What’s next for TCU football? How do Sonny Dykes, Horned Frogs follow magical 2022 season?

The office of TCU head football coach Sonny Dykes has undergone a bit of a makeover since he arrived in Fort Worth in December 2021.

The lush headquarters, which dwarf the size of the average apartment living room, is now filled with trophies that are spread out across numerous tabletops. After leading the most improbable playoff run in college football history, Dykes received more than 10 Coach of the Year honors.

In a coaching cycle that saw Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly take over powerhouses USC and LSU, plus programs like Notre Dame, Florida and Oklahoma hiring new coaches, it was Dykes who led his team to the most success and inserted himself into conversations among the top coaches in the country.

Success like that so early can change anybody, but Dykes remains grounded even as his profile rises in the sport. Life hasn’t changed much for the second-year Horned Frogs head coach.

“My kids certainly aren’t impressed by any of the trophies; (My wife) Kate’s not that impressed with it either,” Dykes joked after wrapping up one of the hottest practices of training camp.

“You work hard in this business to gain a little credibility, and I think it gave us credibility more as a program than it did individually,” Dykes said. “That’s what you want; you want people to take the program serious. Whether it’s recruits, whether it’s high school coaches, who are helping guide recruits, or people that are willing to invest in the program.”

Dykes prefers to defer last season’s success to his players and coaches. In his eyes, he was just a piece, albeit one of the bigger ones, that led to the national championship game appearance. As he went on his lengthy acceptance spree, it was evident he wanted to share that spotlight with them.

“You know what was so funny? He almost felt awkward accepting [the awards],” Kate Dykes said. “He would just say, ‘This isn’t for me, this is because of my team.’ I think it was hard for him in a weird way, I know that sounds silly, but I think there were times where he thought, ‘I don’t deserve this, the team deserves this because I wouldn’t be here it for wasn’t for them. Obviously he was very grateful, but I think he just felt the team deserved them more than he did.”

With the award season over, Dykes is back in his comfort zone on the football field in the sweltering heat as he leads his team through training camp with one question permeating in the minds of TCU fans and college football pundits across the country.

How in the world are Dykes and company supposed to follow such a miraculous 2022 season?

Simple: By sticking to the script.

Lessons of success

We know what happened the last time the Horned Frogs took the field. In the national championship game, the joyful feeling that the season produced was wiped away in about four hours as the Georgia Bulldogs handed TCU a historic 65-7 defeat.

The desire to erase that feeling has been one of the motivating factors driving the players and coaches during training camp. As tough as the loss was to endure, it was an eye-opening experience for Dykes. Not for what happened on the field, but what transpired around the game.

“You see some programs like Ohio State, Michigan and Georgia and those teams that have been there a lot through the years, you look at [how] big their staff size is,” Dykes said. “I think there’s been times where I probably thought, ‘Well why do they have all those people?’ Then you get to that level and there’s so much that’s going on that you understand now.”

Dykes recalled after one Fiesta Bowl practice how much stress the staff was under. From preparing for Michigan to putting the finishing touches on the 2023 recruiting class, TCU got a glimpse of what the powerhouses do to maintain their standard.

After such a demoralizing loss, it would’ve been easy for Dykes to reshape his process to be more like Georgia or Ohio State, but while he’s cognizant of the fact that TCU needs to close the gap in some regards, the success of last season also showed him that his way could work at the highest level.

“His dad used to say, ‘Don’t get so high with the highs, don’t get so low with the lows,’ ” Kate Dykes said. “You’ve just got to find a way to be consistent, and what made last year so fun to watch because I think he found that. He doesn’t have big swings of highs and lows or nervousness, he just stayed the course, and as the season went on he got more confident in himself.”

That had a trickle-down effect on the team that played out during the season and into this year’s preseason. From returning players to the coaches, there’s a quiet confidence that’s been brewing around the program since the spring.

They’ve heard the assertions of last year being a fluke and the expectations that they’ll take a step back. Those external expectations don’t cause Dykes to lose any sleep. In his mind, the biggest challenge for the Frogs will be internal.

“It’s honestly about not taking things for granted,” Dykes said. “I think sometimes when you have success you kind of forget why you did, and I think what you’ve got do is keep going back to square one and understand it’s about our character, it’s about who we are off the field. It’s important because that has a lot to do with who we become on the field. We’ve got to understand the correlation between the two.”

There can’t be any deviation from the process on and off the field for both coaches and players in order to come close to that same type of success in 2023. It’s easier for everybody to be on one accord when their leader remains consistent in his approach.

Family first

Dykes has shaped his programs in the same mold his father, the late Spike Dykes, did during his time as a head coach. Family was always an emphasis for his father, who coached at Texas Tech from 1986-99.

Dykes brought the same mentality to Fort Worth.

The secret to TCU’s success last season wasn’t the eight NFL draft picks or Garrett Riley at offensive coordinator; it was the closeness that bonded everybody in the program. Chemistry is one of the biggest variables to success in sports.

How many talented teams have underachieved due to chemistry issues among players or coaches? That hasn’t been an issue at TCU and was one reason there was so much continuity with the roster and the coaching staff.

“The one thing he does is he lets us coach,” offensive line coach A.J. Ricker said. “He’s not over our shoulders, micro-managing. He’s huge into family, which is important to me. At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do, you’re not recreating the wheel.

“I think that’s important when you get to see your family and families around, obviously that’s how he grew up with his dad, that’s just the person he is and that’s the kind of person I want to work for.”

Dykes has continued to empower his staff and roster with his confidence and trust. It’s created a good quality of life and it’s one of the reasons quarterback Chandler Morris remained with the program despite losing his starting job to Max Duggan last season due to injury.

If Dykes hadn’t handled that situation delicately, it could’ve easily resulted in Morris hitting the transfer portal and drastically changing the outlook of TCU’s season.

“He trusts me, and I trust him, and I know he’s going to put me in a great situation and a great spot,” Morris said. “He trusts I’m going to do my job, and I’m going to take pride in doing my job. He trusts me more, and I think Coach Dykes saw me mature after seeing what I went through during the season.”

Morris had to put his personal feelings aside last season as he watched Duggan lead TCU to win after win while he recovered from a knee injury. Eventually it became clear that the Horned Frogs would have to ride the hot hand and that his focus needed to shift to being the best teammate possible.

Seeing how he put the team above himself garnered respect from Dykes and the rest of the team. It helped make his transition as a full-time leader that much easier.

Much of the season rides on Morris’ shoulders. The skill positions have new faces, but many were four-star recruits. The offensive line should be solid again, and new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles’ track record speaks for itself. The biggest question mark is Morris, who is talented, but unproven.

His first start will come against Colorado again, but this time it’ll be a national game of the week on FOX on Sept. 2. All eyes will be on Morris, which could be daunting, but Dykes knows Morris better than anybody and has the confidence he can show why he was originally the starter in 2022.

“I think Chandler has a lot of confidence in our program, he likes TCU, he likes being here,” Dykes said. “I think he believes in what we’re doing in all facets of our program. I think he knew that we were going to have a chance to have a good football team this year and he’s going to be surrounded by a lot of talent and play in a good scheme and take the field every Saturday with a chance to win.”

After last season, it’s a given that most of the roster feels the same way. It’s one thing to think you can win big if you stick to the process, it’s another to know it.

Dykes and the Horned Frogs got a taste of what it feels like to win at the highest level. They say money, or, in this case, success, doesn’t make you a new person, it just makes more of who you are, and that holds true for Dykes.

“He’s more hungry than ever,” cornerbacks coach Cartlon Buckels said.