Next four games--what do you expect?

[This Ain't Chopped Liver]

 

[Limey Frog]

How's a two game losing streak to Houston going to feel? Same.

 

[NewFrogFan]

How's a two game losing streak to Houston going to feel? Same.

The loss last year was the “sign”……..

 

[This Ain't Chopped Liver]

I think losing to Houston again with 2nd year coach Fritz, after being humiliated by them last year, would be the worst loss of this season and would much amplify the possibility of acting now rather than giving Dykes another year. How will his players and team respond.

 

[Purple Hearted]

I think we can infer that the staff has lost the team. That effort Saturday night was embarrassing. It reminded me of our effort vs UH last year. That game was the first I'd ever left early, my disgust was so great (and I go back to first attending games with my Dad in 1973). Anyway, Saturday reminded me of what I saw vs UH in 2024.

The crucible moment came and went this weekend. After losing to Iowa State, we were either going to go roll over and quit vs BYU or put up a fight. The way we got pushed around (and seemingly being ok with it) leaves little hope that we'll see anything but the same against UH and Cinci

 

[Mean Purple]

I think we can infer that the staff has lost the team. That effort Saturday night was embarrassing. It reminded me of our effort vs UH last year. That game was the first I'd ever left early, my disgust was so great (and I go back to first attending games with my Dad in 1973). Anyway, Saturday reminded me of what I saw vs UH in 2024.

The crucible moment came and went this weekend. After losing to Iowa State, we were either going to go roll over and quit vs BYU or put up a fight. The way we got pushed around (and seemingly being ok with it) leaves little hope that we'll see anything but the same against UH and Cinci

it sure seems like a lack of discipline on the field. usually indicative of soft coaching.

far too often you see sonny just standing there. I get the whole game manage coach, etc., but there have been so many times this season, and the last two, where someone should have been getting chewed out on the sideline.

 

[Mean Purple]

I think we can infer that the staff has lost the team. That effort Saturday night was embarrassing. It reminded me of our effort vs UH last year. That game was the first I'd ever left early, my disgust was so great (and I go back to first attending games with my Dad in 1973). Anyway, Saturday reminded me of what I saw vs UH in 2024.

The crucible moment came and went this weekend. After losing to Iowa State, we were either going to go roll over and quit vs BYU or put up a fight. The way we got pushed around (and seemingly being ok with it) leaves little hope that we'll see anything but the same against UH and Cinci

I've never seen players just give up on plays, like I did the other night. DBs just standing there watching assuming the other guy will tackle the runner. it was keystone cops the whole 2nd half.
Dump Briles and Ricker, it won't change. That's an HC issue.

 

[4 Oaks Frog]

I fully expect to lose to Houston. They aren’t a great team, but they still have some pride.
They will have a game plan that will outmatch the simplicity and predictability of our offensive and defensive schemes. I don’t see the Frogs making much of a game of it.
So, after the loss at Houston, how many Frog fans do you see in the Carter next week for Cincinnati? Our future is bleak…

 

[BrewingFrog]

"Doom, despair, and a-a-agony..."

 

[Mean Purple]

I fully expect to lose to Houston. They aren’t a great team, but they still have some pride.
They will have a game plan that will outmatch the simplicity and predictability of our offensive and defensive schemes. I don’t see the Frogs making much of a game of it.
So, after the loss at Houston, how many Frog fans do you see in the Carter next week for Cincinnati? Our future is bleak…

It's crazy how bad the O Line has gotten from even the start of this season.
But Hoov also has to make sure he gets the ball off in 3 seconds. Which, with that line, means 2.5.

 

[BrewingFrog]

It's crazy how bad the O Line has gotten from even the start of this season.
But Hoov also has to make sure he gets the ball off in 3 seconds. Which, with that line, means 2.5.

Like the rest of the offense, everything has degenerated as the season has gone on.

The players have no confidence in the Staff.

 

[Mean Purple]

Like the rest of the offense, everything has degenerated as the season has gone on.

The players have no confidence in the Staff.

yup.
But how is it that we still have no depth at O Line? Not a new problem. Been an issue since 2023. Was an issue on 2022 for that matter. But now its lack of depth and lack of ability.

 

[HornyWartyToad]

"Doom, despair, and a-a-agony..."

And as the players must be wondering about their coaches as the game unravels: “Where, oh where are you tonight?”

