TCU head coach Sonny Dykes | Fall Camp Press Conference | August 5, 2024

okay I'm ready y'all far away Coach um I know there's been a couple players that have gone out last couple days get status on those guys yeah um yeah we've had a couple guys uh you know bran alinger got hurt I believe practice one or two um in a kick kickoff special teams drill and um ended up you know having a knee injury that's going to require him to have surgery so disappointing for him I hate that for him got a couple other guys Avery got a little banged up um not sure on him yet you know we kind of waiting to see how that's going to play out um and then Vernon uh is a little bit banged up as well so both those guys are you know we're not sure yet um you know obviously it's two corners um so you know our hope is that we get good news on those guys and it's not as serious as it could be so that'll play out here over probably the next 48 to 72 hours with them think six practices into fall camp now what's your assessment you know what I'm very pleased like I told the guys today you know we're basically onethird of the way done with fall Camp uh when it comes to you know just competing offense versus defense and then the rest of the the rest of the the practices will be devoted to getting ready for the Stanford game um so you know I'm very pleased so far with what I've seen uh just the effort you know the the physical mentality the tension to detail you know has been better than it's been at any time since we've been here uh so I'm very encouraged by that um love the way the guys are working and competing against each other and making each other better and there's a tremendous amount of competition right now you know guys know that there's enough depth where if they have a a bad practice or two then they're going to look up and some 's going to be in their spot so I think that's I think that's encouraging but I think the biggest thing is just guys pushing each other to to to holding each other accountable and you know every time there's a little bit of a lull in practice somebody will step up and and uh you know do something to get it fixed and so I've been very very encouraged you know by that um you know and and that's you know the big picture things and then there's a lot of little picture things behind that that you know we have to get right but you can't get those right unless you get the big picture things right so very satisfied with those and you know we have a a jillion miles to go but we're a lot further along you know than we've been you coach BR the staff this week what do you think those coach provide yeah you know I think Dana and Todd both are um I mean look both of those guys have had distinguished careers I think that's the the big thing um you know they have both um been very successful they both have worked their way up you know I met Todd when he was the head coach at Allen High School and I was recruiting Allen High School and you know was impressed with him at that point you know just his his drive and his work ethic and his passion for football and then I met Dana around the same time and you know same thing I mean they're both kind of creative outside the box thinkers um they see things different which is very valuable to me you know I like to to have people that I can talk to that you know have a different frame of mind and a different Viewpoint than I do um and those guys are incredibly valuable just their experience they they've run programs and very very highly successful programs I mean Todd Graham's won everywhere he's been uh Dana's been an outstanding coach I mean everybody knows what his record is and and so those guys have won at the very highest level and have played in big games and coached in big games and have built programs and um and so you know what they're going to do for us is is what I'm excited about I think you know they both understand that it's not about them you know they're here because they want to serve the players and they want to serve tcu's football program and and they're here and they understand their role is very clearly defined uh and those guys are very happy to to accept those roles and to be around football and be around this program and and um you know provide Insight when asked to do so um and you know I think the thing I'm impressed with with those guys is they've got just emotional intelligence and they realize it's not their program you know and and they're accustomed to being in charge uh but they understand it's not their program and and they want to want to help and they don't care if they get the credit or don't get the credit or who who does what or whose idea is this or they just want to contribute and and care about the kids in in the football program first and foremost so really excited about those guys and and what they're going to do for us and you know they're going to have very limited interaction with the players um you know they're not responsible for any position groups or anything like that but they are uh you know they're here basically to coach me and uh and you know and then I'll coach our coaches based off of how they coach me and so that's really uh you know what they what they do and they provide again very experienced insightful additional set of eyes to uh to Big Picture things and also very small detail things as well Sunny bouncing off of that those two hires make it now four head coaches former head coaches on your staff last year there was none was that a conscious change for you um I mean I think a little bit you know I think you want to go get the best people and I think you know the guys at some point you know perform well in this profession get rewarded with opportunities to be a head coach and so you always want to hire successful people and you know I think you look at Andy and you know was a head coach at Boise State his first year I think he wins 10 games and the Mountain West coach of the year you know right out of the shoot and so you know highly successful as a defensive coordinator but also was very successful as a head coach and learned a lot from that experience and you know I think I I I like hiring people that are uh experts in in their field but also have a b a broad-based perspective and Andy and Ken both do that I mean Ken's been around successful programs his entire career and around guys that have thought outside the box you know he worked with Mike Leech for a long time and um Mike used to brag to me about what a great Coach Ken Wilson was and how much he enjoyed being around him and you know and how again emotionally intelligent he was just in terms of his ability to be able to affect people without disarming them uh or without arming him rather without you know alarming him and creating problems and so anyway he's those guys are really really good and then anytime you have a chance to bring talented guys in like like Todd and Dana