Sonny Dykes shocked, embarrassed by TCU's performance against Kansas State

TCU head coach Sonny Dykes did not have a fun time Saturday night as Kansas State blew the Horned Frogs out of the water. The Wildcats dominated their opponents in Manhattan, Kan., on their way to the 41-3 victory in a rematch of last season’s Big 12 Championship Game.

Dykes was blunt after the game about his surprise and disappointment in his team’s performance.

“Well didn’t see that one coming,” Dykes said. “Had a good week of practice. Guys were prepared. I came into the game with a lot of confidence. I thought we would play well after last week. It was just a bad performance from the get go. Don’t really know what to say. Like I said, I’m shocked, surprised, didn’t see it coming, embarrassing. I’m embarrassed. I think the players are. I hope they are. They should be.

“Just like I said, didn’t see it coming. Had no idea this was gonna play out like it did tonight. Obviously, we got a lot of work to do. We got an open day. We’ll try to figure out the best way to get it fixed and play better. I’m a little miffed how we can play as well as we did last week and as poorly as we did this week. Don’t really understand it. But obviously we’ve got to try to figure it out.”

TCU entered the game coming off a dominant 44-11 victory over BYU the previous week where its offense racked up 584 yards of offense, including 13 different players with receptions.

But the Horned Frogs looked like a very different team against the Wildcats. Kansas State finished the game with 587 yards while TCU managed only 300 yards.

The quarterback duo of Will Howard and Avery Johnson torched the Horned Frogs defense. Howard threw for three touchdowns with 154 passing yards and 62 rushing yards. Johnson tossed one touchdowns with 90 yards passing and 73 yards rushing.

Dykes was asked afterwards if he saw a performance like this forthcoming during warmups.

“Not at all,” Dykes said. “I thought we were ready to play. Guys were excited and like I said, confident. I came into the game with a lot of confidence in our players.”

TCU will have an extra week to get back on track as it has its bye this week. The Horned Frogs return to action on a Thursday night versus Texas Tech.