 

[NewFrogFan]

yup.
But how is it that we still have no depth at O Line? Not a new problem. Been an issue since 2023. Was an issue on 2022 for that matter. But now its lack of depth and lack of ability.

Why waste money on an OL coach, just use Grok!

 

[4 Oaks Frog]

Like the rest of the offense, everything has degenerated as the season has gone on.

The players have no confidence in the Staff.

Even worse, I’m afraid many may have lost confidence in themselves. It’s one thing if they quit on the coach and altogether different if they quit on themselves…

 

[Opintel]

... each other.

That's the worst. TEAM

 

[The TCU Football Jerk]

But how is it that we still have no depth at O Line? Not a new problem. Been an issue since 2023. Was an issue on 2022 for that matter. But now its lack of depth and lack of ability.

This ^^

 

[Limey Frog]

@An-Cap Frog posted in another thread (here) Big 12 win percentages over the past two seasons to this point of 2025.

Sonny was clearly feeling pretty salty about this when he came in to the post-Baylor press conference all hot and bothered, knowing he would get heat for how we nearly lost instead of praise that we had won. This is fair enough from one perspective: we've mostly won the last two years. Here's another way of looking at it, though--the final win percentage of every team we beat in 2024, and win percentage right now of those we've beaten this year (leaving out FCS teams):

2024: Stanford (.250), Kansas (.417), Utah (.417), Tech (.615), Pokes (.250), 'Zona (.333), Cincinnati (.417)
2025: UNC (.286), SMU (.625), Colorado (.375), Baylor (.500), WVU (.250)

To date, we've beaten exactly one team above .500 in each of the past two seasons, both at home.

Current win percentage of our remaining opponents: Iowa State (.625), BYU (.1000), Houston (.875), Cincinnati (.875).

Obviously these teams will all likely finish a little worse than their current standings overall because they play one another or other good teams and someone must lose, but we're about to play four .500+ teams in a row, two away from home. I think if we go 3-1 in that stretch Sonny has every right to get hot and bothered and say TCU has the most wins in the Big 12 over the past four years, etc. I think going 2-2 would be decent if we're competitive in the losses and don't throw the game away with unforced errors.

What do y'all think is going to happen?

I didn't get to watch the game this weekend and only just now had a chance to watch it back. Naturally that's when we put up our first complete game on both sides of the ball against a team above .500 -- but better late and when I can't watch than never. The box score is great reading, running stats best of all. Payne, Denman, and Palmer finished the year looking like a very promising young set of backs, especially if Hoover returns for his last year. Of course, it will all come down to line play whether we're middling-to-goodish again next year or can actually crack the group of real competitors in the Big XII. The transfer from Oklahoma State is a promising start.

When Dykes took the job here SMU fans warned of "November Sonny". He came out spitting fire after the Baylor near-collapse, talking about being the program in the league with the most wins since 2021. This November was "put up or shut time" in that light, and the results were mixed. Most predicted we would go 2-2, which was statistically the most likely outcome. I predicted 2-2, but I thought we would beat Iowa State and Cincinnati or Houston, not both. I never thought for a second we would beat BYU, but if you'd told me we would lose to Iowa State then get blasted in Provo I'd have guessed 0-4.

Sonny's overall career record as head coach is now 106-80 (.570), with a November record of 29-30 (.491) and a non-November record of 77-50 (.606). I'm sure every head coach's record is worse in November than the other months because you play your "bodybag" games in September and the games get more consequential and thus harder to win in November. Dykes now has six losing records in November, four winning records, and five even records.

After two consecutive 8-4 campaigns, Dykes's record at TCU is 35-17 including post-season games. Since that magical 2022 campaign I think we can say the following about Dykes's TCU:

The negative—at times we're downright self-destructive, everything we do looks difficult, the defense has often been soft and turnover reliant, the offense has been erratic and turnover prone; this coaching staff doesn't seem to consistently get the absolute best out of the players we have, and for three seasons whenever we've faced a game where a win would really put us in amongst the leading pack we have lost that game.

The positive—we win more than we lose; are recruiting better players than the rest of the conference at most positions; for two straight seasons when all signs pointed to the bottom imminently falling out and the program going down the drain the team has rallied to multiple unexpected wins and finished comparatively well--that suggests that the players are still playing for these coaches. Perhaps most importantly of all, the next coach after a legend is almost always a complete bust. I find the Dykes experience frustrating, but he's not a total bust; things could be much worse and Baylor fans would trade places with us in a heartbeat.

