TCU Athletics
Max Duggan had lots of time to look for open receivers on Saturday night.
The last time some of us saw TCU head coach Sonny Dykes on the field at Amon G. Carter Stadium he had arrived there by helicopter in December, landing somewhere around midfield in a dramatic entry marking the advent of a new era in TCU football.
With the expected victory on Saturday over Tarleton State having been fulfilled, Dykes is now in rarefied air among TCU coaches in school history.
Dykes became the first coach since the sainted Dutch Meyer to win his first two games as coach at TCU after the Horned Frogs’ 59-17 victory.
That’s staking out prime TCU territory, 11 full-time head coaches in all since Meyer.
Now, granted, nowhere on the schedule these first two weeks will you find anything resembling Rockne’s Four Horsemen outfit of 1924. Yet, considering the trend of upsets the Frogs got to watch on Saturday while they waited for kickoff, you just never know, even against a clearly overmatched opponent. And had TCU lost either of the first two games, he would have had a ticket purchased by the masses for the first train back to Dallas.
College football victories, Dykes reminded after the game, are hard to come by, no matter whom the schedule maker puts you up against.
“There’s been a lot of good football coaches here,” Dykes said when asked about matching Dutch. “They’ve all made it better for the next one. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do when you take over a program. Dennis Franchione made it better for Gary Patterson and Gary Patterson made it better for me.
“I was lucky to get to come to TCU, and what it is now. We have a beautiful stadium, one of the best settings in college football, a great fanbase, and a commitment that is unquestionable to winning and being successful.
“That’s a tribute to those who came before me, honestly. Those guys made it better for me, and my job is to make it better for who follows me.”
Meyer’s first two victories weren’t against anything resembling Alabama, either.
Dutch’s 1934 Frogs, led offensively by sophomore Sammy Baugh, who would go on to do some special things, beat Daniel Baker and North Texas (then North Texas State Teachers College). Daniel Baker, the college based in Brownwood that would later merge with Howard Payne, hadn’t won a game in two seasons before facing the Frogs in the season opener. The Frogs won easily.
Daniel Baker's losing streak was eventually broken that season, and the Hillbillies were convinced it was because of a billy goat they brought to campus as a mascot, Billy Baker, who became so popular that students took him to chapel services.
That sounds like a story for Paul Harvey.
The game was TCU’s first against Tarleton State, its central campus a mere 77 miles to the southwest but with a satellite just down the road on the Chisholm Trail Parkway. The Texans, a part of the Texas A&M system, will also make downtown its home for its nursing school as part of A&M’s planned downtown campus.
This game will turn out to be a good experience for Tarleton State, which likely won’t see anything of the sort of player it saw against TCU on Saturday.
“TCU has a very good team,” said Tarleton coach Todd Whitten. “They’ve very fast. We had a lot of trouble with their speed. They played a lot better than a week ago [against Colorado]. They looked like two different teams.
“I thnk in some areas we made some progress as well. I think there’s going to be a lot of good, a lot of lessons learned from today. I thought out guys played hard through the game.”
The Western Athletic Conference won’t look nearly as fast, in all likelihood. (Voluntary disclosure: I haven’t scouted it.)
The story of this game was quarterback Max Duggan, who made his 30th career start after being the backup last week. It’s fairly clear the position of QB is in flux, particularly with last week’s starter, Chandler Morris, out with an injury.
Duggan, with lots of time to be discerning in the pocket, compiled career highs in passing yards (690) and touchdown passes (five). He had touchdown passes to Derius Davis, another to Jared Wiley, two to Quincy Brown, and, finally, the last to Jordan Hudson in the last minute of the third quarter to make the score 52-17.
“It was lot of fun being out there getting back with the home crowd,” Duggan said. “It was awesome. The O-line played phenomenal. The receivers made great plays on balls making my job easy.”
This TCU team and Dutch’s have another commonality: SMU.
The game between Fort Worth and Dallas rivals is all the spicier this year because of Dykes, who left the Mustangs in December for the TCU job. SMU will be inspired, to say the least, no doubt vowing to die a thousands deaths by cup sword rather than lose that game.
“Coach Dutch Meyer has made no secret of the fact that the Frogs are going to put SMU’s famed aerial circus to shame this year,” a reporter wrote in 1934.
Perhaps the Frogs should have kept it a secret. TCU fell to the hated Mustangs, 19-0, that season.
This TCU team has two weeks to prepare, with a bye next week.
For one day, they’ll celebrate victory No. 2 and Dykes’ temporary affiliation with Dutch.
“That’s big time,” Duggan said. “Hopefully, he wins a couple more.”