MOBILE, Ala. — Things did not go well for Max Duggan the last time he was on a football field.
The TCU quarterback threw for just 152 yards, was intercepted twice and was sacked five times in a 65-7 rout by Georgia in the College Football Playoff championship game, the final one of Duggan’s college career.
He is trying to bounce back from that performance this week at the Senior Bowl and trying to prove to NFL teams that a quarterback who led the Horned Frogs’ to a Cinderella season can be a pro. Duggan said the blowout loss to the Bulldogs was a learning experience.
“We had a great season and it obviously did not end the way we wanted it to unfortunately with the way the national championship game went. We got our butts kicked,” Duggan said Tuesday, ahead of the All-Star game Saturday. “There’s a lot to learn from it. Obviously we’re not going to let that game dictate how we see ourselves and how this program is going to go and take away from our season. … How to handle something that was a failure in our eyes and how to get up from it.”
Max Duggan is sacked by Jalon Walker during TCU’s 65-7 loss to the Bulldogs in the national championship.AP
Max Duggan talks with Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett after TCU’s blowout loss in the national title game.AP The Jets are looking for a quarterback, but those headlines are all about who they are going to trade for or sign as a free agent to be their starter this year. It would not be surprising, however, if general manager Joe Douglas, who is at the Senior Bowl, uses a third-day draft choice on a developmental quarterback. He did it in 2020 with James Morgan in the fourth round and could do it again.
And Duggan figures to be on the board on the third day of the draft.
The season began with Duggan losing a quarterback competition at TCU. He regained the job after the starting quarterback, Chandler Morris, got hurt. Duggan ended up throwing for 3,698 yards and 32 touchdowns and TCU went 13-2 and ended up in the CFP, beating Michigan in the semifinals.
Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, said Duggan could make a leap into Day 2 of the NFL draft with a good performance here this week in front of NFL GMs and scouts.
“Really excited about this year’s quarterback class,” Nagy said Tuesday. “Really, based on our grades, our Senior Bowl grades and when we do our grade-sharing calls around the league in November, this class is all in that fourth-[round], fifth-round group, which is where Jalen Hurts was … and now it’s pretty awesome to see Jalen in the Super Bowl and Jalen jumped into second that year so I think it’s going to be a guy or two that gets into Day 2. There’s some Day 2 guys that went back to school.”
Quarterbacks go through a big transition at the Senior Bowl. They are asked to learn a reduced NFL playbook. They attend meetings and practices all week at which they try to pick up NFL plays with more words in them than anything they had in college. They also have to command a huddle, something that barely exists in college anymore. Duggan said he hopes to show NFL teams this week that he can handle the jump to the NFL.
A dejected Max Dugan walks off the field after TCU’s blowout loss to Georgia in the national title game.USA TODAY Sports “I think being able to show all-around football knowledge and obviously Senior Bowl, NFL is a little bit different than college,” Duggan said of what he hopes to achieve this week. “You’re in the huddle, what a lot of teams don’t really do. You’re going to have some lengthy play calls, lead a group of men, things of that sorts, kind of run a whole operation. That’s a little bit different than college style of play.”
