Dykes: Losing QBs to transfer like a breakup
Nicole Auerbach sits down with Sonny Dykes to discuss the progress of his TCU program, the difficulty of roster-building in the current era of college football and more.
Video Transcript
I'm here with Sonny Dykes from TCU.
Fifth year.
Entering the fifth year.
Yeah, yeah.
Fifth year, yeah, this Year 16 as a head coach, and believe it or not, five is the longest I've been anywhere as a- That's wild as a head coach.
Yeah.
So made it seven years at Texas Tech as- as an assistant with Michael Leach.
But yeah, so we- So you're like, you know, you got your grocery store- Yeah your habits- Yeah your commute, you actually know everyone.
Got it all.
Yeah, know where a Home Depot is.
I mean, the whole thing.
That's, it's a big deal for me.
What's the project at Home Depot?
Are we doing anything?
We doing any renovations?
No, no.
Don't, you don't want me doing anything.
So when you went from SMU to TCU, though, you moved.
Yeah, we did.
Yeah, so- 'Cause Dallas is bigger than I realized.
I'm not very good at geography.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so, so when I was at SMU, we were about two blocks from the stadium.
Okay.
and then at TCU, we're about two blocks from the stadium as well.
Okay.
So just, I like to try to live close.
My family's I like having my family around, my kids close and all that.
Yeah.
So yeah, we moved.
And you know, it's funny, we were gonna finish, let the kids finish the semester, and get through school and all that, and then we moved them, ended up moving 'em pretty quickly.
That's, you know, that's the life that they get born into.
Yeah, it's just part of it.
Like as a coach's child.
Yeah, I, yeah, I kinda grew up in that same thing.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just kinda part of what you sign up for.
So one of the things that makes me really excited about your team this year is I'm from New Jersey.
Yep.
You got, like, a lot of East Coast influence.
We do, yeah, yeah.
And specifically New Jersey.
Your offensive coordinator is from I need to talk to him, actually.
Yeah.
He played high school across from the mall I worked at in high school.
So I need to talk to him.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Okay, so talk- Well, he's a great guy to talk to so walk me through, like, that change.
Yeah.
Right?
So you bring him in, you bring in Jadyn as your quarterback.
Like, walk me through those, that move.
Yeah, so, man, where do you start?
Okay.
So just the way it, it, it all began really was two years ago, we were playing a, a Saturday game.
We're at a team hotel.
UConn's playing somebody on a Friday night.
I haven't seen, you know, you don't get to see much college football.
You see teams play maybe on Thursday, maybe on Friday.
So I'm watching the Friday game, and I watch UConn, and know a lot of the players playing in the game, 'cause they had actually a, a, a decent number of players from Texas, and we had a transfer that had left TCU that was playing there.
And was just, number one, im- impressed with how productive those guys were.
you know, they were doing some really good things with maybe not the best talent.
and then really liked what they were doing from a scheme standpoint.
So got interested at the end of the year, watched some tape.
I thought it I thought, "Wow, this would fit our personnel, you know, well," whatever, and kinda move on.
Well, the, this year comes around, and we end up having a change at, at the coordinator spot.
And so did the same thing.
We'd study those guys every week as the season went along and, and we started doing a deep dive into some of the statistics.
And, you know, the, the thing that we needed to improve on the most was turning the ball over.
You know, that's been our deal.
We're 31 and 4 when we win or even tie the turnover battle.
and we're not very good when we turn it over very, you know, a lot.
And nobody is, but particularly us.
And so, you know, we felt like we lost a couple of games the last two years.
We've won 18 games the last two years, which looks good on paper, but we felt like we lost some games that we probably shouldn't have lost, and turnovers were the, the reason.
And so started looking at them.
They turned it over twice last year, three times the year before.
That's- Five turnovers in two years wild, yes.
Which is hard to even imagine.
Yeah.
and then you started looking at, you know, Josh Hoover moving on to Indiana, and we gotta go find a quarterback.
And, so, you know, Gordy knew, Jadyn at Harvard, and it all kind of made sense, and it all started to fit together.
And, you know, Jadyn did a really good job taking care of the ball.
And so we just thought, you know, this is what we wanna do.
This is what we believe in, and we think this is gonna make the difference in our program.
And so we went out and did it.
Harvard quarterback coming to, coming to Dallas.
Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
Yeah, yeah.
