SMU great calls out TCU for ending Iron Skillet: Frogs must ‘drop their pride’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- TCU will end the Iron Skillet rivalry with SMU after the Sept. 20, 2025 game.
- SMU legends James and Dickerson criticized TCU's decision as pride-driven.
- Tradition-rich rivalries like Iron Skillet fade amid playoff-era schedule shifts.
Craig James and Eric Dickerson have yet to find a subject they won’t be honest about, and when it comes to the state of their alma mater’s football series against TCU they both made sure not to hold back a verb, adjective, period or comma.
TCU’s home date against SMU on Sept. 20 in Fort Worth will be the final game of the Iron Skillet rivalry for the foreseeable future.
“It’s unfortunate we are losing some of these familiar rivalries. That’s sad,” James, a former SMU running back, said Thursday morning at the Mustangs’ stadium. “TCU is losing out on this. TCU needs to drop their pride, and recognize, ‘We need to play SMU.’ It gives them a chance to play another big game.”
James and Dickerson, who excelled in the same backfield at SMU from 1979 to ‘82, reunited Thursday morning to discuss the second-year of their “Pony Express Award,” now given annually to two top teammates in college football. James was in person; Dickerson participated from Los Angeles via speakerphone.
While discussing the award, “The Pause” came up.
In August of 2023, TCU announced it would “pause” the long-standing series against SMU when the contract expires after the 2025 game. Both TCU coach Sonny Dykes and then-athletic director Jeremiah Donati agreed that playing the series did not benefit the team in the current era of the College Football Playoff.
TCU’s preference was to have more home dates, and to dump home-and-away series against teams outside of the “power” structure. At the time, SMU was still a member of the American Athletic Conference.
SMU coming off big win last season
A few weeks after TCU made its announcement, the ACC announced that SMU would join its league starting in 2024. Despite that change, TCU’s position on this series has not.
Like all SMU alums, James and Dickerson take exception to what looks like a duck, especially after the Mustangs popped TCU last year in Dallas 66-42, when Dykes was thrown out of the game.
“They didn’t want another game they had a really good chance of losing,” James said, who added, “TCU has a done a great job. It’s a great university. It’s a great city. A big city. And I wish that they still had that game on the future books.”
Take your bias out of this scenario, and his last sentence is correct. This series is ending just as it was developing a serrated edge.
These are the games that make college football what it is. Bedlam in Oklahoma, between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Oregon vs. Oregon State. The Apple Cup, between Washington and Washington State. Kansas and Missouri’s Border War.
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech. Texas vs. Texas A&M.
In college football’s evolution, too many of these games have been paused to fit a business model that means stacking home dates against weak teams in an effort to reach a certain bowl tier, or influence the playoff selection committee.
There is a greater good here that the people who make these decisions pay lip service to, but regularly ignore.
Series is finally getting good
When James and Dickerson were at SMU, the Mustangs never lost to TCU. But the game meant little to either player.
“When Eric and I were in school, the ‘Iron Skillet,’ I never heard it one time mentioned. I didn’t know anything about an Iron Skillet. Now all of a sudden it’s a big deal,” James said.
In that era of college football, SMU was near the top, whereas TCU resided mostly at the bottom.
“All I know is they’re right down the street. They had that ugly mascot. That ugly frog. And I loved beating up on them,” Dickerson said. “We had some tough games. People ask me about the hardest hit I ever got. The hardest hit I ever got was against TCU. I got knocked out and didn’t even know it.
“From that point I said, ‘I’m going to get their asses for that.’ I used to love playing against TCU.”
After the two schools were not invited to join the Big 12 in 1996, the state of the programs became polar opposites. TCU became a national name, and routinely whipped SMU.
“It took a long time for us to beat TCU,” Dickerson said. “It was really disappointing what was happening. The way we were getting beat. Crushed. It was no fun. Losing to TCU. Losing to Baylor. Losing to teams in the Southwest Conference.”
For years and years, former TCU coach Gary Patterson bemoaned SMU’s existence on the schedule. Even if he won, he didn’t win anything. The game only helped SMU. He kept it regardless because he appreciated the tradition.
This started to change in 2019 when, with Dykes as the head coach, SMU defeated TCU in Fort Worth, 41-38. The two didn’t play in 2020 because of COVID, and SMU beat TCU again in 2021.
TCU won in 2022 and ‘23.
The Iron Skillet will likely return again, but it’s going away right at the time it was at last becoming interesting.
