TCU Horned Frogs discuss preparation for an international game
TCU Horned Frogs Coach Sonny Dykes discusses preparation for an international game. Dykes talks about all the things they have had to prepare for an international game since it is a big game and a big change.
Video Transcript
Hey coach Ryan Meyers, Dallas Morning News, as you guys prepare for an international game heading to Ireland, does that change how preparation goes in fall camp and what challenges come with it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we play 0 a week, so we're, you know, a week earlier.
So yeah, it changes our report day.
Everything kind of moves up a week, um.
But as you said, when you, when you do a deep dive and look at the history of these games in Ireland, a lot of the teams that have played in this historically haven't performed that well, uh, or maybe not up to the expectations of those teams, uh, at least what they thought they were gonna, uh, of how they thought they were going to perform.
You look at Iowa State and Kansas State last year, I think.
You know, neither team probably had the kind of season they thought they were going to coming into the game, um, and especially right after the game.
You know, I think both teams did a tremendous job of recovering and and and playing well at the end of the season, but, but you could tell it took a toll on both teams.
And so we're trying to do everything we can.
You know, to, to develop best practices.
We've talked to a number of people that have coached in this game, both administrators, coaches, um, you know, about, OK, what was challenging about this game?
What would you do different if you had the opportunity to do it again.
Um, the thing that we felt was incredibly important was playing that game week 0 and then having an open week, week 1, and we were fortunate enough to be able to make that work in our schedule.
You know, we didn't want to have to, to get home at, you know, 10:00 p.m. Sunday night and try to prepare for an opponent on a short week.
So we'll have an opportunity to get our players back, uh, get readjusted.
You know, and, and try to hit the ground running as we start getting ready for, uh, for our opponent in week two.
but it's challenging .
Anytime that you, you break your routine, have an 8-hour flight.
There's some challenges associated with that.
Obviously, logistically, we've been working on it for a year now as far as getting our players' passports and.
You know, getting all this stuff done that we're gonna do, how do we get equipment there, you know, all the different things.
What are we gonna do with our team?
How much time are we gonna give them?
We want them to have an experience, you know, of going to Ireland and get to see.
You know, part of the Irish culture, but at the same time, it's a business trip and we need to win the football game, and we're going to be playing a North Carolina team that's gonna be a lot different than the team they had last year .
Um, so they'll, they'll, they'll be a completely different team.
They'll make a tremendous jump.
It'll be a very challenging game for us.
Uh, they've hired Bobby Pittrino to be the offensive coordinator.
I think one of the elite play callers in all of football.
So it'll be a challenge.
And so, We've got to do everything we can to 1, ensure that we have a good trip going over, and #2, that we put our players in the best position coming back to perform well the rest of the season.
