Even after reaching the ‘natty,’ the Sonny Dykes era at TCU is now most troubling

Georgia scoring 65 was bad, but it least it was in the national title game.

Surrendering 66 against your rival is an all-time toilet bomb. Not the good kind.

TCU’s decision to put the Iron Skillet in the cabinet after the 2025 season, which was done at the direction of football coach Sonny Dykes, now looks like cowardly arrogance.

On Saturday night, Dykes put himself in a position he has not “enjoyed” since his days at California. You can’t hit “the pause” button against your rival and then have that rival hit you repeatedly over the head with an iron skillet, microwave oven, and kitchen sink.

There was one game on TCU’s 2024 schedule it could not lose, and rather than ball out TCU was blown out by new ACC member SMU, 66-42, in Dallas.

TCU reaching the national title game in the 2022 season from heaven continues not to fade in the rear view mirror but is buried by a slew of embarrassing scores. What went down Saturday night will not be forgotten by those who played, watched, or heard, about it.

“SMU did what? ...” was a common phrase tossed about throughout DFW, even by those who have zero interest in either program. People notice, and remember, when you go down Route 66.

TCU has plenty of games remaining this season, but after the Hell on the Hilltop the goal now is just to reach six wins and qualify for a bowl game. Dykes is not in “trouble,” but what both he and his team did in the member-guest that is TCU/SMU in Highland Park is troubling.

This is one of those losses that embarrasses the entire school, and leaves an administration seething. There is no “Well, had we just stopped them there it’s a different game” excuse for this mess of a performance.

Dykes’ predecessor, Gary Patterson, was known to lose his stuffing multiple times during a game, but he never got tossed from one of them in his 20 plus years of coaching TCU. Early in the third quarter, Dykes was ejected after he let the officials know his thoughts.

When the adult in the room is preaching poise and perserverance, he can’t get ejected ... no matter how bad the officiating is (shout out to the late Billy Tubbs).

The refs are the least of Sonny’s worries. If Dykes had to select a target to verbally blast, start with the coordinators, the assistants, the players, and the mirror. Then the refs.

Starting with its performance against Kansas State in the Big 12 title game on Dec. 12, 2022, it’s been one historic high followed by a pattern that is now all too familiar.

The Dykes’ era at TCU began 12-0. Since then, TCU is 8-11. Included in that stretch is the playoff win against Michigan in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, and appearance in the national title game.

Also included in that stretch, nine times TCU allowed an opponent to score 30 points. Three times an opponent eclipsed 60.

TCU has found its quarterback in Josh Hoover, but since Week 1 of the 2023 season this has not been a good team. It has created ways to lose through an erratic offense, a frequently horrendous defense, and, on Saturday night, special teams, too.

Angry fans will point to the controversial hire of Kendal Briles as TCU’s offensive coordinator after Dykes’ first season, but he is not the sole reason for this pile of steaming frog flop. He also hasn’t been great, either.

Because no one has.

(FWIW: After Briles left Baylor following the 2016 season, he has been the offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic, Houston, Florida State, Arkansas and now TCU. His teams have had four winning records in his seven full years at those schools. TCU is 7-9 since he came aboard.)

Changing defensive coordinators in the offseason hasn’t done much. Ultimately, this is on the head coach and early in Dykes’ third season this path is not good.

It looks alarmingly like the path Patterson was on beginning in the 2018 season. That was the season after quarterback Kenny Hill led TCU to the Big 12 title game, a win in the Alamo Bowl and a final ranking of No. 9 in the AP Poll.

After that season, TCU was 21-22 under Patterson when he “resigned” late in October of 2021. A reminder to TCU fans who have selective memory, that transformative era had run its course.

Here we are in 2024, and what’s “old is new,” which is almost worse. Patterson lost a few times to SMU, but he never let the Ponies hang a 66 on him.

Sonny Dykes is not “in trouble,” but this is troubling.