It's, you know, Jadyn's an, an interesting guy.
Yeah.
You know, got a degree from Harvard.
you know, is kind of the ultimate team guy.
loves being a part of a team, loves his teammates.
Has come to Fort Worth and really done a good job of integrating himself in, into our culture, not trying to do too much, be respectful to our players.
but also, you know, be himself and, and be a leader.
An incredibly smart guy, very self-aware, very mature, very talented.
You know, like what he brings off the field in, in the same thing on the field.
So excited to see what, what he can do for us this year and really looking forward to it.
Is that process of when you were watching UConn and, like, thinking about how they were running their offense, is that how you hire coaches?
Like, do you just look at what you, A, think is good or defense is challenging?
Yeah, yeah.
Like, how do you- I think, I think you've gotta- Like, you're, you're watching film- Yeah of your coaches, potential coaches.
Yeah, you are.
And, and you, and you wanna see the big picture.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And so for us, it was, you know, okay, would this, would what he's doing schematically fit our people?
And so the answer was yes, okay?
Was what he's doing schematically, does it fit what I wanna do?
Yes.
Okay?
Does what we're doing schematically we think give us a better chance to win?
Yes.
And for us, we need to be able to run the football, okay?
D- are they really good at running the ball?
Yes, they're really good at running the ball.
What does running the ball do for you?
Well, it takes a lot of pressure off your quarterback, creates opportunities for play action passes, more down-the-field shots, you know, all the different things.
And so, you know, and would it fit what we wanna do?
'Cause they're very diverse in their schemes in terms of playing with personnel, so they'll play with three tight ends some, five wide some.
Do we have the capability of doing that?
Yes.
And so as we looked at it all, it just, it made sense for us.
And, and, you know, it's, it's a pro-style offense, which I think is, is, you know, the direction we wanted to go in.
Moving quarterbacks or seeing quarterbacks move around, how hard is that to manage?
I mean Yeah, that's the one position that's hard.
Because what you do is you invest a lot of time in that position.
Right.
I mean, there's a lot of time invested.
You know, we invested a lot of time in, in Josh Hoover and, you know, watched Josh grow up and, and, and, you know, come through our program and improve.
And- So then is it disappointing when someone leaves?
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
It always is.
I mean, it's always You know, it's like getting broken up with.
Yeah.
It's like your girlfriend breaks up with you in a lot of ways 'cause you're invested in that relationship.
You know, you just are.
And so, but it's, but it's part of it.
You know, it's college football and you gotta find a way to move on and, and then you gotta- And then speed date and find your new- Exactly.
Exactly your new girlfriend .
And it was speed dating, by the way.
I mean, it was it happened fast.
Oh, sure.
And, and so you know, the great thing about Jaden's situation and, and I've said this, is that, you know, he was in the transfer portal not because he was leaving his team, because he had to.
He had to be.
He had to be.
Yeah.
Ivy League players can't- And, and so I think- transfer from that perspective, that appealed to me.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I just wanted to bring somebody in that, that I thought really valued, you know, being a part of a team.
Yeah.
And loved his teammates and loved the school and, and, and I he loved Harvard.
He loved his experience at Harvard.
and, and that's the kind of guy we wanted in our program.
You have a lot of continuity around him too.
I mean, you didn't have to do much in the portal this year.
Yeah.
So h- what a luxury is that?
It's awesome.
Yeah.
We had a couple replaced a couple guys.
Needed a receiver here or there, and maybe an O lineman here or there, but really didn't have to do a whole lot.
And so, really liked what we picked up in, in the portal.
And again, we're, we're a team that's gonna be built with high school players.
You know, we're gonna sign- Well, you're in Dallas.
You got- Yeah.
Yeah so much in the state We're gonna, we're gonna sign 25- Yeah high school players a year and hopefully take eight to, to 12 portal players.
And yeah, being in DFW, you have access to some really good high school players.
And you know, we recruit a lot in East Texas and a lot in Houston and a lot in Louisiana and Oklahoma.
And so we're in a great area to, to go find really, really good high school players.
Our, our job is to bring those high school players in, develop them, and then we gotta try to retain them.
And, and we're not a team that can go out and just say, "Okay, we- we're gonna take your best players."
Right.
You know, we're not we just don't we're not built that way financially to be able to go do that.
I mean, that's an easy thing to do to go say, "Oh, we played this team this year, we're gonna take their best players at all these positions and bring them to our team."
