Did Oklahoma contact TCU’s Sonny Dykes about its opening after Lincoln Riley left?
Sitting in his office overlooking Amon G. Carter Stadium a few days before his TCU football team hosts No. 18 Oklahoma, Sonny Dykes looks as comfortable as a coach can be in this situation.
He could have been perfectly comfortable in other jobs, but he’s in a good place for himself, his wife and their three kids and he knows it.
Last fall, Dykes was part of a turnover in major college football coaching like the sport had never seen. This turnover wasn’t in the MAC or SWAC, but in some of the highest profiled programs in the country.
LSU, USC, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech, Florida, Notre Dame, SMU and the list goes on.
In the middle of this was Dykes, who came to an oral agreement with TCU leading up to SMU’s final home game of the season, on Saturday, Nov. 27 against Tulsa.
The next day, news leaked that Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley was going to leave Norman to become the next head coach at USC.
The irony is, the day before, there was considerable speculation in Ames, Iowa that Cyclones coach Matt Campbell was going to USC.
In the days leading up to Riley leaving, former Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist Randy Galloway called me to say he had heard that Oklahoma had reached out to Dykes to gauge his potential interest should that job actually open.
Randy is one of the funniest men I’ve ever met, but he wasn’t joking.
Since Riley left for L.A., members of his staff and the school’s administration have admitted they feared for months he was looking to leave. Between canceled practices, and an overall different approach to the way he previously handled the team led OU people to believe he was ready to move on.
After the news broke that Riley was headed to USC, some members of the TCU administration started to sweat.
Given the unpredictable nature of the entire fall of 2021, a scenario where a head coach accepts one job only to leave for another was plausible.
And, at that point, Dykes had not technically signed the contract.
Most Sooners fans, and college football fans in general, laughed at the idea that Sonny Dykes was ever approached by, or would turn down, Oklahoma.
All Sooners fans fawn over athletic director Joe Castiglione, who notoriously is air-tight when it comes to hiring coaches.
“Most of this was just speculation and Oklahoma was doing what it was supposed to do, and vetting candidates,” Dykes said. “By that point I had come to agreement with TCU.”
So, did Oklahoma actually contact Dykes about its job opening?
“I can say no,” he said. “Nobody contacted me.”
I asked him if my report was wrong.
“No,” he said, “not necessarily.”
Glad that clears that up.
“So, Lincoln and I have the same agent,” Dykes said. “So you can imagine how those conversations went. Do you know what I’m saying? I’m thinking that conversation happened on that level. But by that time the ship had sailed and I was committed here.”
This is how these things go: When a coach leaves, or a school thinks they are going to leave, higher ups and influential boosters assemble a list of names to serve as potential candidates.
Sometimes the coach is contacted directly, or their agent.
A program like Oklahoma is not going to have a hard time coming up with a list of quality candidates.
There is always a list, because if the first or second candidate says no, then that school and its athletic director can look stupid, fast.
Oklahoma needed candidates, so kicking the tires on Dykes is logical and consistent industry practice.
By the time Lincoln Riley officially left Oklahoma, Sonny Dykes was effectively gone to TCU.
Several months later, Oklahoma is content with its choice in Brent Venables, and Dykes looks at home with TCU.