As many posters said two weeks ago after the BYU loss, replacing Dykes would be expensive and probably stupid, and if the money is there for such a move it would be wiser to put into player personnel. I think after finishing 2-0 it seems unlikely we will change anything on the coaching staff except at offensive line and maybe special teams. That seems reasonable to me at this point. I don't like Briles, and I think many other OCs could do as much as he does. But finishing 8-4 with sub-standard personnel at offensive line isn't a fireable offense (pardon the pun), even if it is partly your job to get better linemen. As Chris Kleiman said this week, there's a lot of parity; winning games in CFB is difficult, and the winners will be those with the most money. That said, TCU doesn't lack for money compared to most of our conference mates, and we could be smarter with what we have. Dykes needs to prove he can build a conference championship roster. If he can, I suspect he's good enough to compete for a championship with it.

TL;DR: Dykes is basically the platinum version of bang average, TCU is now an 8-4 program that won't compete for conference titles until we find a way to afford decent linemen. I guess that's about what we figured already.

 

[Frognosticator]

I didn't get to watch the game this weekend and only just now had a chance to watch it back. Naturally that's when we put up our first complete game on both sides of the ball against a team above .500 -- but better late and when I can't watch than never. The box score is great reading, running stats best of all. Payne, Denman, and Palmer finished the year looking like a very promising young set of backs, especially if Hoover returns for his last year. Of course, it will all come down to line play whether we're middling-to-goodish again next year or can actually crack the group of real competitors in the Big XII. The transfer from Oklahoma State is a promising start.

When Dykes took the job here SMU fans warned of "November Sonny". He came out spitting fire after the Baylor near-collapse, talking about being the program in the league with the most wins since 2021. This November was "put up or shut time" in that light, and the results were mixed. Most predicted we would go 2-2, which was statistically the most likely outcome. I predicted 2-2, but I thought we would beat Iowa State and Cincinnati or Houston, not both. I never thought for a second we would beat BYU, but if you'd told me we would lose to Iowa State then get blasted in Provo I'd have guessed 0-4.

Sonny's overall career record as head coach is now 106-80 (.570), with a November record of 29-30 (.491) and a non-November record of 77-50 (.606). I'm sure every head coach's record is worse in November than the other months because you play your "bodybag" games in September and the games get more consequential and thus harder to win in November. Dykes now has six losing records in November, four winning records, and five even records.

After two consecutive 8-4 campaigns, Dykes's record at TCU is 35-17 including post-season games. Since that magical 2022 campaign I think we can say the following about Dykes's TCU:

The negative—at times we're downright self-destructive, everything we do looks difficult, the defense has often been soft and turnover-reliant, the offense has been erratic and turnover prone; this coaching staff doesn't seem to consistently get the absolute best out of the players we have, and for three seasons whenever we've faced a game where a win would really put us in amongst the leading pack we have lost that game.

The positive—we win more than we lose; are recruiting better players than the rest of the conference at most positions; for two straight seasons when all signs pointed to the bottom imminently falling out and the program going down the drain the team has rallied to multiple unexpected wins and finished comparatively well--that suggests that the players are still playing for these coaches. Perhaps most importantly of all, the next coach after a legend is almost always a complete bust. I find the Dykes experience frustrating, but he's not a total bust; things could be much worse and Baylor fans would trade places with us in a heartbeat.

As many posters said two weeks ago after the BYU loss, replacing Dykes would be expensive and probably stupid, and if the money is there for such a move it would be wiser to put into player personnel. I think after finishing 2-0 it seems unlikely we will change anything on the coaching staff except at offensive line and maybe special teams. That seems reasonable to me at this point. I don't like Briles, and I think many other OCs could do as much as he does. But finishing 8-4 with sub-standard personnel at offensive line isn't a fireable offense (pardon the pun), even if it is partly your job to get better linemen. As Chris Kleiman said this week, there's a lot of parity; winning games in CFB is difficult, and the winners will be those with the most money. That said, TCU doesn't lack for money compared to most of our conference mates, and we could be smarter with what we have. Dykes needs to prove he can build a conference championship roster. If he can, I suspect he's good enough to compete for a championship with it.

TL;DR: Dykes is basically the platinum version of bang average, TCU is now an 8-4 program that won't compete for conference titles until we find a way to afford decent linemen. I guess that's about what we figured already.