you'd be crazy not to do it and again it all comes down to you know it doesn't do any good if if it's not going to work and the great thing is those guys are going to do everything to make sure it does work because again they understand it's not about them it's about our program to see some more big plays from the offense how satisfied are you with their progress so far good yeah good you know I think as they as they get more offense in you know that's going to create more opportunities for bigger plays and and you know what I like is what I'm starting to see is um guys making routine plays that turn into big plays you know where you get a good double team at the point of attack and you create a a seam and the back hits the seam and then a guard comes off on a linebacker like you want and then a wide receiver goes and blocks the safety like you want and all of a sudden you know what could be a three or four yard run turns into a 30 40 yard touchdown and that's that's what you want to see you know you don't really care about some play where you trick somebody or whatever it's more about you know just executing how you're supposed to and then getting rewarded by having a big play and you know I think we've got big play backs I mean I really do I think we got four or five guys that if you get that block and they get that um that daylight they can score and so you know we're going to be very different this season at running back than we were last year I think just because of that that big play ability that these guys possess that uh you know maybe wasn't our strength last year coach uh one of the positions that it's pretty good Battle Competition right now is Center can you talk a little bit about James and Colton yeah yeah James and Colton I mean you know we came into camp with Colton as the starter and he performed pretty well and got sick and you know and missed a couple of practices and you know James did exactly what he was supposed to do took his place and and we didn't notice that Colton wasn't there you know what I mean and that's what you want you want guys to come in and and replace somebody if somebody goes down and then great thing is Colton came back and saw that James played pretty well and and you know now here we go we got a competition and that's just the way this stuff works um the great thing about those guys is there's they're incredibly versatile uh you know they can balance between Center and guard our job is find the best five offensive lineman to play those guys and uh you know my guess is those both of those guys will be two of the five if I was you know if somebody made me made me guess that would be the case I would I would say that's probably right um you know we'll see how it plays out but I like I like the competition there again it brings out the best in everybody um you know we've had very few bad snaps this uh this Camp you know knock on wood usually fall Camp is just a exhibition of snaps over quarterback's heads then the ground and too early and too late and we just haven't had much of that and so that's been very encouraging guys have performed well but you know their first job is to make calls and snap the ball and I think they've done a tremendous job doing that um and getting the play started you know I've been really pleased with how clean we've played I think we've had six practices and in six practices I think we've had five false starts if I'm not mistaken so you know I've been in team periods where we had five fall starts in Fall Camp much less um you know again it's impressive to six practices and and I think we've had five so I'm I'm really encouraged by that you guys got a break tomorrow you guys come back what's the next phase of yeah next phase I think it's just kind of more of the same you know I think we've got to continue to install what we're going to do you know we've had a a lot of uh specific rep reps so far I mean we've worked if you saw it today we've worked uh you know Red Zone we worked goal line we worked two-point plays we worked coming off we worked um you know third third and short fourth and short uh worked kind of big long yarded stuff in scale so I mean we've we've had a chance to address a lot of different situations and I think that we've got to continue to to do those things because as as we've talked about many times before we were historically bad situational football team last year I mean historically bad um and so obviously that's been something that we needed to address players understand that taking a lot of pride in you know preparing to perform in those uh situations when we put them in those uh we'll do a you know a two-minute drill to start uh you know practice on whatever the next day is was today Sunday Monday so Monday's today so that'd be what uh Tuesday Wednesday so we'll start Wednesday's practice with two-minute drill just from an emphasis standpoint on again something that we were particularly bad at last uh last season and and uh so we we'll start with that and but but that's the that's the thing I mean it's going to be you know I think we've got the line share of what we're going to do in and now it's going to be more reps to to improve our ability to execute um and you know additional situational work because because it's going to be the probably the most important thing other than than you know possessing the ball no spring practice for cou and six practice in now yeah I mean you wouldn't think that he missed Spring ball you know really I mean he's you know he's one of those guys that you know you kind of get through practice and you go yeah I think he did all right you know and and you go and look at the tape and there's a lot a lot of good stuff on the film you know you just kind of look at him and what he's done and you know and this is the worst thing you can label a quarterback but he's kind of been you know a guy that just goes out there and executes and uh you know you know so that's kind of what he's done so far and he hadn't been very flashy at all but it's been efficient and uh he's made good decisions for the most part uh hadn't put the ball in Jeopardy very often um you know and I think we did a little bit early when we got pressured some and I think we've really improved that way of of not putting the ball in Jeopardy when we're getting pressured at that position uh Josh Ken hos really all of them I think have improved dramatically you know in that in that regard um which yeah I like I like what I've seen I'm encouraged by it and again I think he's ahead of where I thought he would be you know just in terms of seeing things and making quick decisions and making good decisions and you know getting the ball to the right guy and throwing at the right place at the right time coach you have to replace two very experienced players from last year and uh Jordy and and Griff how's it looking on special teams for you right now younger