Despite his ties to Texas Tech, Sonny Dykes says there’s no extra emotion
As an institution Texas Tech has played a massive role in shaping the coaching career of TCU head coach Sonny Dykes.
His ties to the school are well documented. His father Spike coached in Lubbock from 1984-99: first as a defensive coordinator, then as the head coach from 1986-99.
His 82 wins were the most in program history until Mike Leach passed him in 2009. In the midst of his father’s coaching run, Dykes graduated from Texas Tech in 1993.
Dykes himself coached at Texas Tech from 2000-06 spending time as a wide receivers coach and then as co-offensive coordinator. Tech has been good to the Dykes family and you would think that would make Saturday’s matchup against the Red Raiders special right?
“Not at all, zero,” Dykes said. “It probably should, I’m devoid of whatever those feelings just having being around and being in this profession long enough.”
The coaching world is a tight-knit industry where everybody knows everybody. Grad assistants together at one school eventually become head coaches at their own respective jobs as they work through the pipeline.
Thus Dykes has had many games where he’s faced an old colleague or an old stomping ground. Earlier this year he faced his former team as TCU downed SMU 42-34 in the third game of the season.
Those experiences allow him to view each game as just a game and not add emotional weight to it.
“You learn that it’s kind of a nameless, faceless opponent. That’s not certainly trying to take anything away from Texas Tech. It’s just the approach you have to take,” Dykes said.
Every coach has a different approach to these type of games. Some will lean into the emotions of the game or won’t shy away from letting their players know there may be more at stake with this matchup than others.
That hasn’t been Dykes’ approach and it’s worked wonders for TCU, who is off to a 8-0 start and landed at No. 7 in the first release of the College Football Playoff Top 25 on Tuesday.
“The game probably should mean more (to me),” Dykes said.
The only significance is the fact the Red Raiders are the next game on the schedule. That’s enough importance right there. His ties to the school or the fact that they’re an in-state rival are only chatter for the outside world to focus on.
That also includes his record in November, where he’s only had a winning record in that month twice in 11 years. Dykes also had three more seasons where his teams finished 2-2. He believes TCU is positioned to finish strong starting with Tech on Saturday.
“We’re in pretty good shape from a health perspective. When you sit down and say we’re going to figure out what we did wrong in the past with our approach and why we lost some games in November, some of it was always just scheduling,” Dykes said. “Our rotation at SMU was we played Memphis and Cincinnati, typically they were the two best teams in our league, so that had something to do with it to a degree.”
He also mentioned a loss to East Carolina where SMU’s skill position groups had been ravaged by injury. TCU’s final four games is far from a breeze. Texas is ranked, Baylor could be, too, when the Horned Frogs face them. Texas Tech has shown potential and Iowa State can make any game ugly.
But TCU has shown it can handle a gauntlet and Dykes has no reason to think that will change, especially with most of the key contributors on the roster healthy and ready to roll.
“We’ve got a little more depth than we’ve had in the past at a few places I’ve been. That’s a big part of it, being able to put your best players out there,” Dykes said.
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
