ARLINGTON – When it comes to steak, TCU head coach Sonny Dykes likes it seasoned with perspective and cooked under the radar.
OK, that’s nonsensical, but the poorly constructed metaphor does go along with how Dykes is viewing his second season as the Horned Frogs head coach.
“I think everybody has slogans for their program, and I think when you think about TCU football, our deal is we try to be all steak and no sizzle,” Dykes said Wednesday at Big 12 media days. “I think that’s kind of what we want, and I think it’s a role that we relish.
“We want to under promise and overperform.”
Hey, it worked for them last season.
Let’s not forget that a year ago TCU was picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 preseason media poll. The Horned Frogs then went 13-2 and beat Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinals before running into a Georgia Bulldogs buzzsaw in the title game.
Usually, a run to the title game is more than enough to generate some preseason sizzle and high expectations. Instead, TCU was picked fifth in the Big 12 preseason poll this year. Hey, it’s two spots higher than last season.
“I probably would’ve picked us lower, honestly,” Dykes said, looking back at last year’s seventh place projection.
Dykes had his reasons. He saw a defensive line that was talented, but thin. The same with the secondary. The Horned Frogs also entered last season with a quarterback battle between veteran Max Duggan and former Highland Park state champion Chandler Morris.
It was Morris who won the job initially, but after Morris suffered a knee injury in the first game, it was Duggan who became a Heisman Trophy finalist.
Last year’s team had confidence and a will to win, Dykes said Wednesday. Duggan represented it. Now the Horned Frogs will have to replace him and seven other TCU draft picks from last year.
It’s a reason why TCU was picked in the preseason poll behind Texas, Kansas State – the team that beat TCU on the last play of the Big 12 Championship game – Oklahoma and Texas Tech.
“What made last year’s team special was leadership,” Dykes said. “Max was a tremendous – in some ways once-in-a-lifetime leader, and Steve Avila was a world-class leader, as well. We just had guys that willed us to victory, and the challenge is going to be to find those guys. I think they’re in our program, but it’s like anything else, it’s our job to bring that part of them out, and if we can do that, then I anticipate us having a good year.”
