Sonny Dykes’ fourth season at TCU will have the biggest impact on this coach
The TCU football coach who is “coaching for his job” this season isn’t head coach Sonny Dykes, but rather offensive coordinator Kendal Briles.
No other coach in the entire TCU athletic department will start the 2025 -26 year with a more uncertain future.
“Kendal is going on Year Three. He knows our guys, and what to do and how to do it,” Dykes said Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days. “I expect us to make a big jump as a program.”
Dykes spent a significant amount of his 2022 national title game capital to hire Briles, whose contract will expire after the 2025 season. A season that the head coach of TCU set the expectation of: “If we’re not in the Big 12 championship game, it’s probably not a successful season,” Dykes said.
Barring a disaster season, Dykes’ job status in Fort Worth is fine. Or fine as any coach is in these situations. Every coach in power college football sits on a seat set on “Simmer.”
Briles shouldn’t be in a shaky boat, but he is
Since Briles was hired shortly after TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley left for Clemson immediately following TCU’s appearance in the national title game, TCU has named a new chancellor, Daniel Pullin and a new athletic director, Mike Buddie. These types of moves can affect a coaching staff. Doesn’t mean these specific changes will have any impact on Briles, or any member of the staff, but they could.
When Briles was hired, the noise and anger from TCU fans and influential boosters at the announcement was a solid 19 out of 10. There was a large portion of TCU fans who did not want their football program to be associated with members of the coaching staff at Baylor University when that team, and school, were encased in a series of sexual assault allegations and Title IX violations that led to the firing of head coach Art Briles, in 2016.
When Kendall left Arkansas for TCU, Dykes was coming off one of the best seasons in the history of the school. He had the full support of chancellor Victor Boschini, and athletic director Jeremiah Donati. That tandem had hired Dykes, and short of naming Satan the recruiting coordinator, the head coach was not going to be met with resistance.
Dykes had already hired other former Art Briles assistants to be on his coaching staff, but none of them shared his name. Since Kendal arrived at TCU, nothing off the field has happened of note. No different than his previous stops after he left BU.
That noise level surrounding Briles at TCU since he was hired has dropped, but it will never be at zero. There will always be pockets of fans and supporters who will never support this.
How Kendal Briles will land a new contract
An objective evaluation of TCU’s offense under Briles is, “Good.” “Great.” “Awful.” “Erratic.” And, “Well, what had happened was ...”
When he first arrived, in 2023, he inherited a new quarterback, Chandler Morris, and had to deal with the departures of top players to the NFL. In the middle of his first season, Morris suffered an injury, which led to the discovery of Josh Hoover.
In ‘24, Hoover and the offense were a mess through the first six games, which included a rash of turnovers and ugly home defeats to Houston and Central Florida. Had the season continued on that toilet trajectory, Briles was going to be fired. He may not have lasted the rest of the season.
The team was 3-3, and Briles moved talented wide receiver Savion Williams to running back for a limited number of plays, and that helped reverse the direction of TCU’s entire season. They won six of their final seven games, and no one wanted anyone fired.
Dykes, Briles and that entire coaching staff did not receive enough credit for preventing that team from splintering, checking out and entering the portal. A 9-4 record and New Mexico Bowl “championship” is not the standard, more like a minimum.
The return of Hoover and receiver Eric McAlister gives a lot of people hope that TCU will improve on that finale to the type of record that Dykes expects. To achieve that, however, Hoover can’t be a turnover machine, and TCU has to run the ball.
“There is nobody that wants to run the ball more than Kendall; go back to the Baylor offenses that were known for all of the big plays, they were a run-first offense,” Dykes said. “We have to be able to run the football.
“There are not a lot of constraints I put on him. There are obviously some things I want to see but we’re pretty unified. He’s doing what he wants to do and I’m falling in line with that way of thinking.”
If TCU has a good season, and meets Dykes’ expectation of reaching the Big 12 title game, everyone will be fine. Briles, who aspires to be a head coach, would likely be offered an extension, unless he wants to pursue a different opportunity.
If TCU does not have that type of season, or close, changes will be made.
Briles is on the final year of a contract. There is a new chancellor and a new athletic director.
And, right or wrong, there will always be some noise level surrounding Briles at TCU.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 5:49 PM.
