TCU coach Sonny Dykes goes in-depth on decision to hire Kendal Briles
TCU football coach Sonny Dykes kicked off Big 12 media days as the first coach to address the media at AT&T Stadium on Wednesday.
Dykes touched on a number of subjects like defensive depth and replacing offensive leaders, but the noteworthy takeaway from his presser was the explanation into the process of hiring Kendal Briles as the new offensive coordinator.
For a quick refresher, Briles was brought in to replace Garrett Riley in January. Briles was the offensive coordinator at Baylor under his father, Art, when the school was rocked by a sexual assault scandal. Art hasn’t coached college football since 2016; Briles hasn’t gotten a head coaching job despite his impressive offensive track record.
So why was Dykes willing to take some heat from TCU fans to bring him into the program?
“I knew it was going to be an unpopular hire in some ways because of some things that had happened,” Dykes said. “But at the same time, I was very confident from knowing Kendal from the time he was 13 years old and just talking to people that were directly involved in that situation.”
Dykes has been looking into what exactly happened at Baylor and the culpability of the coaching staff for years. Briles isn’t the first former Baylor staffer to join his staff.
Kaz Kazadi was the strength and conditioning staff at Baylor during the same time frame and joined Dykes at SMU and then TCU. Cornerbacks coach Carlton Buckels was also on staff at Baylor before a stint in Tulsa and then coming to TCU in 2022.
“There was a tremendous amount of due diligence,” Dykes said. “A number of years ago, when I was at SMU, I did a lot of due diligence, as well, talked to a lot of people that were directly involved at Baylor and saw it and tried to learn from those mistakes.”
Dykes is betting on Briles to keep TCU among the nation’s elite offensively, but he’s also betting on himself and what he learned from that scandal and various others like the current hazing scandal at Northwestern.
“I was a young head coach when those things were happening,” Dykes said. “So I followed it. I had worked with Art prior at Texas Tech as an assistant and knew him a longtime as a high school coach. When all that happened at Baylor, the thing I tried to do was, okay, let’s make sure this never happens in my program, and how can I go about doing that, how can I learn from mistakes that were made.
“I think that we all want to do that. I think that colleges across the board,whether it’s Title IX reporting, everything has gotten better because of what occurred there. I did a lot of homework . . . and then had a chance to see guys move on from there and see how they did, if they had any issues that plagued them moving forward.”
Briles has held four different jobs since leaving Baylor and hasn’t run into trouble while still coaching some of the best offenses in the country.
Just last season Arkanas had a top-10 rushing and was No. 15 in total offense under Briles. It’s that type of production Dykes is expecting to see in 2023.
“I feel really good about the hire,” Dykes said. “What he does fits what I believe in. I think we’re really aligned in terms of what we believe allows you to go out and have a chance to win on Saturday.”
It’s clear Dykes doesn’t believe Briles should be defined by what happened at Baylor. That mentality worked well with Kazadi and Buckels, who became two key members of the coaching staff during last year’s magical run to the national title game.
Briles has big shoes to fill and will be under a microscope, but with the complete support of Dykes and TCU administration, he has the football credentials to keep TCU’s offense humming next season.
