ARLINGTON, Texas — On Sonny Dykes’ first trip to Big 12 Media Days as TCU head coach, he did not bring a quarterback for a reason.
Of all the developments for TCU football since Dykes helicoptered in to Amon G. Carter Stadium, the biggest surprise was his inability to bring a quarterback in via the NCAA’s transfer portal.
One of the reasons TCU hired Dykes is his willingness to accept transfers, a trend that his predecessor embraced like a visit to a proctologist.
TCU is banking on Dykes finding another Jared Goff. Another Davis Webb. Another Shane Buechele. Another Tanner Mordecai.
Dykes has had five starting quarterbacks in his head coaching career between California and SMU, three of whom were transfers.
Goff, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, was a high school signee at Cal with Dykes.
Do not be surprised when he finds a transfer QB in the coming months, but he has not as yet.
If TCU is going to be successful under Dykes in the Big 12, he has to find a real quarterback.
If TCU is going to be successful under Dykes in the Big 12, its identity will have to change.
TCU’s identity for more than 20 years was Gary Patterson and his defense, but since it joined the Big 12 in 2012 its best seasons came when the Frogs had a quarterback such as Trevone Boykin and Kenny Hill.
“If it’s the seventh grade, or the NFL, you are not going to win without a great quarterback,” Dykes said Thursday.
This math is not complicated.
They don’t have that guy on this roster.
If they did, he would have been at Big 12 media days, and would already be named the starting quarterback.
“The question mark is the quarterback position,” Dykes said.
Never ideal.
It’s mid July, and despite the fluid nature of major college football, it looks increasingly like Dykes will go with what he inherited when he arrived at TCU.
It will be some combination of Max Duggan and Chandler Morris.
Duggan is a three-year starter with 32 college games and 472 pass attempts on his resume; that he’s not the starting quarterback already is ... not ideal.
He is a brilliant athlete, a player who could be lethal as a receiver. Or maybe a relief pitcher.
He can throw a ball through a cement wall.
He can outrun defensive backs.
He will play through injury and pain.
Patterson believed in him, and was loyal to him.
He has been consistently inconsistent.
Chandler transferred from Oklahoma, and in brief work last season the redshirt sophomore showed something.
“For us it was an important decision to make and it’s a decision we need more evidence to be able to make it,” Dykes said in response to my question why a player with a resume as long as Duggan’s has not merited the starting quarterback spot.
“I felt like if you put on the Baylor game last year and watched Chandler play, you’d go, ‘This guy has to be a starting quarterback.’”
Indeed.
Morris started in TCU’s first game after Patterson “resigned,” and led TCU to a 30-28 win over No. 14 Baylor at TCU. He was 29-of-41 passing for 461 yards and two touchdowns.
“If you put on some other games in Max’s career and watch him perform, you’d go, ‘This guy has to be a starting quarterback,’” Dykes said.
Indeed.
Duggan has had several games where he demonstrated big-time talent and abilities.
If one of these two performs consistently at their highest levels, TCU has a Big 12-caliber passer.
If they don’t, they have a Big 12 tease.
“What we have is a unique opportunity; we have two quarterbacks who have played at a very high level with a very high ceiling but we have to see who the most consistent one is,” Dykes said.
(It was Aristotle who said, “When you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one.”)
“The two things I want from that position is a guy who makes the people around him better, and I want consistent play,” Dykes said. “Those things I haven’t seen from either one of those guys.”
He’s not being critical. He’s being honest.
Sonny Dykes inherited most of the current players on this team; unless they show him something fast his level of investment will be minimal.
He doesn’t have the ties to these players the way Gary Patterson did.
Dykes rebuilt his reputation as a head coach at SMU on the strength of quarterbacks, the last two via the transfer portal.
He will do it again.
It’s 2022, and TCU winning via exclusively Gary Patterson’s defense in the Big 12 was a myth.
The Horned Frogs need a quarterback, and the fact that Sonny Dykes didn’t bring one with him to Big 12 media days says he’s not sure he has one.
