• The KillerFrogs

Official Coaching Search Thread….

Moose Stuff

Active Member
so back to the fact that we have an unqualified and poorly lead search committee....

They have ignored advice they were given by people external to TCU that actually have experience hiring coaches and the realities of schools like Baylor - that going Coordinator gives you a better shot at a game changer. It might end up in disaster but going full HC only is focusing on risk reduction but ensuring mediocrity.

Existing HC was the safe way to go and hiring Dykes is truly the safest we could have done since we have zero internal candidates and he is basically the coaching version of a baseball player we sent to play JUCO for a year to get his grades up....
None of this makes them unqualified or poorly led. All this is is you disagreeing with their philosophy (which is fine) and overreacting to it (which is fairly typical).
 

gofor2

Active Member
I was specific in which football team he was quitting on because soccer is worldwide known as Football.

Yes, I know, which is why I asked if you were from a different country. No one from this country would say "your American Football".

That would be like me living in Spain and telling Spaniards "your European football".
 

South Texas Frog

Active Member
IIRC, his first game was the Bowl game (Mobile?). His first actual "I had a chance to prepare for this" game was at Cincy. NW State was the first home game. And, no, things didn't look terribly promising at that juncture...
We opened with Nebraska, University of North Texas and SMU all on the road then didn’t play the Marshall game due to 9/11. NW State was first home game of 2001…and we lost.
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
The fun part of this, to me at least, is that few people actually know what the facts are. Those people are keeping quiet. The rest are just reacting to rumor and sketchy guesswork based on those rumors.

Patterson had to go. Bottom line. They had contingency plans, but plans never hold in the tumult of reality.

It could well be that they held off on naming The New Guy until this week so as to allow for that touching pre-game ceremony yesterday. Though he needed to go, we owe Patterson so very much. Yesterday allowed for a formal goodbye, with the focus being on The One What Brung Us and no one else. Now, it is over. It will be remembered fondly in smiles. All can move forward.
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
We opened with Nebraska, University of North Texas and SMU all on the road then didn’t play the Marshall game due to 9/11. NW State was first home game of 2001…and we lost.
20 years is a while, and those files are... damaged.

I just remember that NW State hit the long ball numerous times, and it was a mighty frustrating game.
 

bp4tcu

Active Member
I'm pretty sure the only people who talk about TCU being a national power are all of you "rational fans" who feel the need to constantly remind everyone that we're not Alabama or Ohio St. You're so objective and the rest of us are total fanboy clowns.
Nah, I just know when to call a spade a spade. Nice I know you are but what am I argument though.
 

kaiser soze

Active Member
As a side, anyone that loves TCU is not surprised that this would be the most competitive situation for head coaches in many years. Nothing ever seems to come easy for us. It’s just how we roll.
You didnt ask me, and count me in the underwhelmed with Sonny club, but if your criteria remains candidates with head coaching experience plus NIL competency I’m not sure where else you could have realistically turned if Napier, et al have turned us down. The next best greatest coach ever is a coordinator or position coach out there right now but I don’t know how anyone could be expected to figure that out in 3 weeks.
It was a pre-determined set of search criteria so that the BMDs could get their comfortable buddy hire back in the hunting lodge.

Yes, its a shallow candidate pool. But given the MASSIVE changes hitting NCAA football in next 2-4 years and impacts to the university, relaxing some filters (existing head coaching) and swinging for a riskier but home run potential hire while laying out ALL the resources to be successful was the right path. instead we hooked up with an old, comfortable girlfriend.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
What’s happening is predictable. We pushed the issue and proactively fired GP to be sure we didn’t lose out of the “Sonny Dykes Sweepstakes” and yet there apparently was no Sonny Dykes Sweepstakes after all. Now we stand here with our program creating Coach gone, no particularly amazing candidate, realization that we aren’t pulling a major hire because coaches aren’t clamoring to come here or frankly to go anywhere else when the prior coach is getting shown the door in a way that others in the coaching profession might have felt was short sighted or unfair. You’re seeing the results all over the country. Texas, LSU, etc all have had issue hiring away a proven head coach, so they largely end up taking the route of hiring a great coordinator and hoping like hell he is the next great head coach…but usually they are not. So you rinse, wash and repeat. All while paying a couple of coaches who you fired with gears left on their contract along with whatever most recent hire the university has made. This is normal around the country among programs trying to win in big time college football. Welcome to the new normal at TCU, just like at most programs. Perhaps we didn’t realize this is what it was going to look like when pushing GP out but this is what it was going to look like no matter what. That’s not JD or VB’s fault…it is what it is. Signing up for this when the option was pushing GP outside his comfort zone and throwing some major cash at coordinators…that’s the option I would have chosen. Tell me you can’t convince GP and he thought he was bulletproof and untouchable…I call BS. Leadership leads.
Your entire premise falls apart in your second sentence. If we didn’t fire Gary when we did Sonny Dykes is very likely the next coach at Texas Tech.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
None of this makes them unqualified or poorly led. All this is is you disagreeing with their philosophy (which is fine) and overreacting to it (which is fairly typical).
when you fire you HC because he won't bring in new perspectives and surrounds himself with head bobbing sycophants - and then refuse to listen to those disagree with your primary criteria - that pretty much is the definition of tone deaf and poor leadership....
 

