Sonny Dykes looks to build ‘collective synergy’ as TCU football opens preseason camp

With 110 players reporting for preseason camp, first-year football coach Sonny Dykes has a clear goal in mind for the first week of practice for TCU.

“You want all these guys to be good as individuals, to play as good as they’re capable of playing and to be good teammates. Then you want to see that side of the ball, whether it’s offense, defense or special teams have that same type of collective synergy,” Dykes said. “Where the sum is bigger than the parts.”

Building that chemistry is going to be essential, especially with so many positions being up for grabs. Players will have to navigate competing for playing time while also trying to strengthen bonds on the roster.

“Our sport is so unique, we’re going to have 110 players and there’s going to be a lot of little nuisances that happen during the season. There are going times that guys get disenfranchised, frustrated and be selfish and create issues,” Dykes said.

Every team has to manage this in some regard and how the Horned Frogs do could ultimately determine how successful the 2022 season will be once the dust settles in camp.

“The good teams find ways to deal with those things. You have a big collection of people and it’s hard to have 110 completely happy and satisfied people,” he said. “How do you deal with all that? How do the players in the locker room deal with those issues and challenges? That ultimately in a lot of way determines what type of success you have.”

From Dykes’ standpoint, getting buy-in from the roster might be even more key than the talent across the board.

“We’ve all seen football teams where they have really good players, but they don’t necessarily have good teams,” Dykes said. “The combination is we want our guys to play well as they can individually, which leads to success collectively which leads to a lot of success as a team.”

That’s one of Dykes’ short-term goals for the Horned Frogs. As for the long-term goal, he’s aiming to have TCU be a major factor in the Big 12 race.

“The No. 1 thing we always want to do is a win a conference championship. That’s what everybody (wants),” he said. “There’s a lot of parity in the league; this is one of those leagues where I truly believe you have to play well every week. There’s going to be a very small determining factor that’s going to make a difference between who wins or loses.”

The chemistry among the various position groups could be one of those determining factors and it’s why that’s among the most pivotal goals for TCU to accomplish out of the gate.

Perry adjusting quickly to TCU

Colorado transfer Mark Perry is one of 14 players Dykes brought in from the portal to help bolster the roster. After a solid spring Perry has continued to adjust well to life in Fort Worth and is starting to emerge as a leader in the secondary.

“What really led me here was after losing two starting safeties last year, I felt like (TCU) was looking for leadership and somebody that could come in and help the younger guys. With my experience, what I’ve been through in my college career I felt like I could help,” Perry said.

Perry said his confidence is high with the first practice beginning on Tuesday. The process of learning new defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie’s 3-3-5 defense hasn’t been difficult for the junior safety.

“It hasn’t really been a challenge. When I was at Colorado at three years, when I was getting recruited they had one coaching staff,” he said. “My freshman year they had a different coaching staff, after my freshman year they had another coaching staff. So at that point I had learned three different defenses, so I feel like at this point learning different terminologies, everyone has similar stuff it’s just different words.”

His ability to adjust fast could play a role in Perry earning a starting spot at safety. He’s also high on his teammates around him like Noah Daniels and All-Big 12 cornerback Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson. Perry believes Gillespie’s system will allow the Horned Frogs to showcase how dynamic the secondary can be.

“I think we have a lot of talent. Transitioning to a 3-3-5, we’re going to be able to play with a lot of speed,” Perry said. “I think we have one of the best secondaries in the country. We’ll be able to go out and show that here in a few weeks.”