TCU hiring SMU football coach is already a success because it has Dallas fans fuming
Whatever you think of TCU’s decision to hire away SMU football coach Sonny Dykes, it has already paid off handsomely in one way: Plenty of people in Dallas are ticked off.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson pouted on Twitter, declaring that SMU players “deserve better than the mess that’s been dumped in their lap.” A few fans greeted Dykes with “TCU Sucks” shirts as he walked on campus before Saturday’s game, and an enterprising vendor benefited from a run on the shirts.
The frustration is understandable. SMU spent years in the football wilderness, and Dykes was the coach who finally managed sustained success. But winning at SMU is still a ways from competing at the highest levels of college football.
It no doubt chaps hizzoner and plenty of others in the city where the East peters out that to take a step up, Dykes has to head west.
In all seriousness, the SMU-TCU rivalry is better than it has been in decades, thanks to SMU’s new strength. The Horned Frogs dominated for more than a decade, but the Mustangs have won two in a row. They agitated coach Gary Patterson by triumphantly planting a flag in the Amon Carter Stadium turf after a 42-34 win.
Pride over the Iron Skillet aside, it’s good for the entire area if both programs are successful. And at least some of the schools’ mutual contempt is borne of their similarities — small, private colleges struggling to grab sports media attention in a huge market where there are far more Longhorns, Aggies and even Sooners than graduates of the local institutions.
The renewed rivalry comes at a time when the battles between Dallas and Fort Worth have lost their intensity. Plenty of jokes are still made, but political and business leaders long ago realized that in most arenas, the region is better off presenting a united front. Turf wars for corporate relocations and the like continue, but Dallas-Fort Worth benefits from a shared vision and cooperation.
And with Johnson a Harvard graduate and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker a University of Texas alum, the rivalry lacks the personal element to fuel it.
But cultural differences matter, so if TCU and SMU take up their rivalry another notch after the fight for Dykes, it’s all for the better.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who is behind these endorsements?
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This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 3:23 PM.