Sonny Dykes reaffirms difficulty in preparing for new-look Colorado team under Deion Sanders

Sonny Dykes and the TCU Horned Frogs are preparing for life after Max Duggan in the 2023 campaign, who put together one of the best seasons in their program’s history. To kick off their 2023 season, the Horned Frogs will have to face one of college football’s biggest question marks — the Colorado Buffaloes. Their new head coach, Deion Sanders, completely revamped their roster this offseason in the transfer portal. Their roster is unrecognizable from last season, which presents plenty of challenges in preparing for the Buffaloes. On Sunday evening, On3’s Andy Staples had TCU head coach Sonny Dykes on his podcast to talk about how he’s preparing for Colorado.

Will he be watching Jackson State film for Shedeur Sanders? And will he be watching Kent State film to prepare for Sean Lewis, the Buffaloes’ offensive coordinator?

“Yeah. You know, you start with scheme. And so, as you said, you’ve gotta watch the coordinators. And kind of where those guys were and what they did before,” Dykes began. “And then you try to, you know, watch the guys that are gonna be important players. Obviously, Shedeur was at Jackson State, so we’ll spend a lot of time watching his tape and trying to evaluate what he can do well and what he can’t do well. What he struggles with.

“And you know, the important thing, I think for us, honestly, and it’s always this way going into the first game. Is you have to prepare for your opponent, but really, more than anything else, you have to just prepare to go play well. You know, you’re gonna see things that you wouldn’t expect. It’s gonna happen no matter who you go play. People are always gonna make changes in the offseason and make adjustments.”

The Horned Frogs’ head man noted that he won’t waste any time watching Colorado film from last year, since it’s an entirely new team and coaching staff. No team in the country had more roster turnover than the Buffaloes and it’s not even close.

“And this is gonna be much different, because, again, we’re not even gonna bother watching Colorado’s film from last year. And there’s no point in doing that,” Dykes continued on Sunday. “New schemes, new players, new everything. So, it’ll be a complete challenge for us and something that’ll be different. But, the main thing we have to do is just make sure our team is ready to play. You know, that we can go out and we can minimize mistakes, we can take care of the football, we can be sound on special teams.

“All of the things that get you beat early. No pre-snap penalties, you know, explosive plays. All of the things that matter to winning and losing, especially matter in early ballgames. Those things are magnified in the first two or three ballgames.”

The TCU Horned Frogs face off against the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday, Sept. 2. Kickoff for that one is slated for noon and the game will be nationally televised on FOX.