If I Was Donati......

[nrhfrog]

For the record, I loved GP, but I knew the environment had turned toxic and his unwillingness to change would lead to his demise, which it did. I liked the hire of Sonny. I thought if Sonny could make SMU successful, he could do really good things at TCU. I had no expectations of a national championship game last year and no expectations of anything close to that this year. 7-5 or 8-4 seemed reasonable this year as he replaced some of the guys who went to the NFL.

Normally, I'm not a panic-type and I don't like it when the AD interferes with the Head Coach. That said, the level of how bad we are and the inability to build in any way off of last year, is so startling that this time feels different.

Donati needs to sit down with Dykes the day after we get slaughtered by OU and finish with a 4-8 record. Tell Sonny to do the following:

1. Fire Gillespie. For all the reasons that have been so well articulated on this forum. Defense is pathetic, has been pathetic, and will remain pathetic. It ain't the 3-3-5....it's the coaching. Other coaches run it successfully. Gillespie does not. End off story.
2. Fire Briles. Tell Sonny.....I let you hire this guy...despite ALL of the baggage. I took a gamble despite the incredible heat I took from our alums. The gamble failed. End of story.

Sonny you have the resources to find excellent, up and coming Coordinators....go find them now. If Sonny refuses, let him know in no uncertain terms, if he has another year like this in 2024, he will be fired. Let's hope that is not the end of story.

 

[Planks]

I think if Donati feels he can no longer trust Dykes to properly manage his football coaching staff, then Donati should just go ahead and fire Dykes.

 

[Wexahu]

I think if Donati feels he can no longer trust Dykes to properly manage his football coaching staff, then Donati should just go ahead and fire Dykes.

I agree.

And you really can't fire Dykes. For god sakes, we were in the freaking National Championship Game in January 2023. Man, do people have short memories and zero patience. You HAVE to let him have at bare minimum another year and if that doesn't go miserably terrible, probably another one.

 

[HornFrogger]

I think that both comments above are very pragmatic. I think firing Sonny is unrealistic, unless ADJD has someone in the pipeline ready to go. I have always felt like ADJD had had “discussions” of some form with SD prior to the post-KSU discussion JD had with CGMFP. I could/might be wrong about that. Just felt like that was in motion ahead of us being without a head coach. (If anyone knows that to be true or false, I’d love to know.)

I would add to justifying the Briles’ firing that the fan (and more importantly the donor) base is angrier and louder than they were after his hiring. Whether or not he has time to implement his system under his players is somewhat irrelevant. Perception outside of the program is that this staff is hapless and lost. A show of force and a severe course correction is justified to reset the tone in the coaches’ offices and, by default, the locker room and recruiting trail.

 

[CardFrog]

TCU is a projected 10 seed in the CBS preseason basketball Bracketology from CBS
Thought I might change the mood a touch

 

[Dogfrog]

I think if Donati feels he can no longer trust Dykes to properly manage his football coaching staff, then Donati should just go ahead and fire Dykes.

The football performance is Dykes’ problem to manage. Any buyout and replacement problem is Donati’s.

 

[HToady]

Firing a coach 1 year after a NC run makes us look like LSU....

 

[4 Oaks Frog]

For the record, I loved GP, but I knew the environment had turned toxic and his unwillingness to change would lead to his demise, which it did. I liked the hire of Sonny. I thought if Sonny could make SMU successful, he could do really good things at TCU. I had no expectations of a national championship game last year and no expectations of anything close to that this year. 7-5 or 8-4 seemed reasonable this year as he replaced some of the guys who went to the NFL.

Normally, I'm not a panic-type and I don't like it when the AD interferes with the Head Coach. That said, the level of how bad we are and the inability to build in any way off of last year, is so startling that this time feels different.

Donati needs to sit down with Dykes the day after we get slaughtered by OU and finish with a 4-8 record. Tell Sonny to do the following:

1. Fire Gillespie. For all the reasons that have been so well articulated on this forum. Defense is pathetic, has been pathetic, and will remain pathetic. It ain't the 3-3-5....it's the coaching. Other coaches run it successfully. Gillespie does not. End off story.
2. Fire Briles. Tell Sonny.....I let you hire this guy...despite ALL of the baggage. I took a gamble despite the incredible heat I took from our alums. The gamble failed. End of story.

Sonny you have the resources to find excellent, up and coming Coordinators....go find them now. If Sonny refuses, let him know in no uncertain terms, if he has another year like this in 2024, he will be fired. Let's hope that is not the end of story.

^^^THIS EXACTLY ^^^
Exception: ADJD does not have to wait for Sonny to give his approval to jettison the two [ Finebaum ]ty coordinators. He can do it himself. He pulled the trigger on AWHCGMFP (still pissed about that).
It is too late to worry about losing the positives we generated last year. It is all already waisted. We are already considered a “One Hit Wonder” a “One Trick Ponny”, and it appears to be true.
We all expected more than Sonny and his losing crew were able to deliver. They have noting of what it takes to keep momentum flowing. That’s not just a disappointed 73 year old fan talking. Look at what has happened since the conference championship. Max put the team on his back that night, but because of some really stupid play calls, he couldn’t finish it.
Without Max, Q, Davis, Emari, Kendre and others (AWHCGFMP peeps), Sonny and his coordinators have been exposed for what so many know they are…losers. For those that think Sonny was the architect of our Natty run, proof is evident that he was not. He just stayed out of the way and let Gary’s guys drag us there.
So here we are once again, a team that all opponents want for their homecoming. We are once again the pre-season easy win the big boys want on their schedule. This is not a good situation for getting and keeping top notch recruits. Wonder who bolts?
It makes scheissing sick, and it should you, as well. It makes me not care anymore, once again! Whatever…

 

[Dman890]

Firing a coach 1 year after a NC run makes us look like LSU....

