Rhett Lashlee, Sonny Dykes address SMU-TCU rivalry future
HOUSTON — The next time Rhett Lashlee and Sonny Dykes will be in the same vicinity will be in Ft. Worth on Sept. 23. The SMU–TCU rivalry will renew that day, but what’s the long-term future of the rivalry?
Lashlee made it clear that the Mustangs want to keep battling the Horned Frogs. Long story short, it’s a good thing for the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.
“Sonny and I haven’t had conversations about it, at least not recently. I’m sure the ADs will handle that. I know we have a couple years on the current deal,” Lashlee said at the Texas High School Coaches Convention. “Look, the game’s been played for over 100 years or something. I don’t know why we wouldn’t play. We’re always willing to play them. If they decide they don’t want to play us one day, that’s kind of their decision. I think it’s good for Texas football, I think it’s good for the Dallas metroplex to have Dallas’ team and Ft. Worth’s team playing.”
Dykes has his eyes set on setting up the fans in Ft. Worth with a good number of home games. They’re also eyeing how the new College Football Playoff format impacts what the Frogs will do scheduling wise. The Battle for the Iron Skillet from his angle is something that appears to be up in the air.
“I think it’s going to be interesting to see how that thing plays out,” Dykes said about 15 minutes earlier. “When you transition from a 4-team playoff to a 12-team playoff in my opinion, that changes your scheduling dynamic. This year, TCU we won two non-conference road games. This year, with Nick Saban going to Austin and beating Texas, Nick Saban won his second non-conference road game as the head coach at Alabama. Let that sink in for a second.
“What does scheduling look like from a non-conference standpoint? It’s really, really important to be smart about the scheduling. You’ve got to do a good job of No. 1, taking care of your season ticket holders. No. 2, making your situation make sense for you when it comes to the end goal. That rivalry’s one of those things that we’ll kind of see how it plays out and how it fits into the whole thing.”
Couple that with potential conference realignment, which there’s buzz around SMU being involved in, and there’s not a clear answer to the future.
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“There’s also some uncertainty about conference affiliations and who’s going to be where and how that’s going to fit into it,” Dykes said. “There’s a lot of complicated things when it comes to scheduling. We’ll see how it fits.”
Lashlee goes back to the competitiveness of the rivalry lately. SMU won two straight (with Dykes at the helm and the first with Lashlee as his offensive coordinator). TCU held off a late SMU push to win in Dallas, 42-34, this past year.
“We have a lot of respect for them,” Lashlee said. “They have an incredible program with what they did last year. Last four or five years it’s been really competitive so I don’t know why we wouldn’t keep playing.”
This won’t be the last year of the rivalry, but Sept. 23 looms large in the grand scheme of the Battle for the Iron Skillet. While UCLA and Rutgers will be Big Ten foes soon enough, keeping a rivalry between teams 45 minutes apart should be something that fits.
Besides, like a sirloin in a skillet, the Battle for the Iron Skillet’s been sizzling hot lately. Let’s see what the 102nd meeting cooks up this fall.