Excuse me sir, but logical, rational, well-written and thought out posts are not allowed on this board. Now recite three Riff-Rams as your penance.

 

[westoverhillbilly]

I didn't get to watch the game this weekend and only just now had a chance to watch it back. Naturally that's when we put up our first complete game on both sides of the ball against a team above .500 -- but better late and when I can't watch than never. The box score is great reading, running stats best of all. Payne, Denman, and Palmer finished the year looking like a very promising young set of backs, especially if Hoover returns for his last year. Of course, it will all come down to line play whether we're middling-to-goodish again next year or can actually crack the group of real competitors in the Big XII. The transfer from Oklahoma State is a promising start.

When Dykes took the job here SMU fans warned of "November Sonny". He came out spitting fire after the Baylor near-collapse, talking about being the program in the league with the most wins since 2021. This November was "put up or shut time" in that light, and the results were mixed. Most predicted we would go 2-2, which was statistically the most likely outcome. I predicted 2-2, but I thought we would beat Iowa State and Cincinnati or Houston, not both. I never thought for a second we would beat BYU, but if you'd told me we would lose to Iowa State then get blasted in Provo I'd have guessed 0-4.

Sonny's overall career record as head coach is now 106-80 (.570), with a November record of 29-30 (.491) and a non-November record of 77-50 (.606). I'm sure every head coach's record is worse in November than the other months because you play your "bodybag" games in September and the games get more consequential and thus harder to win in November. Dykes now has six losing records in November, four winning records, and five even records.

After two consecutive 8-4 campaigns, Dykes's record at TCU is 35-17 including post-season games. Since that magical 2022 campaign I think we can say the following about Dykes's TCU:

The negative—at times we're downright self-destructive, everything we do looks difficult, the defense has often been soft and turnover-reliant, the offense has been erratic and turnover prone; this coaching staff doesn't seem to consistently get the absolute best out of the players we have, and for three seasons whenever we've faced a game where a win would really put us in amongst the leading pack we have lost that game.

The positive—we win more than we lose; are recruiting better players than the rest of the conference at most positions; for two straight seasons when all signs pointed to the bottom imminently falling out and the program going down the drain the team has rallied to multiple unexpected wins and finished comparatively well--that suggests that the players are still playing for these coaches. Perhaps most importantly of all, the next coach after a legend is almost always a complete bust. I find the Dykes experience frustrating, but he's not a total bust; things could be much worse and Baylor fans would trade places with us in a heartbeat.

As many posters said two weeks ago after the BYU loss, replacing Dykes would be expensive and probably stupid, and if the money is there for such a move it would be wiser to put into player personnel. I think after finishing 2-0 it seems unlikely we will change anything on the coaching staff except at offensive line and maybe special teams. That seems reasonable to me at this point. I don't like Briles, and I think many other OCs could do as much as he does. But finishing 8-4 with sub-standard personnel at offensive line isn't a fireable offense (pardon the pun), even if it is partly your job to get better linemen. As Chris Kleiman said this week, there's a lot of parity; winning games in CFB is difficult, and the winners will be those with the most money. That said, TCU doesn't lack for money compared to most of our conference mates, and we could be smarter with what we have. Dykes needs to prove he can build a conference championship roster. If he can, I suspect he's good enough to compete for a championship with it.

TL;DR: Dykes is basically the platinum version of bang average, TCU is now an 8-4 program that won't compete for conference titles until we find a way to afford decent linemen. I guess that's about what we figured already.

Well stated Limey! I believe that our offensive line would have looked much better had Kevorian Barnes been healthy throughout the year and had we had a quarterback who was even a slightly less than mediocre runner. The other running backs are stutter-steppers looking for a hole and often lose 2 yards whereas Barnes runs downhill and gets 3 yards out of nothing. Adding insult to injury, having a very immobile quarterback allowed defenses to not have to use a linebacker/db to spy Hoover, thus using that guy to stuff our run game or cover our receivers.

Not being able to run the ball put extra pressure on our defense as they had to spend more time on the field. Had we been able to run the rock, our defense would've been much better.

Special teams took a step down this year. I've been a fan of Coach Tommerdahl during both of his tenures here (Franchione and Dykes). We lacked any kind of a return threat on kickoffs & punts. Then the Iowa State game was lost with a punt return.

All said, Dykes needs to get into the B12 championship game next year or go away!