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The Associated Press on Monday named TCU’s Sonny Dykes its Coach of the Year for the 2022 season.
The Horned Frogs claimed the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff after going 12-1 in the regular season. Their success helped make Dykes a runaway winner for the award. He collected 37 out of 46 first-place votes.
“It’s the ultimate team award,” Dykes said to the AP’s Ralph D. Russo. “It’s indicative of literally everybody in our office, coaches, players, everybody, because more so than ever in college football it is truly a team effort.”
Dykes had massive shoes to fill when he made the move to TCU from SMU.
As much as the program had stagnated under Gary Patterson, Patterson is still the program’s winningest coach (181-79). Under his watch, the Horned Frogs won six conference titles and earned victories in the 2011 Rose Bowl and 2014 Peach Bowl.
After TCU went 5-7 for the second time in three years in 2021, it looked like Dykes would need at least a year or two to get things on track.
Not only did the 53-year-old provide immediate results, but he also did so without significantly upending the roster through the transfer portal. The Frogs’ leading passer (Max Duggan), rusher (Kendre Miller) and receiver (Quentin Johnston) were all holdovers. The same was true for linebacker Dee Winters and safety Bud Clark, who led the team in sacks and interceptions.
Dykes told Russo the Horned Frogs “really had no expectations whatsoever when the year started.” That attitude probably changed after his squad dropped 55 points on Oklahoma to improve to 4-0. It was the first of four straight wins over Top 20 opponents.
Regardless of what happens in the playoff, this has been one of TCU’s best seasons, and no Power Five program overachieved more.
