TCU Football: Sonny Dykes Named Coach of the Year

The head coach of the Horned Frogs was named by Walter Camp Football Foundation AND Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

An undefeated regular season, a goal-line opportunity in the Big 12 Championship, and a berth in the College Football Playoffs are getting several TCU football players and coaches noticed by national organizations for postseason honors.

On Wednesday, TCU head coach Sonny Dykes was named National Coach of the Year by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

The Walter Camp Coach of the Year is selected by the nation’s 131 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors. Dykes is the second coach from TCU (Gary Patterson, 2009 and 2014) and the 11th from the Big 12 Conference to earn the award.

The award is named for Walter Camp, known to many as “The Father of American Football.” He played and coached at Yale and served in various fashions for over 50 years to make football what it has become. In 1889, he created his first All-American team, a tradition that continues today. Last year’s Coach of the Year was Luke Fickell, then the head coach at Cincinnati, and now the coach at Wisconsin.

In his first season at TCU, Dykes has led the Horned Frogs to their first College Football Playoff appearance. Picked to finish seventh in the Big 12, TCU was No. 3 in the final CFP rankings and just the second team to be in the CFP after starting the season unranked.

Dykes is only the third head coach in the CFP era to guide his team to the playoff in his first season at the helm. The unanimous Big 12 Coach of the Year, Dykes became the first head football coach in TCU and Big 12 history to start 12-0 in his first season. He’s just the fourth head coach nationally since 1996 to accomplish the feat.

TCU was the first Big 12 team to complete the regular season with a 12-0 record since Texas in 2009 and the first league member to go 9-0 in conference play since Oklahoma in 2016. This season, TCU's five wins over ranked opponents ties for the national lead.

Dykes will be honored on March 11 at the Walter Camp Football Foundation All-America banquet in New Haven, Connecticut.

No. 3 TCU (12-1) will face second-ranked Michigan in the College Football Playoff Semifinals in Glendale, Arizona, on December 31. 

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