• last year
TCU football head coach Sonny Dykes addresses the media after the Week One loss to the Colorado Buffaloes.
Transcript
00:00 >> I gotta start by giving Colorado a ton of credit.
00:02 I think it showed up, they were more ready to play than we were.
00:07 I think more excited to play, I think they played harder.
00:11 It seemed like they had more determination down the stretch than we did.
00:15 So again, it's a real credit to them.
00:18 I thought their coaching staff did a really good job getting them ready to play.
00:22 And they did a nice job, they're really good players, played really good in the game.
00:27 I thought the quarterback played outstanding, made all the throws,
00:32 gave him chances on 50-50 balls, really threw the ball well.
00:37 I thought he played about as good as he could possibly play under the circumstances.
00:43 Travis Hunter, I thought was phenomenal, what he did today,
00:47 I don't think I've ever seen that in a college football game.
00:51 Just played as many snaps as he did with the heat like it was.
00:55 Didn't look like it affected him at all, looked as fast at the end of the game as
01:00 he did in the beginning.
01:02 And you gotta give those guys a ton of credit, and like I said,
01:06 that was really a pretty phenomenal performance by him.
01:09 And then he made plights, made play after play after play after play.
01:13 Played play after play defensively, play after play on offense, so
01:17 again, you just gotta give them a ton of credit.
01:20 Like I said, we didn't do a very good job getting our team ready, and
01:23 we'll go back and draw more.
01:24 I think our guys, for whatever reason, almost felt like we were probably too
01:29 good to play those guys today, and it turned out we're not.
01:32 So again, we gotta do a better job getting them ready.
01:35 I told the guys afterwards, if we play like that this year,
01:38 we're not gonna win any football games.
01:40 So we gotta get a lot better.
01:41 We'll go to work tomorrow, and
01:43 thought our tackling was really, really bad defensively.
01:48 We got a lot of guys back, those guys that tackled,
01:50 I don't know what happened today, but they couldn't tackle today.
01:53 And we'll address that tomorrow, and
01:54 we'll make sure we'll do plenty of tackling tomorrow in practice and
01:58 get that fixed.
01:59 >> There were high expectations in the building of defense as a whole, I guess,
02:03 which was your overall feeling about the game?
02:04 >> Yeah, I thought it was terrible.
02:06 I thought it was a really bad defensive performance.
02:08 The thing with us, if you go and you look and you say, okay,
02:13 how do you win football games?
02:14 You've got to not turn the ball over, okay?
02:21 So we turned basically through two interceptions in the end zone, okay?
02:25 Obviously, we can't do that, okay?
02:30 We missed a 42-yard field goal.
02:32 We got an all-conference kicker coming back.
02:34 I think missed one, maybe two all last season.
02:37 We missed a 42-yard field goal.
02:39 The thing that we did today is the guys that we're counting on to help us win
02:45 football games, for whatever reason, just didn't perform at the level
02:50 that we thought they would perform at.
02:52 And again, same thing defensively.
02:53 Your question was, we had high expectations coming into the season on defense.
02:57 We did.
02:57 Felt like that our backs,
03:03 back seven were returning for the most part.
03:10 Felt like we didn't play particularly well at corner today.
03:15 Gave up some big plays.
03:17 Didn't make any plays on 50-50 balls.
03:20 We just looked at it and we go, well, how can you lose a football game?
03:24 Today was just the perfect form, it was a perfect storm for that.
03:27 From our perspective, I mean, again, you gotta give Colorado a ton of credit.
03:33 They played their tail off, but I mean, if we make a field goal and
03:39 don't throw two red zone intersections, it's probably a different outcome.
03:42 >> Coach, you might have had a good game, but it didn't seem like-
03:45 >> Yeah, I cramped up.
03:46 Yeah, I started cramping at the end of the game.
03:48 And again, it's something that we gotta get figured out.
03:51 Somehow Travis Hunter managed to play every snap and we couldn't.
03:55 We had guys that couldn't.
03:56 So we take a lot of pride in our strength and conditioning program and
04:00 nutrition and didn't show up today for us.
04:05 >> So what would Chad tell you he was looking at on that first interception?
04:10 It looked like he had it wide open.
04:12 >> Yeah, just two late throws.
04:14 We had a late throw there.
04:16 I was looking at a frontside read, it kinda got to the backside stuff.
04:18 The backside stuff was open, wide open, just got to the late backside safety,
04:22 kinda drifted over and made a nice play.
04:25 That was the first interception.
04:26 And the second one, I've been a lot to you,
04:29 Travis Hunter just made an unbelievable play on the ball.
04:32 We had a clean window, it looked like we threw the ball to the major Everhart there.
04:38 And if we had that over again, we'd probably run it, starting one right there.
04:42 Had some momentum, we were running the football.
04:44 If we had to do all over again, we'd probably run the ball there, but
04:48 they made a nice play on that play.
04:50 >> Were there challenges today for having just a new office coordinator?
04:54 >> I mean, our numbers were good.
04:55 I thought we moved the ball for the most part.
04:57 Obviously, the red zone turnovers killed us in the missed field goal.
