Facing famous coaches is not new for TCU head coach Sonny Dykes.
He kicked off the 2023 season with a contest against the Colorado in Deion Sanders’ coaching debut for the Buffaloes. Two years later, his Horned Frogs are set to open the season against Bill Belichick and North Carolina on Monday, Sept. 1.
On a Thursday morning appearance on The Musers on radio station 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM). Dykes discussed the lessons he learned from that Colorado game, when the Horned Frogs were upset in their opener following a 2022 run to the national championship.
“You know, lots of unknowns … we played a Colorado team which, honestly, we had no idea what we were going to see from those guys, and we didn’t do a very good job getting our players ready,” Dykes said. “We didn’t handle all the hype and talk about the game particularly well, and so I’ve got to do a better job of getting our team more focused on just going and playing the football game than worrying about who we’re going to play against or all that kind of stuff.”
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The TCU coach also didn’t shy away from the attention on their matchup against Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl winner and first-time college coach.
“There’s going to be a lot of people that watch that game. It’s the only game on, I believe, Monday. So there’s going to be a lot of eyes on the game, and we’re going to need to do a better job getting our team ready to go out and play,” Dykes said.
Dykes praised Belichick and his achievements as the head coach of the New England Patriots and offered his thoughts on what he’s expecting from UNC in the opener.
“It’s gonna be interesting. I mean, it really is. He’s got a kind of an interesting staff. His son is his defensive coordinator who was in Washington last year. So, we have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to see from a defensive scheme standpoint,” Dykes said.
“He’s got an offensive coordinator that was with Mack last year, with Mack Brown, but is a longtime NFL guy in Freddie Kitchens, and so you expect some pro-style stuff. But then they went and signed a transfer from South Alabama who’s kind of a smaller, shorter, really athletic quarterback and so meshing that with pro-style and Freddie Kitchen’s philosophy and how that’s going to differ. I mean, who knows what in the world we’re going to see from an offensive standpoint. … We have a lot of stuff to try to look at and to prepare for and try to get ready for it, but you know, who really knows exactly what we’re gonna see on Monday.”
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