Except LSU wins NCs and we lose 65-7. There's a difference.

 

[Limey Frog]

I think if Donati feels he can no longer trust Dykes to properly manage his football coaching staff, then Donati should just go ahead and fire Dykes.

Agreed. I don't think we're in ultimatum territory here. But I'd want to hear Sonny explain exactly what went wrong, give evidence as to why he's sure those things are the reasons, and hear in painstaking detail what his plan is to fix it. And if Sonny is thinking about letting some people go, I'd signal my approval and willingness to fund the transition--especially if it meant letting go of someone we never should have hired in the first place.

 

[Chongo94]

Firing a coach 1 year after a NC run makes us look like LSU....

A perennial blue blood that doesn’t accept failure?….good.

 

[Wexahu]

^^^THIS EXACTLY ^^^
Exception: ADJD does not have to wait for Sonny to give his approval to jettison the two [ Finebaum ]ty coordinators. He can do it himself. He pulled the trigger on AWHCGMFP (still pissed about that).
It is too late to worry about losing the positives we generated last year. It is all already waisted. We are already considered a “One Hit Wonder” a “One Trick Ponny”, and it appears to be true.
We all expected more than Sonny and his losing crew were able to deliver. They have noting of what it takes to keep momentum flowing. That’s not just a disappointed 73 year old fan talking. Look at what has happened since the conference championship. Max put the team on his back that night, but because of some really stupid play calls, he couldn’t finish it.
Without Max, Q, Davis, Emari, Kendre and others (AWHCGFMP peeps), Sonny and his coordinators have been exposed for what so many know they are…losers. For those that think Sonny was the architect of our Natty run, proof is evident that he was not. He just stayed out of the way and let Gary’s guys drag us there.
So here we are once again, a team that all opponents want for their homecoming. We are once again the pre-season easy win the big boys want on their schedule. This is not a good situation for getting and keeping top notch recruits. Wonder who bolts?
It makes scheissing sick, and it should you, as well. It makes me not care anymore, once again! Whatever…

AWHCGMFP was 21-22 in his last four seasons. With many of the same players that Sonny took to the NCG. Are you still pissed about that? Did that make you scheissing sick?

I'm with you on the last part, but it's not because of Sonny, it's because of what they've done to college football over the past few years.

 

[Sangria Wine]

For those that think Sonny was the architect of our Natty run, proof is evident that he was not. He just stayed out of the way and let Gary’s guys drag us there.

Absolutely agree. And kudos to Sonny for doing just that I suppose. As GMFP obviously would not do that exact thing which was one of the reasons he found himself fired. I hated Gary being fired and I hated Sonny being hired even more.

 

[Wexahu]

Absolutely agree. And kudos to Sonny for doing just that I suppose. As GMFP obviously would not do that exact thing which was one of the reasons he found himself fired. I hated Gary being fired and I hated Sonny being hired even more.

Gary absolutely needed to be fired so if you hated that, that's an odd take. I guess you probably hated Sonny proving that fact beyond a shadow of a doubt more than anything.

 

[PurpleBlood87]

TCU is a projected 10 seed in the CBS preseason basketball Bracketology from CBS
Thought I might change the mood a touch

Sure hope they can improve on that seed.

 

[Sangria Wine]

Gary absolutely needed to be fired so if you hated that, that's an odd take. I guess you probably hated Sonny proving that fact beyond a shadow of a doubt more than anything.

Not really. I enjoyed the ride for what it was. I felt like we had caught lightening in a bottle and was happy to enjoy that ride. Honestly I didn’t believe it was sustainable because it felt like a fairy tail kind of year. I *HAD* season tickets for 25+ years starting in 1987. I was a thick and thin guy who saw a lot of losing before Fran and Gary came to town. I still love the Frogs. I just chose to stop giving the football department my money.

I hated that Gary was fired because I felt like it could have been handled differently. I’ve beat that drum to death on here though.

Internally at TCU they had identified Sonny, knew that Tech was probably going to try to hire him, and needed to jump ahead of that. So Gary was fired mid-season to make certain Sonny knew they were going to be hiring a new coach. Then they paraded about acting like a national search was being conducted and that others were being considered long enough for Sonny to finish up his season at SMU and take the job. They made a huge spectacle of the hiring and set the story book in motion. Then last year happened and honestly I hoped I was totally wrong and that this was a match made in heaven. I hoped that Sonny was taking what had been done and taking it up a notch. Maybe he has a miracle up his sleeves and this is a one year bump in the road.

 

[ShreveFrog]

What other head coach or top assistant that was under consideration or available -- and that TCU could get -- was there when we hired Sonny? I'll hang up and listen.

Other than to say give Sonny some leash to make the needed changes this offseason.

 

[PineyWoodsFrog]

I agree.

And you really can't fire Dykes. For god sakes, we were in the freaking National Championship Game in January 2023. Man, do people have short memories and zero patience. You HAVE to let him have at bare minimum another year and if that doesn't go miserably terrible, probably another one.

I don't think the memories are short. I think people are realizing that there were a few players masking all of the deficiencies we had last year. Last year's defense wasn't great, but having a great OL and running game with a runner-up Heisman along with a better WR group and great situational kicking by Kel coveted up a LOT. We had a lot go right for us last year that was determined by the players we lost along with Kel being one of the best in the country. What games were we truly dominant in besides Iowa St. and a reloading OU?

 

[Bruce Berry]

I don't think we should focus any more time discussing firing Gillespie. The guy is gone. If Sonny retains him he will been certified as an idiot.

JG needs to take that defense to a high school field in some some small town.

 

[More Frogs the Better]

Time will tell if Sonny is the right guy but the longing for the days of GP by some is stunning. It’s like the last four years of his tenure never happened.