05:01 I thought we had, I don't know, 500 and something yards of offense and
05:05 ran for 260 and we had 541 yards.
05:09 Typically, you're gonna win, especially when you run for 262 yards.
05:12 >> Was there a pregame shake that we missed on?
05:17 >> No, no, I don't know if there's gonna be one moving forward with him or not, but
05:20 there wasn't today.
05:22 He was great, though, he was great after the game.
05:24 We had a chance to visit and my hat's off to them, they did a great job.
05:28 But we didn't, and that's the bottom line.
05:31 >> Is that something you were out there looking for, to shake hands beforehand?
05:35 >> Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's kind of the way it normally works, but I mean,
05:39 those other guys don't shake before the game, so we've gotta care.
05:43 That was the last of my concerns.
05:44 >> Any problems you've been thankful for today, or?
05:49 >> Very few, very few.
05:51 I think the good thing is if you're gonna get exposed,
05:56 like we did, you wanted to be early.
06:00 Now you know you got a lot of work to do.
06:02 And we felt like we were very well prepared coming in,
06:05 felt like we had a good plan.
06:06 They just took it to us.
06:10 Like I said, we just didn't, we gotta do a better job, obviously,
06:13 we weren't prepared like I thought we were.
06:15 >> So you said that almost as though you had a little more confidence?
06:20 >> I don't know if that's the case,
06:22 it just felt like our guys came out a little flat, which is crazy.
06:26 I mean, it's hard to imagine that after the way we played in the national
06:31 championship game, and I thought we were ready, business-like mentality,
06:36 it just seemed like those guys were more excited to play than we were.
06:38 And that's pretty critical every Saturday in college football,
06:40 I mean, you gotta be excited to play.
06:42 And felt like they were probably more excited.
06:43 >> It seemed kind of hurtful.
06:46 >> Yeah, yeah, I noticed it at the time, I was a little upset about it.
06:49 Again, that's on me, though, and that's my fault.
06:51 I gotta do better.
06:51 >> What do you think the goal of the game was for, other than the head?
06:57 >> Yeah, I thought we really did some good things early.
07:00 Obviously, there's some throws we wish we could have hit at the end.
07:04 We had some open players and we just didn't get them the ball, and
07:07 that happens sometimes.
07:08 Chandler hadn't played a lot of football, and so
07:12 there's gonna be some growing pains, we know that, we understand that.
07:15 But I thought you did a pretty good job.
07:19 The two red zone turnovers were big plays in the game.
07:25 And we've gotta do a good job of just making routine throws and catches, so
07:29 there were times today that we didn't do that.
07:31 >> What's the first step for, what do you guys wanna do to beat this?
07:34 Are you just focusing on the back line?
07:35 >> Well, I mean, everything.
07:37 Obviously, we got skiing pretty good today.
07:39 So we gotta tackle better, we gotta play with more effort.
07:42 Gotta do a better job getting off the field on third down.
07:46 It's just gonna have to be, figure out what else we can do.
07:49 We didn't stay with receivers well when they broke the pocket.
07:52 We've gotta fix that.
07:54 Lots of things, obviously.
07:56 >> We'll go to two more questions.
07:57 >> [INAUDIBLE]
08:05 >> Same thing, we reigned for 262 yards and
08:07 protected the quarterback pretty well.
08:09 I gave up a couple of sacks down the stretch.
08:11 I thought our offensive line played okay, we'll look at the film and see.
08:18 Just my first impression was I thought they played all right.
08:20 I thought Amani Baylor looked really good.
08:23 I was a little, I didn't see any other back that, to me,
08:28 played at the same level he did.
08:30 So that's one thing we're gonna have to get addressed and figure it out.
08:33 Defensively, I don't think we,
08:37 it's hard to say we played well anywhere defensively.
08:41 Give up 45 points and almost 600 yards, it's hard to find a whole lot of bright
08:46 spots.
08:47 >> Sonny, you mentioned skiing.
08:48 I wonder with how different this team was than who you played a year ago.
08:53 How was the scouting process like for you?
08:55 >> Well, it was hard.
08:56 I mean, it was hard.
08:56 I don't know that there was that much that we weren't expecting.
09:00 I mean, to me, they did exactly kind of what I thought they would do,
09:02 is try to get the ball out quickly.
09:05 High percentage throws, get it to guys.
09:07 Cuz the strength of their offense is their skilled position players.
09:10 And those guys are fast and quick and can make plays in space.
09:13 And so they did kind of what we anticipated them doing coming into the game.
09:18 A lot of quick throws.
09:19 Our run defense was good.
09:22 They had a hard time running the ball against us consistently.
09:26 But we had a hard time tackling in space.
09:27 Missed a lot of tackles, primarily early in the game.
09:30 And then obviously on the last play, the touchdown,
09:33 they had two guys right there and just missed them both.
09:35 So it's just, I don't know, one of those things again, and
09:39 those are two guys that played a lot of football for us.
09:41 That have made a lot of plays.
09:42 And they just didn't do it today.
09:44 >> Thanks, coach.
09:46 >> Okay, thank you.
09:47 (coughing)

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