TCU Coach Sonny Dykes Talks About What He Learned From Mike Leach
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ATHENS - On December 12, 2022, the college football world lost an icon in Mississippi Statee coach, Mike Leach. An offensive genius, Leach’s air-raid offense changed college football forever.
Leach had a major impact on today’s game and the coaches who currently run some of college football’s best programs. One of those coaches includes TCU head coach Sonny Dykes, who spoke this week about what he learned from Leach during his coaching career.
“I've been lucky to work with coaches that were that way. Hal Mumme is a big personality. And Mike Leach was a big personality. And Mike Stoops was a big personality. And guys that I've had a chance to work for, you know, they were all unique guys and they were all really one of a kind and they all had a different approach to doing things.”
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“So those were all great mentors for me”, Dykes added. They all had different strengths and I think a lot of times the way that they're perceived in some ways might not be the way they really are, particularly talking about Coach Leach. Just the perception of Mike Leach is this real complicated scheme and this innovator when it comes to Xs and Os. And he's really a believer in technique and fundamentals and keep the game simple. It's a player's game, not a coach's game. I like people like that. I like people to think outside the box.”
“That's why I love our strength and conditioning coach so much. Because he's not a believer in bigger, faster, stronger, only -- that's a very small part of what he does. And so I think that we've tried to find ways to be creative. We've had to at places I've been. I haven't been blessed to sometimes go to traditional powers and coach at traditional powers.”
“When I went to LA Tech, we had to recruit a lot of junior college programs to turn our program. At SMU we had to go to the transfer portal to turn the program. And here we tried to kind of do a bunch of different things to find the best players and get them to buy in quickly. So those people all taught me that you have to be yourself and you have to think outside the box. And you've got to not be afraid to try things maybe that other people aren't doing or try things that people tell you, hey, that's not going to work. Or you just gotta believe in yourself and believe in your plan and go out and execute it.”
Sonny Dykes is “swinging his sword” as Leach would say. He’s not recruiting four and five starts at TCU. He’s doing it his own way, and it’s helped him put together one of the best teams in college football.
Some say the only way to win is to have the most talent. That there’s only a few teams each year who can win a championship. Don’t tell that to Sonny Dykes, who has done a great job of building a program in his very first season. While the older college football fans may hate transfer portal, it’s something that can really help a program like TCU.
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