TCU head coach Sonny Dykes met with the media after the 69-45 loss to Oklahoma in the season finale. He talks about what went right and what went wrong in both this game and throughout the season. He also discusses what's next and his evaluation process to determine how to be better next season.
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00:00 - 62 points, 600 yards, at this point,
00:03 are you considering making a change?
00:06 - Oh, I don't know.
00:07 I mean, it's probably the wrong time to ask me right now.
00:09 You know, I got to sit down and evaluate everything.
00:12 I mean, I'm not just talking about that.
00:14 I mean, anytime you have a kind of year that we have
00:17 and have the kind of expectations that we have
00:18 as a program and you don't meet them,
00:20 then you got to evaluate everything.
00:21 And you do it anyway, but you certainly got to do it.
00:24 And so I'll take a look at, you know,
00:26 everything we're doing from, you know,
00:28 what are we eating in the pregame meal
00:30 to who's calling plays and doing whatever.
00:33 So it's just part of what you do
00:35 and part of what we go through.
00:36 And, you know, disappointed that we didn't play better.
00:40 You know, was proud of our guys
00:43 for getting back in the game second half.
00:44 We got it down to two scores
00:45 and all of a sudden we're back in the game
00:47 and we couldn't get them stopped.
00:48 And so that was kind of the theme of the day.
00:50 We couldn't get off the field,
00:51 couldn't get off the field on third down,
00:53 couldn't get off field on fourth down,
00:54 gave up too many big plays,
00:55 gave up a bunch of bombs, you know, early in the game.
00:59 Hard to overcome that many big plays when you give that up.
01:01 So not a good day defensively.
01:04 Thought we did some good stuff on offense.
01:06 We moved the ball pretty consistently.
01:08 We got to, again, had a couple of drives
01:11 we didn't finish like we needed to,
01:12 but, you know, saw some bright spots offensively.
01:17 And I think we've got,
01:18 continued to get better on offense.
01:20 And, you know, I think scored a bunch of points
01:23 against a pretty good defense.
01:27 - Did you change anything defensively
01:29 after that first quarter in terms of...
01:32 - No, no, I mean, we tried to get our guys
01:35 to, you know, kind of play the calls.
01:39 You know what I mean?
01:40 We had a couple of, we gave up the long post
01:42 early in the game, should have had a safety right there.
01:45 You know what I mean?
01:45 We're kind of a three deep, single high look.
01:48 And, you know, safety should have been there.
01:51 And just one of those things,
01:53 we just didn't do what we needed to do
01:55 to have a chance to get off the field enough.
01:57 And I thought Dylan Gabriel threw the ball really well,
02:01 thought the guys caught it.
02:02 I thought Drake Stoops did a great job,
02:04 particularly on third down.
02:06 You know, I thought he,
02:07 anytime it was third or fourth down,
02:08 it seemed to go to him and he seemed to make a play
02:10 and we just couldn't get off the field.
02:12 - Were there times, Coach, where you wanted Coach Gillespie
02:15 to maybe dial up some more plays?
02:17 - Well, we tried.
02:17 I mean, we did.
02:18 There's a lot of this stuff.
02:19 Some of the big plays early were four man pressures,
02:22 you know, four down looks.
02:24 And then we tried to blitz, tried to mix coverage.
02:26 You know, when we dropped eight,
02:28 coverage was usually pretty good.
02:30 The issue was when we, you know,
02:33 when we all of a sudden got into some four man stuff
02:35 and five man blitzes.
02:37 And, you know, the play actually just a couple of times
02:39 on first down and got the ball over the top
02:42 and that hurt us.
02:43 And so it's like anything else.
02:44 I mean, we'll go back and look at it
02:45 and see what we could have done better
02:46 and adapt and adjust.
02:49 But yeah, I mean,
02:50 we weren't able to consistently pressure the quarterback.
02:53 Really neither team did a whole lot.
02:54 Oklahoma did more us early,
02:56 but we had a hard time the entire game
02:58 getting any kind of pressure.
03:00 - Can you give us a little bit more insight
03:02 into how you typically go about doing your options?
03:05 - Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is just,
03:06 you try to see, look at the players you have and say,
03:09 did we play to our potential?