Prince of Purpoole II

Reigning Smartarse
so back to the fact that we have an unqualified and poorly lead search committee....

They have ignored advice they were given by people external to TCU that actually have experience hiring coaches and the realities of schools like Baylor - that going Coordinator gives you a better shot at a game changer. It might end up in disaster but going full HC only is focusing on risk reduction but ensuring mediocrity.

Existing HC was the safe way to go and hiring Dykes is truly the safest we could have done since we have zero internal candidates and he is basically the coaching version of a baseball player we sent to play JUCO for a year to get his grades up....
Serious question with no intent to begin an argument: Can you name the members of the search committee?
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Serious question with no intent to begin an argument: Can you name the members of the search committee?
Yes - and I know it is a copout but I would not do that - they are all good people doing what they see as best. But with the exception of one prominent name, they all have exactly the same POV on this search. It was obvious at the Baylor game and even more so on Saturday from the discussions that occurred - like a stacked jury with group think. It is also apparent in who the search firm assigned to lead our effort and the lack of external perspectives involved in the discussions at this point.

All of that is why I - like many around but not involved the discussion - think this was all preordained to where we are ending up.
 

Prince of Purpoole II

Reigning Smartarse
Yes - and I know it is a copout but I would not do that - they are all good people doing what they see as best. But with the exception of one prominent name, they all have exactly the same POV on this search. It was obvious at the Baylor game and even more so on Saturday from the discussions that occurred - like a stacked jury with group think. It is also apparent in who the search firm assigned to lead our effort and the lack of external perspectives involved in the discussions at this point.

All of that is why I - like many around but not involved the discussion - think this was all preordained to where we are ending up.
I’ll take your word you can name them; I didn’t expect you to do it here although it’s probably an open secret. If you know who they are then you know they are getting all kinds of advice both solicited and unsolicited.

I think it is more that you disagree with their search parameters - which is fine - but to say they are poorly led, unqualified, etc just seems to mean you would have a different approach. Merely disagreeing with the construct the committee is using does not mean they are poorly led, unqualified or wrong or that Dykes was pre-ordained. He wasn’t. That’s a fact. The unqualified label is the most puzzling
 
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so back to the fact that we have an unqualified and poorly lead search committee....

They have ignored advice they were given by people external to TCU that actually have experience hiring coaches and the realities of schools like Baylor - that going Coordinator gives you a better shot at a game changer. It might end up in disaster but going full HC only is focusing on risk reduction but ensuring mediocrity.

Existing HC was the safe way to go and hiring Dykes is truly the safest we could have done since we have zero internal candidates and he is basically the coaching version of a baseball player we sent to play JUCO for a year to get his grades up....
Interesting thoughts, but I'm curious- is there data out there that coordinator hires have more success than head coaches? Or at least more likely to have game changer success? I can think of examples of success (and failure) for all sorts.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
when you fire you HC because he won't bring in new perspectives and surrounds himself with head bobbing sycophants - and then refuse to listen to those disagree with your primary criteria - that pretty much is the definition of tone deaf and poor leadership....
We have literally zero evidence that Sonny Dykes is gonna surround himself with “head bobbing sycophants”. In fact I see almost zero similarities between him and Gary beyond them both being middle aged white men that come across as very solid humans. Now, if a month from now we’ve retained Anderson, Sharp, Meach, Sommers, etc that’s a different story.
 
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