Sonny Dykes explains how TCU bounces back from loss: 'No rest for the weary'
TCU was a massive underdog going into the CFP National Championship Game against Georgia. Still, nobody could have predicted what happened next. Sonny Dykes watched as his Horned Frogs got beat down like the Bulldogs were playing a video game.
After the game, Dykes tried to explain how TCU can possibly bounce back from a 65-7 loss on the game’s biggest stage.
“Look, our guys have been going, we’ve been practicing pretty much since the end of July,” Sonny Dykes explained that the schedule has been incredibly busy for players. So, he wants to get them some rest, even if it’s off schedule.
“You know, and we have a bunch of young people that are 18-22 years old that have really poured everything they have into it. They’ve been home one weekend since the football season started, you know, to see their family. So, these guys have paid a lot into this run and to having this kind of success. They’ve given everything they have. Made a ton of sacrifices.”
Sonny Dykes emphasized that TCU doesn’t have much time to rest up as school starts quickly. Coaches, in particular, don’t have a lot of time, with new players coming to campus and the coaching staff trying to finish its 2023 recruiting class.
“You know, we start school here pretty much quickly. So, we’ve got a good plan on how to give our guys some rest. We have a significant group of newcomers that starts school that actually report tomorrow, believe it or not, show up on our campus and go through orientation and start moving in the dorms tomorrow,” Dykes said.
“So, no rest for the weary. We’ll get back. We’ll start helping those players get settled and they’ll start school a week from Tuesday and here we go. So, we’ve got to give these guys a break. It’ll be a little bit of a different schedule maybe than it normally is because of that. You know, we’ll wrap up recruiting. Still have three or four recruits that we’re chasing. Hopefully get those guys on board and just continue to build and learn from tonight and, again, make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Sonny Dykes is going to take a look in the mirror
After a game like that, it can be hard to know what went wrong. However, for Sonny Dykes, he knows it’s time to take a look in the mirror.
“That’s the good thing, I think, about our program and, really, our coaching staff. We’ll look in the mirror. That’s kind of what I told the players afterward. We’ve got to look in the mirror. And it all starts with me. Then it works down from there,” Dykes said.
“We had a formula that worked where we played pretty well for 14 straight weeks. We carried the same formula into this game, we didn’t do anything different. I didn’t have any sense that our players were in a different place. Their preparation was good. There was zero different between preparation for this game from what there was for the Michigan game nine or ten days ago. So, I think what happens sometimes is you get on a run like we’ve been on, you play a lot of games like we played this year that are emotional games that you put everything you have into it to win them…And then we got out there tonight. Georgia did a great job, got off to a fast start. We answered and then, for whatever reason, it went downhill from there.”