03:11 You know, I think that's the goal
03:14 is to get your guys to play better than they can,
03:17 you know, collectively better than they can individually.
03:20 And I don't think we did that this year.
03:21 So I think like anything else,
03:22 I mean, I think that it starts with me.
03:24 I think it starts with some of the things
03:26 that we'll do differently in the off season,
03:28 have a different approach during spring ball
03:30 than we did this year,
03:32 you know, change a bunch of stuff that we do fall camp,
03:34 and then, you know, make adjustments from there
03:37 if we need to.
03:38 - Sonny, I apologize, not directly related to the game,
03:43 but given your time in Tech and now TPU,
03:46 Oklahoma no longer being in the big 12 after this year,
03:50 I'm wondering if you could talk about that.
03:51 - Yeah, yeah, a little bit.
03:52 I mean, I think it's, you know,
03:54 I mean, I grew up as a, you know,
03:56 as the Southwest Conference guy back in the day,
03:58 and then obviously a big 12 guy with my dad coaching,
04:01 and then coaching the number of years I did at Texas Tech.
04:03 I mean, you know, I hate to say it,
04:08 but I think it's just kind of the way things are now.
04:11 You know what I mean?
04:12 I think that, you know, rivalries used to mean something,
04:17 and really, the only thing that means something now
04:19 is money, you know what I mean?
04:21 And I think that's, I don't know, I guess that's okay.
04:25 I don't particularly like that way of thinking,
04:28 but look, they pay me a bunch of money too,
04:32 so what am I gonna do, sit around here
04:33 and complain about it, you know what I'm saying?
04:34 And so it's just what drives college football these days.
04:39 It justifies people doing things and making decisions
04:45 that probably aren't in the best interest
04:47 of young people sometimes, but it is what it is.
04:51 - In the first quarter, there was a,
04:52 they ruled it an incompletion.
04:54 - Yeah.
04:55 - It looked like a front-going replay.
04:56 Did you guys see that on the field after?
04:57 - Yeah, I mean, it was a big deal.
04:58 They threw a 60-yard touchdown in the next play.
05:00 I would like some kind of explanation for it.
05:02 I didn't get one.
05:03 - Might have been, you brought your parents in today.
05:07 Can you just talk about how important it was?
05:08 - Yeah, yeah, you know, I think we ran the ball well.
05:10 I mean, I think that was important for us
05:12 to have a chance to protect, and they couldn't,
05:15 you know, just come after us and blitz us every play.
05:19 So, Imani, I thought, did a good job of, you know,
05:23 slipping out of some tackles and making some big runs.
05:25 Thought we played pretty well up front
05:28 against a good defensive front.
05:30 You know, the big thing with us,
05:30 we just had a couple of drives where we stalled,
05:32 and we couldn't afford to do that.
05:34 You know, we had a, we were gonna have to be,
05:38 play close to perfect in the second half on offense
05:40 to be able to get back in the game,
05:42 and we just weren't able to play quite well enough,
05:44 and then obviously couldn't get stops defensively,
05:46 so that was a big part of it.
05:47 But, look, I mean, it was a shootout.
05:50 Like I said, I think both teams,
05:52 I haven't seen the final stats, but, you know,
05:54 I would guess 600 yards,
05:56 or close to 600 yards from both teams.
05:58 So, a lot of offensive football,
06:02 we certainly didn't play very good defense.
06:05 - Josh, your Dylan was, got injured in this game.
06:08 - Yep, yep.
06:09 - It was questionable all week.
06:10 Did that make it difficult at all for the defense?
06:12 - No, I think we assumed we were gonna see him.
06:14 You know, I think we came into the game just saying,
06:17 hey, look, we gotta prepare for Gabriel,
06:19 and that's what we tried to do,
06:20 and really thought he played well.
06:22 Like I said, made a bunch of throws in critical situations.
06:25 If you look at it, the first half,
06:26 we couldn't get off the field at all on third down.
06:28 I mean, I know, I think the first half,
06:30 they were six of eight on third down,
06:31 and one of one on fourth down, and they punted one time.
06:34 And so we just couldn't get off the field,
06:36 and they made plays,
06:37 and he did a nice job distributing the ball.
06:39 We had a hard time pressuring him,
06:41 even when we bought pressure.
