coordinator at Lewis Central High School and is now the head coach. “How can you go in a different direction? I was shocked; I was surprised, but I knew Max would handle it. He’s a coach’s kid.” - from Pat Forde.
Like Bennett, Duggan isn’t just a cool story; he’s an NFL-level talent at quarterback. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to USC’s Caleb Williams, accumulated over 4,000 total yards, and led TCU to a perfect 12-0 regular season.
Two guys who took different paths, sometimes mirroring each other’s, will see them collide in Los Angeles.
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