Mother, son find places at TCU
Once passed over, Doctson earns spot as team’s top target
Tracy Syler-Jones knew that when she told her son his grandfather was terminally ill his impulse would be to come home. As much as Josh Doctson had thrived in his first year at Wyoming, maturing in his new surroundings and proving he could play college football despite receiving only two scholarship offers out of high school, Syler-Jones struggled even telling him what their family was facing.
“He was doing so well and he’s always been big about family, so my agreement with him was it would be his responsibility to find the school he wanted to go to,” Syler-Jones said. “I told him, ‘You’ve got to figure it out. You’ve got to figure out what the next step is.’ ”
When TCU opens the season Sept. 3 at Minnesota, Doctson will line up as the No. 1 receiver for the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, trying to earn all-Big 12 honors for a second consecutive year. And he’ll be doing it at the school that gave both him and his mother a chance when they need---
“He has an unbelievable drive to be great.”
ed a place to land.
“I never realized how much he had a desire to play for TCU,” Syler-Jones said. “I learned over time that was a dream of his. And I think he values it even more because he went away and came back and it had a special place in his heart and he worked hard to get where he is.”
So did Syler-Jones, who has become the vice chancellor for marketing and communications at TCU with an office in the center of campus that allows Doctson to drop by for a hug whenever he wants.
But it wasn’t such a storybook situation back in 2000 when Syler-Jones, then an unemployed mother of two young boys, moved to Texas to be closer to her family and look for a job. She found one in the marketing department at TCU but faced plenty of challenges along the way.
“I was the sole breadwinner and had two children who were dependent on me, so I had to make career choices that ensured I was able to provide for my children,” she said. “They didn’t have exactly what their friends might have, in a home where there was a mother and a father, and there was guilt associated with that from time to time. But I couldn’t have ended up in a better place.
“The people at TCU, the culture at TCU, I couldn’t have been a better place for me to land as a single mom, because there’s so much caring and concern.”
Being around TCU also gave Doctson an opportunity to see the Horned Frogs football program up close as it was growing into a national power. He was even one of the “Bleacher Creatures,” a tradition at TCU where young kids sprint from one end of the field to the other before home games when the team comes out of the tunnel.
But when Doctson started thinking seriously about playing college football, TCU — and pretty much every other school — ignored him, even though Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson knew his mother worked on campus.
“You’d like to (recruit him), but you just … he wasn’t overly fast at the time, and there’s a lot of people who can run in Texas,” Patterson said. “Nobody else was recruiting him, either.”
Said Doctson: “Sometimes you have to come to reality. I wasn’t the best coming out of high school. I understood my talent wasn’t as significant as the other recruits with all these stars.”
Even though he was slight of build and didn’t possess headturning speed, Doctson showed he could play immediately at Wyoming, catching 35 balls for 393 yards — including a touchdown against TCU in 2011 while being covered by Jason Verrett, who went on to be a first-round NFL draft pick in 2014.
“Just being on the field (against TCU) was an accomplishment in itself,” Doctson said. “And I understood I could be on the field with those guys.”
When he decided to leave Wyoming, however, Doctson thought he would have to play at a smaller school closer to home such as North Texas or Texas State.
Then a phone conversation with Horned Frogs receivers coach Rusty Burns to check in on his plans turned into an offer to walk on at TCU, where Doctson was eligible for reduced tuition as the son of an employee.
Once he came back, TCU saw what it missed in the first place.
“He’s very serious about football,” Patterson said. “He’s a smart player, on and off the field. He has an unbelievable drive to be great. So the things that you don’t always see, you found out when he came back and walked on, and you’re like, I’m sure glad he came back.”
Though Doctson produced in 2013 after sitting out a year, catching 36 passes for 440 yards and four touchdowns during TCU’s 4-8 season, it wasn’t until after spring practice last year that he was put on scholarship. That was also the time when TCU overhauled its offense, installing the up-tempo spread attack that allowed Doctson to build even more of a connection with quarterback Trevone Boykin.
“He showed great ball skills and body control, played the football really well in the air, so we thought, hey, he has a chance to help us,” co-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie said. “And he just continued to gain confidence.
“You’re talking to a guy who walked on (at Texas Tech) and was on the scout team for three years and prided myself on being the scout team player of the week. I love it, and that’s what I love about Coach Patterson’s approach. He’s a former walk-on, works with a chip on his shoulder. And that’s what Josh is.
“He’s a guy that is consistently trying to work to prove people wrong, and he’s done a really good job of it.”
Still, when Doctson wrote down his goals for the 2014 season, they were much smaller than the reality: 65 receptions for 1,018 yards and 11 touchdowns along with all-conference honors for a team that went 12-1 and nearly made the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Subsequently, scouting services have identified him as a potential early-round NFL draft pick next spring because of his hands, route-running skills and ability to go up and get balls that seem impossible to catch. In the span of two years, he could go from paying his own way at TCU to earning millions.
“I just try to keep the same mentality of a dude that had to work for a scholarship here,” Doctson said. “I feel like when I’m that person I’m at my best. To be a guy that sees a potential future on the next level, is it the right way to think? I’m new to this. I’ve never been in this position, so I’m just playing ball like I’ve been doing when I wasn’t on scholarship. It really helps me play better and play hard every play, and whatever comes after is a blessing.”
And for Syler-Jones, any nerves she had about Doctson coming home have long been soothed.
“Josh has worked hard, and as a result of the hard work he’s turned into a really great athlete,” she said. “I think it’s wonderful.”
Gary Patterson, TCU coach, on Josh Doctson