TCU and Sonny Dykes did what they are supposed to do when they play SMU. Not lose.
The banner in the corner of the SMU end zone was a large white bed sheet with red painted letters that simply read, “COWARD.”
Didn’t say who.
The banner was removed shortly after the SMU students draped it over the side, on the TCU sidelines.
Sonny Dykes’ return to The Hilltop brought the biggest crowd for a TCU/SMU football game since the Ponies paid players under the table, or with gold Trans Ams.
Once the bane of ex-TCU coach Gary Patterson’s existence, the Ponies’ run of dominance over the Horned Frogs ended on Saturday afternoon.
As it should.
TCU losing two straight games against SMU in this series was a low point for Patterson. No Power 5 team should lose two straight in a series to a Group of 5 team.
Even if it is a rivalry game, and the Battle For the Gucci Bag.
It’s also a game where even if TCU wins, it can’t win.
The Ponies made it interesting in the fourth quarter, but the Horned Frogs won 42-34 in Dallas, in the annual TCU/SMU Member-Member football game.
A sincere credit to the fans who braved our brisk fall temperatures to sit in Gerald J. Ford Easy Bake Oven Stadium for this game. One of these days fall will actually get here; probably some time in March.
The Boulevard on SMU’s campus was packed, and Saturday morning was a wonderful college football scene despite the 97-plus degree temperatures.
Special mention needs to be made for the undergrads from both schools who turned this day into Fashion Week by wearing outfits and designers that would have made Donatella Versace proud.
Saturday’s “full house” at SMU was about the return of SMU’s Judas, Dykes, who left Dallas for Fort Worth last year to replace Patterson’s as TCU’s head football coach.
“That stuff off the field was just college football,” Dykes said after the game about the noise attached to his return to SMU, where he rebuilt his career. “That’s why this game was so well attended. It’s great for the fans.
“Sometimes it’s hard to be the brunt of criticism. But you’ve got a job to do. I’m 52, not 18. ... If I can’t do this, I need to work for Chicken Express.”
Not sure exactly how the rest of TCU’s first season under Sonny is going to play out, but it’s starting the way it should. And it doesn’t look like he needs to apply for a job working fast food.
The Horned Frogs are 3-0, and the Iron Skillet goes back to Fort Worth and TCU.
TCU is hardly a finished product, and it has some issues on both sides, but whatever Sonny Dykes does at TCU, he can’t lose to SMU.
SMU under Dykes was better than TCU.
Other than SMU’s social media team, which consistently creates national-championship level content, its football team was not as good at TCU on Saturday.
This was a game Dykes had to just get through, survive, and not lose.
He will come back to SMU to coach again, that’s assuming COVID doesn’t cancel TCU’s game here in 2024.
By then the “COWARD” banners will be gone, and the anger and hurt feelings by his former employer will have turned into something else.
One of the reasons TCU selected Dykes over a handful of candidates was his record working with quarterbacks.
Against SMU, TCU senior quarterback Max Duggan played one of his best games in his four-year career. He had never defeated SMU in previous two starts.
He completed 22 of 29 passing for 278 yards and three touchdowns.
“I’m as proud of Max as any player I’ve been around,” Dykes said after the game. “He lost (his starting) job. He never pouted. He never blinked. I’m incredibly indebted. He’s handled it the way you’d want your son to handle that kind of situation”
TCU was in control for much of the game, but SMU cut the score to 35-27 with a little more than five minutes remaining.
For some reason, SMU coach Rhett Lashlee went for a 2-point conversion. SMU ran a trick play, and had a receiver wide open in the endzone, but the pass went into the dirt.
That was close as SMU would come, and TCU pulled away to win a game it should never lose.
Sonny Dykes is 3-0, and as TCU’s head coach he just did what he’s supposed to do by beating SMU.
This story was originally published September 24, 2022 at 2:45 PM.