guys yeah yeah you know really good at times and and um not as good other times I mean we've got some young guys that are really talented um you know big legs big strong guys um you know have a lot of upside you know just Kyle's one of those guys that he's just so big and he's so strong um you know you kind of expect him to kick it out of the end zone every time when he kicks off and you know anything within 60 yards you expect them to make pretty easily that's pretty lofty expectations for a for a young guy um but he's shown that he can do that you know he did it in high school there's always a transition here you know I think for him it's just about kind of getting into a Groove and getting confident and you know just getting hot and figuring out a way to stay hot uh Ethan's incredibly similar I mean just a big powerful strong uh guy that without a lot of experience you know and can do a variety of different kicks and is good at all of them and you know kind of has that Australian bag of tricks a lot of those guys have when it comes to you know being able to rugby Punt and traditional Punt and you know do a lot of different things and so those guys have like I said a lot of upside they've never neither one them I've ever played in a college football game and so you got to be a little bit concerned about that but our job is to get them right and to get them confident and you know and they're not anywhere close to being ready yet but I think they're both on that path that that they need to be on two more question think the rule change that Rec yeah players how has that impacted what you do during camp and are you able to accomplish more oh yeah for sure yeah no it's it's you know what what we have is we had a lot of really good coaches that basically couldn't coach you know that had coached places in the past but because of the rules you know they had to coach the coaches basically couldn't coach the players and and so the transition's been easy because now those guys you know kind of slide into those position groups where they were you know working as uh you know interns basically and so you know somebody that was watching and couldn't really teach much and now you know it's wide open they can go and they can communicate with players and and Coach them on the field and contribute off the field and you know do all the things and so it's been um it's been really good I mean we've got some really good young guys you know um I mean Mitch is one of the better coaches that I've been around you know and and now he can coach the tight ends and and um you know and be the guy and so that's he's just a tremendous young football coach um you know it's got a got an offensive line background and mentality uh that's great for teaching those guys to play physical and block and do all the stuff they have to do and then he's been trained in you know these offenses that we've had uh you know really going back to Rett Ashley as a coordinator at SMU and you know red and uh Garrett and you know now Kendall so he's been around three really good coaches and learned a lot from those guys and you know you've got you know juice um you know juice was coaching in a national championship game last year Washington and you know now he can work with the nickels and um really focus on that position and those guys can benefit from his experience and and his teaching and so it's been it's been a huge thing for us in a in in a bunch of different ways it's made practice much more efficient uh it's improved our communication uh you know from coach to player uh because now it used to go from you know Mitch to somebody else to a player now it goes directly from Mitch to to a player uh so anyway love the love the guys that we've got I think it's I think we have an outstanding staff um a lot of very successful guys again guys with vared backgrounds thing I love is that they've all kind of come together and they believe in what we're doing you know and again there's nobody that's sitting around pounding their chest going I know more than you or any of that I mean everybody's here pulling the Rope the same way and and I think that's it's going to help us have a successful team I don't think I've seen him out here is there a status update on Cade uh yeah Cade had um you know a disc issue that is going to be Surgical and so he's um got here started working out a little bit flared up on him over the summer you know thought he was going to be good um and so you know it just got to the point where we got an MRI and was one of those things where he could try to work through it um but it was going to be bad for him long term and so our our decision was look let's let's address this get this thing fixed and um you know and get you back and our hope is that he'll you know come back with two years of Eligibility and and U you know won't be able to help us this year to be a you know be a significant contributor for next season you're on day six of training camp basically preseason so what is the team culture looking like on the field as well as yeah you know this group I think is competitive I think that's the bottom line you know when you think about the identity of this team six practices in is they just like to compete you know they drills that are just supposed to be drills turn into competition and that's a that's a great thing uh you know we've tried to create competition in the past and and sometimes it hadn't been because guys just didn't have that spirit for whatever reason and and this group does I mean that's they thrive on that competition so to me that's the biggest thing you know and then off the field I think that they um they hold each other to really high standard you know I think that that we have some guys on this team that are really appreciative to be here um maybe they've been places had experiences um that probably weren't what they thought they were going to be and they're here now and I think that they come to work every day with the with a you know attitude of gratitude you know and and I think that that carries over when they leave the building I think that they you know really care about playing for TCU and it's important to them to represent you know all the former players and the right way I think it means a lot to them you know LT came and talked to us last night and talked about that and our guys really took that seriously about hey look we're you know we represent him we represent those those 98 sunbowl that 98 sunbowl team you know those guys uh and we owe it to them to you know to go out there and compete and do our very best every day so you know that's kind of their perspective and and I think that you know they appreciate being in Fort Worth and appreciate being here and want to do everything they can not to not just have a good football team but also serve serve the community and and try to make it better thanks coach okay thank you guys St