TCU is undefeated, and Sonny Dykes can now forever erase “The Sonny Swoon.”
Even Sonny Dykes has publicly wondered how this will play out; that, if this time, it will finally be different.
November is here, and Sonny has the chance to flip a narrative that has chased him for years, and is dangerously close to defining him professionally.
His “fans” at SMU call it “The Sonny Swoon.” That title is also normally followed by a few, choice expletives.
There are other words for it. Collapse. Choke. Gag. Fall apart.
You pick.
After defeating West Virginia in Morgantown on Saturday, 41-31, TCU’s first season under Dykes is an unqualified success.
It has also set up for Dykes to potentially erase those ugly descriptions from his resume, and to finish a season as well as some of his previous teams started.
Before the season began most TCU fans (and every single administrator) would have happily signed up for an 8-win regular-season record. This is TCU’s first season with at least eight wins since 2017.
The Horned Frogs are 8-0 overall, 5-0 in the Big 12 and may move up a spot or from their current No. 7 national ranking.
TCU pulled out some impressively questionable fourth-quarter play calls to try to blow their game against West Virginia, but they did enough to win in a place where couch burning is now a college major.
TCU will be mentioned prominently when the first College Football Playoff rankings are released this week.
It’s November, the Horned Frogs are in the conversation for a playoff berth, a spot in the Big 12 title game, and at least a premiere bowl appearance.
These rankings, and the accompanying TV show, are just a wee bit of a joke, but this is the system. The rankings aren’t even out yet, and somehow TCU is already in the “First Two Out” discussion.
Other than the “First Two Out” part, precisely no one saw this coming.
Sonny Dykes has arrived to another November with a team good enough to put together one of those types of seasons that causes donations to spike, applications to jump, and merchandise sales to explode.
They just need to finish this.
Before coming to TCU, Dykes had been the head coach at Louisiana Tech, California and SMU for a total of 11 seasons. After Nov. 1, he posted a winning record in two of those years.
His records after Nov. 1 at his previous head coaching jobs:
Louisiana Tech
2010: 2-2
2011: 4-1
2012: 2-2
California
2013: 0-4
2014: 1-3
2015: 3-2
2016: 1-3
SMU
2018: 2-2
2019: 2-3
2020: 1-2
2021: 1-3
It’s the finishes in 2019 and 2021 that still sting.
In 2019, the Mustangs began the season 8-0, and were the feature opponent at No. 24 Memphis for a night game that drew the ESPN Game Day crew on Beale Street.
SMU lost by six, and finished losing three of its final five games, including an ugly one against Florida Atlantic in the Boca Raton Bowl.
Considering how the season evolved, that SMU was left to play a third-tier Florida school in a fifth-tier bowl game left everyone associated with the program feeling empty, and uninspired.
(2020 was COVID and pretty much a disaster for everyone.)
In 2021, the Mustangs started 7-0 before it all fell apart.
By the first week of October, Dykes’ name was one of a handful expected to be offered a Power Five coaching job.
By the final week of October, “Sonny Dykes” was already attached to Texas Tech and TCU.
The SMU assistant coaches knew it, and began to plan for their individual futures. The SMU players certainly knew it.
It’s hard to maintain a winning season when so many people are preoccupied not with the next game but the next year.
The Mustangs lost four of their final five games, and Dykes was gone to Fort Worth in a matter of hours after SMU’s season ended on November 27.
It’s nearly one year later, and Sonny’s TCU team has four regular season games remaining, and 0 against teams ranked in the Top 25.
All four opponents are a problem in their own way.
Nov. 5: Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have a way of being a problem.
Nov. 12: At Texas. The Gary Patterson Gets His Revenge Bowl.
Nov. 19. At Baylor. The Bears were 7-1 when they came to Fort Worth last season to play TCU in its first game without Gary Patterson. TCU won by 2. That one left a mark.
Nov. 26. Iowa State. The Cyclones are a disappointment, but they know how to make a game close and interesting before blowing it.
The odds of TCU finishing undefeated aren’t great, but both Dykes and his team are in a position to put together a season that changes programs, and reputations.
All they need to do is finish it.
