ElPasoHornedFrog
Member
A co-worker of mine played at UTEP during a coaching transition from Charlie Bailey to Gary Nord 1999-2000. UTEP went from 5-7 in Charlie Balieys last year to 8-4 (losses to Oklahoma, Boise, TCU, Texas A&M) in his last year under Coach Gary Nord. I asked what the difference was and was surprised with the answer. These are his words.
"Under Bailey the team was nothing but mean and tough SOBs. There was no team meaner and tougher than us. But practices were so intense that we were never healthy for games. We never had a healthy team. So in comes Gary Nord .. a player's coach and we are going only helmets on Mondays, we are like WHAT?!?! Half shells on Tuesdays and Wednesdays?!?!? So that season you have a group of mean SOB's that can't wait to bring the pain and are finally healthy? It was like.. finally! We combined Charlie Baileys toughness with a more laid-back approach regarding practices it was a perfect mix"
This stayed with me and I think TCU is going through the same thing. Bailey=Gary Patterson..... Gary Nord=Dykes. Gary Nord ended up going 2-9 in 2001, 2-10 in 2002, and 2-11 in 2003 before he was replaced by Mike Price in 2004. Our championship season was due to what Gary Patterson built and Dykes was able to fine tune.
Should Dykes be given another year ... He needs to produce a 10 win season .. just my 2 cents.
"Under Bailey the team was nothing but mean and tough SOBs. There was no team meaner and tougher than us. But practices were so intense that we were never healthy for games. We never had a healthy team. So in comes Gary Nord .. a player's coach and we are going only helmets on Mondays, we are like WHAT?!?! Half shells on Tuesdays and Wednesdays?!?!? So that season you have a group of mean SOB's that can't wait to bring the pain and are finally healthy? It was like.. finally! We combined Charlie Baileys toughness with a more laid-back approach regarding practices it was a perfect mix"
This stayed with me and I think TCU is going through the same thing. Bailey=Gary Patterson..... Gary Nord=Dykes. Gary Nord ended up going 2-9 in 2001, 2-10 in 2002, and 2-11 in 2003 before he was replaced by Mike Price in 2004. Our championship season was due to what Gary Patterson built and Dykes was able to fine tune.
Should Dykes be given another year ... He needs to produce a 10 win season .. just my 2 cents.