06:42 Still didn't get home very often,
06:45 and they made plays, so you gotta give 'em credit.
06:48 - Five total touchdowns for Josh Schumer today.
06:51 - Say it again?
06:52 - Five total touchdowns.
06:52 - Yeah, I mean, I think continuing to grow,
06:55 you know, I think he did a lot of good things.
06:57 The, you know, the throw, the interception,
07:00 there was a turn for a touchdown, you know,
07:02 was similar to the one against Texas late in the first half,
07:05 and I think you just gotta,
07:07 and I talked to him on the sideline,
07:08 and I just told him, I said, look, man,
07:10 as a quarterback, you've gotta,
07:12 you have to have the same mentality
07:13 if you're down 28 or up 28, you know what I mean?
07:15 You have to have that same,
07:17 you gotta take care of the ball.
07:19 Your number one job as a quarterback
07:21 is not to turn the ball over,
07:22 to take care of the football,
07:24 and, you know, and we did that up until that point today,
07:27 and that was discouraging.
07:28 I thought we were gonna get through the game
07:29 without a turnover,
07:30 and something we've done very few times this year,
07:33 turnovers have been our Achilles' heel,
07:35 certainly this season,
07:37 but, you know, he'll learn from it,
07:40 and next time, he won't make that mistake.
07:42 Gus, you said that you had some moments
07:45 where you thought it stalled,
07:46 but 45 this game, 42 last game,
07:49 did well against Texas second half.
07:51 Were you satisfied with the way the offense finished?
07:53 I'm never satisfied.
07:54 I can assure you, no.
07:55 I mean, we gotta continue to get better,
07:56 but we certainly have improved.
07:59 We're making strides.
08:00 I think we've improved.
08:01 We seem to get settled in.
08:03 Seemed like six or seven weeks into the season,
08:05 we still weren't.
08:06 Seemed like the last three weeks,
08:08 we've settled in and have moved the ball more consistently
08:11 and have executed better.
08:12 We'll go to two more questions.
08:14 Yes, I do.
08:16 Do you think, not the year you wanted,
08:19 but right here last year,
08:19 do you think you're strategically well-placed to compete?
08:23 Yeah, I do.
08:24 Yes, I do.
08:25 I think we're, yeah.
08:27 I mean, look, I think this,
08:28 you look at this team,
08:30 and if I'm not mistaken,
08:32 we lost four or five one-score games.
08:35 You know, a turnover here or there goes a different way.
08:39 This, you know,
08:40 we're talking about a little bit of drop-off
08:44 from last season,
08:45 but that's not how it went,
08:48 and so it's like anything else.
08:49 When it doesn't go that way,
08:52 you've gotta figure out why,
08:54 but yes, I mean, I have a ton of confidence in our program,
08:58 a lot of confidence in our players
09:02 that we're gonna, you know,
09:05 we're gonna be a contender in the Big 12 moving forward,
09:08 and that's our goal,
09:10 is to year in, year out,
09:13 be one of those teams that people talk about
09:15 getting in the 12-team playoff,
09:17 is the thing at Expanse,
09:18 and that's, I think, the expectations for this program.
09:21 We certainly didn't reach 'em this year,
09:24 but I think that's what we're gonna try to do
09:26 moving forward.
09:27 Last question.
09:28 And I feel confident that we'll be able to do that.
09:30 Kendall's first year, how do you think?
09:33 Yeah, you know, I thought rocky start and strong finish.
09:36 You know what I mean?
09:37 And as I said earlier, you know,
09:40 it just seemed like we couldn't quite get going offensively,
09:43 just very, very, very inconsistent.
09:46 Lost some games early on
09:48 that we probably shouldn't have lost,
09:49 just because, you know, too many turnovers,
09:53 inconsistent play,
09:55 but I do think that we started to hit our stride
09:59 and really started to play well the last couple of weeks.
10:02 Got some guys back healthy, which helped us a lot.
10:05 Felt like our wide receivers finally got settled in,
10:08 and felt like that our young quarterback
10:10 made some significant strides and got better.
10:14 So, like I said, I'm, I thought, far from perfect,
10:19 but I think we're, you know, we're making strides
10:22 and heading in the right direction
10:23 from an offensive standpoint.
10:25 Thanks, Coach.
10:26 Okay, thank you guys.