SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – Football and family. That’s what Texas does best. 

It was no different for TCU head coach Sonny Dykes. In fact, football was part of his DNA. His father, Spike, was a long-time high school and college coach, eventually becoming the head man at Texas Tech in 1986. He stayed there until his retirement in 1999. 

Spike passed away a few years ago, but his memory was front and center at the final press conference before TCU and Michigan face off in the Fiesta Bowl to determine one of the combatants in the national championship game. Spike loved a good story, and he was the focal point of a great one on Friday morning. 

Sonny, who went to Lubbock Coronado High School, returned home at 1 a.m. after a Friday night football game to find his dad, the head coach of Texas Tech at the time, and Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum sharing a drink in the living room the night before the two coached against each other in a Southwest Conference tilt. He even jokingly offered to share some bourbon tonight with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. 

“That’s way past my bedtime,” Harbaugh, also a coach’s son, joked back. 

Reaching this stage was a dream come true for both coaches, who spent their whole childhood watching their fathers grapple with the ups and downs of coaching football. Sonny had his own trials at Cal. But the wins and losses matter more on Saturdays than they do in life. The lessons linger longer than the joy of victory or the agony of defeat. 

Sonny sees a lot of what his dad appreciated about football in his resilient Horned Frogs. They were picked seventh in the Big 12 and entered the year unranked. One of Spike’s favorite sayings was that it is amazing what can be accomplished when people don’t care about who gets the credit.

“I heard that a million times from my dad growing up, and this team really embodies that philosophy,” Sonny said. “We have a group of guys that sacrifice for each other, invest in each other, and care about each other on a deep level. We’re a team that never quits regardless of the situation. He would be proud and impressed with the level of commitment that this group has.”

For Spike, the sideline told the real story about a football program. It is easy for the players on the field to remain engaged, but he wanted to know how the reserves acted on the sideline. Did they cheer for their teammates? Were they watching the game? Sonny says that when Spike would come watch one of his teams play, Spike would roam the sidelines and pay more attention to the players off the field than the ones on it. 

“He always said that he could learn what was going on with your team by watching the body language and interaction of the players who weren’t playing in the game,” Sonny said. “The guys on our sideline are cheering for the other guys. They might not be the ones who get all the credit and the acclaim, but they care about their teammates and have that unselfish attitude.”

For that reason, Sonny says this TCU team is his favorite from his 28 years of coaching, and not just because of the 12-0 start or the three-seed in the College Football Playoff, but because of the family atmosphere that so many teams preach, but few reach. 

“It is a real unique collection of selfless young people,” Sonny said “When you do it as long as I have, you appreciate it when you see it.”

Sonny is a man used to shadows. He grew up next to his father – a jovial man with a big personality that fit well in West Texas. Sonny then took the TCU job after Gary Patterson led the way for over 20 years in Fort Worth. He walks by a statue of Patterson every day as he walks from the parking lot to his office at TCU. But he never flinched. He said all the right things, did all the right things, and then led the Horned Frogs to their most important game in school history in year one. Not bad for a former college baseball player. 

“People talk about the football family, but seeing it every day, taught me how big of an impact coaches can have on student athlete’s lives,” Sonny said. “My dad had a huge impact on my life. The way he dealt with people, the way he treated people, and the relationships he had with players was a great lesson for me to learn.”