But you know, that's just not the way it's gonna be at TCU.
last question, kind of really big picture.
when the Brendan Swords be- saga was unfolding, you were very outspoken there.
And, and I don't, n- not don't want to ask you necessarily exactly about him, but you made a comment about how, like, everyone in college sports is acting in self-interest.
Yeah.
how, how do we get out of that?
Or how do people think about college football or college sports as a whole again?
Yeah.
I, I mean, I think we have to.
I mean, I think at the end of the day, you know, we have to, to, number one, take care of the student athletes, which we are because they're, they're now they're, they're getting compensated, which they always should have been compensated.
Now we're, we're doing that, so we've checked that box.
But the problem that we've created now is, is when you give an opportunity to someone to transfer every year, there's financial opportunities there.
And so the, the players take those and they go make the money, but the problem is when they're done, they don't have a degree.
Right.
In a lot of cases, they're 30 hours away from a degree.
And so they've made some money, but that money is probably gone, and now their, their likelihood of graduating from college is minimal.
Yeah.
And- And you don't have a network- Yeah.
And, and you- 'cause you played at four schools you played at four s- four schools- Yeah and you really don't have anybody that is invested in you and you're not invested in them, and so you have problems.
Yeah.
And so I, I think that's gonna be the thing that we all look back on in four or five years, is, you know, say, "You know what?
These kids all made a little bit of money, but none of them graduated."
And, and that's a problem.
And so we've gotta figure out ways to take care of that and, and someone's gotta make those hard decisions.
And- But it feels like the self-interest piece is everything when you talk about playoff expansion, what's good for me, or- Yeah.
And- I wanna do this because it's, you know and the same thing.
And yeah, and we've gotta say, "Okay, look, college football has to be a one semester sport," again, because these players are students.
Right.
And we have to give those guys an opportunity to be able to, to finish a semester and go start a new semester somewhere else.
Well, if the college football playoff goes to the 25th of January, you can't do that.
Right.
That's a month in for some people.
Yeah.
You can't, you can't do it.
Yeah.
And so long story short, we've gotta figure out a way to, to, number one, probably play zero week.
We have to eliminate championship games, which is gonna cost people some money.
Yeah.
But again, sometimes you have to do what's the best thing for the sport.
And you gotta start the playoff- You do right away.
You do.
Yeah.
You gotta start the playoff right away, and you gotta play through.
And oh, by the way, the FCS has been doing it for, like, 40 years, and they got a great model that we could follow.
It's not that complicated.
Yeah.
You know, it works great for them.
Yeah.
But see, the problem is everyone no one you don't have a people looking out for the greater good for the sport.
It's Some- Like, I'm with you on the scheduling stuff.
Yeah.
Someone's gotta do it.
Like, a million people have to decide that to get to it, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And somebody has to say, "Okay, look, we may take a little bit of a financial hit."
And, and I think for us as college football coaches, ADs, presidents, our job used to do to be, "Let's do what's best for the game."
Yeah.
"And let's do what's best for the kids."
And somehow that turned into, "We have to make all this money."
Mm-hmm.
We have Now it's about the money, and it can't just always be about the money all the time.
It's gotta be about what's good for the game, what's good for the kids.
Um- As a tangent, like, it's driving me crazy when people are like, "Oh, the, the, the swimming program isn't breaking even."
I'm like, "It was never breaking even."
Yeah.
No.
Like, those were not the goals- No, this is not a new thing of, of college sports Yeah, no you know?
No.
And, and that's the problem, is if we continue down the path we're gonna continue down or that we're headed down, I'm afraid that a lot of those NCAA sports are gonna have to become club sports.
Yeah.
You know?
They do.
And I have two daughters that would love to participate in college ath- to sports and college athletics and, you know, they're gonna lose opportunities if we continue down this path.
And so at some point we've gotta say, "Okay, look, let's, let's do what's best for the players.
Let's do what's best for the, the non-football players, college athletes, athletics, a- athletes in general, and, and what's good for everybody."
And again, those seems like those conversations aren't even happening.
I know.
And so we gotta figure that out.
Well, I appreciate you chatting about them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank- 'Cause I care about them too.
Yeah.
And it's great to see you.
Can't wait to watch TCU this fall.
It's gonna be fun.
Yeah.
I think I like our team.
It should be a good year.
