Mac Engel: TCU's eternal hero, Max Duggan, is not quite ready to give up on football

FORT WORTH, Texas — Eight of the top 10 players in the 2022 Heisman Trophy balloting were quarterbacks, and nine are currently on NFL rosters. The other “one” is former TCU quarterback Max Duggan.

This sort of thing happens every year to one or two players, and it can ruin that person’s perspective on football, and life.

“Guys take that different. Guys in (the UFL) say, ‘I should be in The League,’ or, ‘I got screwed,’ Max isn’t that guy,” UFL St. Louis Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht said Friday. “He’s young. He’s hungry. He wants to learn. We found a guy with a lot of potential. There is something there. He needs the reps to show it.”

Duggan signed a contract with the UFL this week because he’s not ready to quit football.

“It comes down to do you have interest from an NFL, or UFL, team, or do you get started with that next chapter?” Duggan said in a phone interview this week. “It’s trying to find your purpose and how you can have an impact on others. That’s what I am trying to figure out.”

College football produces wonderful stories every fall, and it will be hard to find one as compelling as Max Duggan. He may the last of his kind.

Re-visiting the Heisman class of 2022

Two years have passed since Duggan enjoyed a period of his life that was unscripted, unexpected, and may never be repeated. From the bench in Boulder to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York.

Two years ago, Duggan won the Davey O’ Brien award as the nation’s top college quarterback, finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting, and led TCU to the college football playoffs, and a win over Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl.

“It just goes by fast,” Duggan said. “When you’re in the moment, you can’t reflect because you are so in it. Honestly, I’m just so grateful that it all did happen. That we had a team, and a staff, that went on that run.”

The four finalists for the 2022 Heisman Trophy were quarterbacks, two of whom start in the NFL: Caleb Williams and C.J. Stroud. The other two faced off in the national title game that season.

Former Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett, who finished fourth in the Heisman voting, is currently listed third on the L.A. Rams depth chart.

Duggan, 23, was a seventh round pick of the L.A. Chargers in 2023, but he didn’t stick. He was waived by the team in August.

“I talked to (former Chargers GM) Tom Telesco about him, and he’s really talented,” Becht said. “They knew they had to invest some time into him to grow, and they couldn’t do it. He wants to grow in an NFL system. He wasn’t given the opportunity to play fast because he was buried (on the Chargers) depth chart.”

As a seventh-round pick, Duggan had to show something quickly to stick. In his rookie year, he bounced from the practice squad to the active roster. The coaching staff changed from his first year to the next, and his window closed.

Duggan’s issues were, according to Becht, “Hesitation in processing, and understanding protections.”

That’s a common problem for young quarterbacks. Arm strength, mobility, willingness, leadership, professionalism are not the problem. The challenge is whether he can process it all, and throw an accurate ball in less than 3 seconds.

The Dallas Cowboys invited Duggan in during the season to work out with receivers they wanted to tryout. Duggan was basically throwing batting practice.

“It was a good place to learn about understanding your role and how to be the best teammate you can be,” Duggan said of his time in the NFL. “You gain a lot of football knowledge, and just how to be a part of an organization.”

These are all facets of learning how to be an NFL quarterback. If Duggan earns the starting job and plays well in St. Louis, he may score one last invite to an NFL camp to prove he has value on an NFL roster.

Duggan’s legacy

Even if Duggan never plays an NFL down, he unknowingly secured his football legacy as one of the very last of his kind.

“It’s a dying breed,” Becht said.

In the transfer portal era, we will see fewer Duggan types; the player who has a long career at one school, and uses that time to build a name, and establish relationships, which creates post-playing opportunities in that community.

A community that associates their name, and their face, with some of the high points of their time associated with the school. You see it with LaDainian Tomlinson at TCU, Vince Young at Texas, Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech, and others mostly in men’s basketball and football.

Duggan lives in Fort Worth with his girlfriend, and the Iowa native thinks Texas will be his permanent residence. Since UFL teams house, and practice, throughout DFW during the spring season, he doesn’t have to move to St. Louis to play for the Battlehawks.

“I love the area,” Duggan said. “This is where we want to end up and be in this community.”

Given his story, and popularity with TCU, it’s easy to envision that Duggan will build a future at least adjacent to the school. He attended a few TCU games in the fall, and he is welcome to use the team’s workout facility.

When Duggan looks back at his four-year playing career at TCU, his first thoughts are not the wins, or the trophies.

“It’s about spending time with the guys on the team. In the weight room. In the locker room. On the team bus. At dinners,” he said. “It’s just more about those things. Celebrating with fans and friends after games.”

The celebration ended two years ago, but the fans and friends will last forever thanks to a legacy that is like few others.