Dear Coach Dykes: If some TCU football fans seem nervous, there’s a reason
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Following a legend
Sonny Dykes has been around legendary coaches his entire life, and he’s now ready to follow in one’s footsteps.
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Why Sonny Dykes is seen as the right football coach to follow Gary Patterson at TCU
TCU football’s Sonny Dykes comes from a coaching family, and he married into one, too
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From Hal Mumme to Gary Patterson, TCU football’s Sonny Dykes has learned from the best
Dear Coach Dykes: If some TCU football fans seem nervous, there’s a reason
Sonny Dykes talks about what fans can expect next year when the Frogs take the field
Welcome, Coach Dykes.
You probably know by now that you have a whole city pulling for you. TCU’s success is good for all of Fort Worth. TCU football is about much more than wins and losses.
There’s a lot at stake, so some of us are nervous as the program enters a new phase. It’s not your doing, but you’ll have to deal with it. Let me explain.
The students you see on campus are too young to remember a time when TCU football was irrelevant or worse. Two decades of sustained success is usually reserved for the Alabamas, Oklahomas and Ohio States of the world.
But there are many of us who remember the before times. And as college football continues to separate into the haves and have-mores, we remain afraid of being left out.
It’s almost hard to believe now, but in my senior year, the 1997 Horned Frogs went 1-10. It was even worse than it looks — the 10 losses came in a row, and the lone victory was the final game of the season, with head coach Pat Sullivan already dismissed.
It was memorable, at least. The Frogs upset SMU on national TV, spoiling the Mustangs’ hopes to get to a bowl game for the first time since the “death penalty” of the 1980s. It was such a shock that the students in the small Amon Carter Stadium crowd stormed the field and got pepper sprayed by sheriff’s deputies.
Before that rock bottom, there had been decades of futility briefly interrupted by the occasional good season. The Southwest Conference was splintering, and TCU football was an afterthought. There was talk of abandoning the sport, of TCU becoming a basketball school thanks to coach Billy Tubbs’ exciting brand of play.
Coach Dennis Franchione began a resurrection, thanks in large part to LaDainian Tomlinson. Your predecessor, Gary Patterson, did the bulk of the work, though. He built overachieving teams that stepped up to better conferences. Then came the mountaintop: a Rose Bowl win and an invitation back into the top echelons of the sport in the Big 12.
The resurgence required investment and commitment, and TCU and its donors went for it. All of Fort Worth benefited as the university’s stature improved. Being the home of a perennially ranked team brought not just attention but also tangible benefits such as more visitors spending their dollars here. TCU attracted more and better students, boosting our workforce.
The last few years have seen struggles. Thankfully, it’s been nowhere near the pathetic 1970s or that 1997 season. But it’s been a clear decline from where the program has been.
That’s why you’re here, Coach. A new coach always brings optimism, but for many of us, it’s tinged by the fear, deep down, that TCU overachieved under Patterson and will inevitably be left behind as the college football powers break off into a super-league.
The only way to prevent that fate is to win — a lot. Frankly, even that might not do it. But Patterson’s teams forced their way into the national spotlight, as TCU will probably always have to do.
Fort Worth is pulling for you. Just understand that if some of us look a little tense, it’s because we’ve seen what it looks like when it doesn’t work.
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 5:03 AM.
