AMES, Iowa — TCU is closing in on its next football coach.
All signs continue to point toward SMU coach Sonny Dykes becoming Gary Patterson’s successor, sources said, but nothing is expected to be formally announced on TCU’s end until Monday at the earliest. A 247Sports report on Friday said that Dykes would be named TCU’s next coach, and other outlets confirmed the much-anticipated move.
TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati declined comment when approached about the report by the Star-Telegram at the Iowa State-TCU game Friday afternoon in Ames, but this hire has been expected for the last week.
The length of the contract and financial terms have not been disclosed but SMU reportedly offered a package of up to $4 million annually. TCU’s is significantly more. Patterson ranked among the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the country with an annual salary nearing $6 million a year.
Dykes won’t make $6 million like Patterson but it will be well above the $4 million SMU reportedly offered, a source confirmed.
Dykes is coaching SMU’s regular-season finale against Tulsa on Saturday. The Mustangs are planning on Dykes leaving as they are reportedly leaning toward former SMU offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, who is now the OC at Miami, taking over.
Lashlee has already talked to coaches at SMU and candidates outside SMU about potentially joining his coaching staff, according to a report by Joe Hoyt of The Dallas Morning News. SMU has also seen several recruits decommit of late.
Dykes is expected to meet with TCU assistants on Sunday to see which coaches may be holdovers on his staff.
TCU wide receivers coach Malcolm Kelly and safeties coach Paul Gonzales are among the front-runners to stay with the program, sources said. Dykes is also reportedly expected to bring current SMU assistants Ra’Shaad Samples (running backs), David Gru (wide receivers), Chidera Uzo-Diribe (defensive line) and Kaz Kazadi (strength and conditioning) with him.
It’s unclear who Dykes would bring in as coordinators.
Dykes has been the favorite to take over TCU since the job opened Oct. 31 with Patterson and the school parting ways.
Dykes, 52, is the son of longtime Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes. Sonny has established himself as a coach in his own right as TCU would be the fourth program he oversees.
Donati said early in the process that he’d prefer the school’s next head coach to be a sitting head coach with an offensive background. Donati also expressed an interest in the next coach having familiarity with the new age of college athletics with players being able to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) and the ever-growing NCAA transfer portal.
Dykes checks all of those boxes. Offensively, SMU has ranked among the top teams in the country under Dykes. The Mustangs are ranked 13th in total offense. They were the 12th-best offense in 2020 and the ninth-best in 2019.
Dykes’ first head coaching stint was at Louisiana Tech from 2010-12, a stretch that included a WAC championship in 2011. He then moved to Cal from 2013-16 where his highlights included defeating Texas twice and developing Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who became the top overall pick of the Los Angeles Rams in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Dykes spent the 2017 season as an offensive analyst under Patterson at TCU before taking over at SMU in 2018. The Mustangs are 30-17 and have been ranked in the Top 25 a total of 19 weeks under Dykes. TCU, meanwhile, is 23-23 over that same span and has been ranked for only five weeks and has failed to appear in the Top 25 the past two seasons.
Dykes is just 3-7 against Top 25 opponents and has drawn the ire of some fans for his 6-8 record in November during his time at SMU. TCU, meanwhile, went 3-6 against ranked teams under Patterson since 2018.
