From Athlete To Head Coach: The Sonny Dykes Story
From a small coach to CFP champion
Growing up, sports played a big part in Dyke’s life because of his dad, the legendary Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes.
“My dad was a football coach. When I was born, he was a high school coach in a small town in West Texas,” Dykes said. “I was always one of those kids that, the older I got, the more I would hang around. When he became the head coach of Midland Lee High School, I used to go hang around the field house, and I knew the players.”
Even though he watched his dad rise in the coaching profession, Dykes questioned whether that would be his ultimate career path too.
“It was the idea of losing that part of my life; I saw my dad coach and I was kinda one of those hard-headed kids,” Dykes said. “I had an older brother who was coaching at the time, and I was a hard-headed kid, and I wanna do something that’s the complete opposite of what he’s done, so I started thinking about what this is going to look like.”
Before he became a coach, he played football and baseball throughout high school. He continued his baseball career at Texas Tech, where he played first baseman. Dykes received his degree from Texas Tech in history and then got his master's at the University of Kentucky.
He started his first coaching job as a high school baseball and football coach at Monahans High School.
“I got hired to teach sophomore English at Monahans High School in the spring; one of the teachers went into maternity leave and so I got hired to take her spot,” Dykes said. “There was a big difference with coaching football and baseball. With coaching football, you’re more involved because in a lot of ways baseball is kind of a free-flowing sport, while with football you have more control.”
After coaching high school football and baseball, he went on and became a football assistant coach at Navarro College. There, he served as the running backs coach during the 1995 season when the team went 8-2. In 1996, Dykes was the quarterback and receivers coach, as well as the passing game coordinator, during a 7-4 campaign. Navarro reached the Texas Junior College Championship but lost.
After Navarro, Dykes moved around and up with stops at schools such as Kentucky, Texas Tech and Arizona.
He landed his first head coaching job in 2010.
Dykes coached at Louisiana Tech for three seasons, leading them to a 9-3 record and Western Athletic Conference championship in his final season in 2012.
“It’s one of those things you can’t really prepare for, it’s a lot different than you think because you spend so much more time dealing with everybody else’s problems,” Dykes said. “That’s kind of one of the biggest roles that I had-you have 105 players and 40 or 50 staff members that kinda directly report to you and you just have a lot of people.”
After two years with Louisiana Tech, Dykes headed to Cal.
When the players found out that they were going to have Dykes as a coach for the upcoming season, they were optimistic and looking forward to working with him.
His time with Cal wasn’t what the team expected, however. They struggled. In his first season with the team, the Golden Bears finished with 1-11, the first time since the program started that the team wasn’t able to beat a single school in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The following season, Dykes took a chance on Jared Goff as starting quarterback, making him the first freshman to start a season opener in Cal history.
Even though Goff developed into the No.1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, the team was still struggling. The team lost to its top rivals, including UCLA and USC. Dykes said that even though it wasn’t a good career move for him, it was still a learning experience and still proud of his time there.
“It was a redo and a reboot and I was really proud of the progress,” Dykes said. “We improved every year. We had five wins in year two and eight wins in year three with a bowl win, so I felt like the program was in a good place,"
After getting fired from Cal in 2017, he worked at TCU as an offensive analyst. He played a big part in that season by helping the team make it to the Big 12 Championship game and an 11-3 record. He did that for one season before getting the job at SMU in 2018.
It took Dykes only two seasons to lead the Mustangs to their first 10-win season since 1984. Offense ranked ninth in the country that year. The team also had nine players in the all-conference honors, the most the program has ever had.
Even though Dykes led the Mustangs to a successful season as their head coach, he wanted to give another program a chance to have what the Mustangs got, which is why he chose to come to TCU.
“When I came over here, I didn’t know much about TCU and I just loved the place,” Dykes said. “I felt at home, I felt like Fort Worth was the perfect place for me to have a young family and to raise a family, football was really important to TCU, and I felt like the administration really understood how important football was but as well as how strong the academic reputation is. I just thought they blended being great at everything, which can be difficult.”
