It’s been a whirlwind first season in Fort Worth for TCU head coach Sonny Dykes. While his team was selected to be in the middle of the pack in preseason Big 12 polls, Dykes currently has the Horned Frogs at 9-0 and No. 4 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. This week, he joined Sam Khan Jr. and Max Olson on The Andy Staples Show & Friends to discuss his undefeated team, the “Hypnotoad” phenomenon, his Heisman-contending quarterback Max Duggan, this weekend’s showdown with No. 18 Texas and more.
(Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Dykes on the “Hypnotoad” taking over Forth Worth:
“I noticed it for the first time during basketball season. I was at some basketball games and, all of a sudden on the highlights, there’s this strange, weird thing happening, and it’s got Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein on it, so I was like, ‘OK, this is kind of cool. This is interesting,’ and it just got weirder and weirder, but it seemed to pump the crowd up. And then, obviously, it carried over to football. In a couple of games where it was close, they played it on the board, and we kind of seized control of the game, and all of a sudden it became a thing. And so, one day before practice, these guys walk in, they say, ‘Hey, wear this sweatshirt to practice today.’ So I wear the sweatshirt to practice, and the next thing I know, I walk in after practice and I’ve got hundreds of messages on my phone about the sweatshirt. And I’m like, ‘OK, what’s going on with this thing?’ Anyway, it happened and it’s kind of cool, and our marketing people have done a really cool job of creating a buzz around it. It’s something that, again, it’s funny, our players kind of believe in it, and I’m starting to become a little bit of a believer myself.”
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On what this season has been like:
“You know what, it’s been a blast. Every team has a different personality, and so, you always remember specific teams for specific things. And this group — it’s going to be fun when we have a chance to look back on all of this, because this group just loves to play. You know what I mean? They love football, they’re kind of blue-collar guys, and they really, really like each other. They get along well. There’s kind of a special bond on this team that a lot of teams don’t have … really, because they really do invest in each other and they’re incredibly unselfish. It’s cool because best players on the team are some of our best leaders, and that’s not always the case, and most of the time, not the case. Because of that, I think the guys are having fun and we’ve had some success, but I think the biggest thing is they believe in each other, they trust each other, they’re committed to each other, they don’t want to let the guy next to them down.”
On his approach for his team for the Texas game this weekend:
“Just business as usual. I mean, look, they obviously know all that. They know it’s College GameDay, we don’t need to tell ’em that. They know that we’re the only undefeated team in the league. I don’t need to tell ’em that. I think they know all that stuff and probably know it better than I do, honestly, in terms of all the different scenarios and whatever. They know it’s Texas, too. They know that it’s a good football team and a talented team, and they know that there’s always a little bit of extra motivation when you play against the big brands of college football. Our guys will be excited to play, their guys will be excited to play. I think it’s a big statement game for Texas, as well, so I anticipate both teams playing their best football. I anticipate it being a hard-fought, physical, tough, 60-minute football game, and that’s the way our guys like it.”
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(Photo: Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
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