SMU-TCU football game kickoff time, TV channel announced
SMU will face TCU on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. on either ESPN2 or ESPNU, the school announced. The 101st meeting between the two programs will be the saltiest of them all.
TCU head coach Sonny Dykes left the Hilltop last offseason for Ft. Worth, and did so after a 1-4 finish to a 7-0 start. The coaching rumors fired up around the time of SMU’s skid and it was an ugly divorce. Dykes finished 30-18 at SMU, but the program struggled to finish well.
SMU is riding a two-game winning streak over TCU, having won in 2019 when now SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee was offensive coordinator and in 2021 when SMU beat TCU in Ft. Worth. The 2020 game was not played due to COVID-19 concerns within the TCU program.
Now it’s Lashlee’s program at SMU and the one-time Dykes offensive coordinator is looking to build off the success the past few seasons. Both SMU and TCU are 2-0 going into Week 3 with SMU facing Maryland on Saturday and TCU on a bye.
SMU coming off up-and-down showing vs. Lamar
In the 45-16 win over Lamar for the home opener, SMU jumped out to a 17-0 lead. That said, the Mustangs didn’t have their cleanest game, which gives the coaching staff plenty of coaching points this week.
Lashlee’s team were the more talented bunch and pulled away from the visiting Cardinals. There’s a lot to clean up after the game though.
“I wasn’t concerned about their focus. I thought they had a good Friday morning and were ready to play,” Lashlee said after the game on Saturday. “We didn’t mention Maryland one time the whole week, we were preparing to play Lamar. That’s how I was raised, you don’t ever look ahead. People are human, who knows, I don’t know what our kids were thinking. We talked about trying to come out and play better football and be us. At times, early on, we did and then, obviously, we probably didn’t over the course of the game as much as we’d like.
“It’s a weird game. You look at the numbers and you’d have felt like we played better than it feels like maybe we did. But Lamar, give them credit. We had turnovers and any time you turn the ball over it’s going to be hard to be consistent.”