In the first year with Dykes as the head coach, TCU had a very historic season. They were the first Big 12 team to complete the regular season with a 12-0 record as well as the first program from Texas to make it to the College Football Playoff, which they won against Michigan. Dykes currently is the third coach to lead a team to the CFP in his first season.
“He’s done so much. I think he really helped me turn my career around, and what I was as a football player and obviously as a man,” said Max Duggan, former TCU star quarterback, who is now in the UFL. “He just put so much confidence in me, and for you know, as a player and our program, he’s leading our program in the right direction.”
Dykes said that win and that season meant a lot to him and his career as a football coach.
“We got hot, the guys believed in each other, and they believed in what we were doing, and all of a sudden you look up and you're 12-0, I mean it was a heck of a ride,” Dykes said. “The players had a ‘never say die’ attitude and you know we lost the Big 12 Championship game, which was painful to lose, but then you know we came back and were able to beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl which is such a big win.”
When it comes to different opponents and teams Dykes has faced over his career, he said Georgia was the toughest opponent he’s ever faced. The final score ended up being 65-7, and the ending chapter to TCU’s historical season.
“They have a good football team, a unique team, and a very athletic team,” Dykes said.
Even though Georgia won the championship game and finished number one overall in the AP rankings, coach Kirby Smart was still honored by getting to play against TCU.
“Hearing the story of the TCU season and getting to see Coach Dykes at the Heisman and Max, I mean it’s a hell of a story for these two teams,” Smart said.
Now, quarterback Josh Hoover is looking to start again for the Frogs this season.
“I think going forward for me is just focusing on decision-making and trying to be my best at making decisions,” Hoover said. “ I’ve taken strides and gotten more comfortable in spring ball, so just being comfortable and just making good decisions for our offense, so I feel really comfortable and I expect to take big strides this year.”
Following Jack Bech, Savion Williams, and JP Richardson, entering the NFL, Dykes used the transfer portal for eight new players as a way to help continue the growth of this team.
When it comes to Dykes and his athletes, he cares about them. He helped 11 TCU players get selected for the NFL, as well as players he previously coached such as Goff, Joel Filani, Quienton McCord,and many more.
“To me that’s one of the funnest things about coaching is watching young people accomplish their lifelong goals,” Dykes said. “ I think if you survey our players, they would all say they would like to play in the NFL and it’s awesome to have that opportunity. It’s just fun to feel like you’ve been a part of that.”
Brandon Coleman, a current offensive tackle for the Washington Commanders, played for Dykes for three seasons before entering the NFL Draft in 2024. He said playing for Dykes was one of the best experiences he had in his football career.
“The guy is so laid back, everything he does for the players, I mean, he wants us to be successful, and he knows that we need to be comfortable for us to be successful, and so it just makes it that much better to do stuff for him,” Coleman said. “And to sacrifice stuff for him and his success, too.”
The players aren’t the only ones who enjoy working with Dykes. Mark Cohen, the associate athletics director for strategic and football communications, said it’s an absolute honor working with Dykes.
“He treats everyone with the highest level of respect and simply lets you do your job, which is one of his favorite sayings,” Cohen said. “He truly cares about you as a person and is very family oriented. He’s one of my absolute favorite people I’ve worked with across nearly 40 years in collegiate athletics.”
When it comes to Dykes and his coaching career, the one piece of advice he got from his dad about being a coach is to have very few regrets.
“My dad had very few regrets in his life,” Dykes said. “You know I think the one thing he would work really hard, he went to work every morning at 5 and he came home every day at 9:00 pm and that’s what he did year-round; worked really hard, probably wasn’t as available as a father and maybe as a husband as he wanted to be, and looking back on his life, that was one of the things he told me is to find time to go to your kid's games, go to the recital, be more available than he was.”
Dykes is about to start his fourth year coaching the Horned Frogs. He doesn’t know what the future holds for him and the team, but he wants to continue to make a legacy.
“The best thing you want is you want your alumni and fans to be proud of the program,” Dykes said. “You want them to be proud of obviously winning games, but there’s a whole lot more to it. You know you want to be proud of the young people and what they’re doing in the community and the way they represent their school and this university and not only when they are playing here, but when they leave and I think those are the kind of people we want to surround ourselves with.”
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