‘We’ve a very good soccer workforce’: TCU wins, finishes 12-0

After closing out his first common season at TCU with a 62-14 win over Iowa State to complete 12-0, Sonny Dykes believes his workforce has confirmed that the Horned Frogs are worthy of their lofty rating and a possible spot within the Faculty Soccer Playoff.

In 2014, No. 3 TCU beat Iowa State 55-3 to complete 11-1 solely to get handed by Ohio State on the final weekend of the rankings and had been not noted of the playoff.

“I do know the historical past with TCU and Iowa State and massive victories,” Dykes mentioned. “It did not work out notably nicely in 2014. I do know that. I feel it is totally different. I feel school soccer is totally different. I feel the committee is totally different, I feel the Massive 12 is considered in another way then it was then.”

On the time, the Massive 12 did not have a championship sport, a significant consideration for the committee after Ohio State received the Massive Ten. Dykes mentioned this 12 months’s Massive 12, with eight bowl-eligible groups, and no divisions the place you may get a “good draw,” and miss among the league’s higher groups, is totally different.

“It is a gauntlet,” Dykes mentioned. “I feel individuals who actually examine the sport know the way good the league is. To get by this factor undefeated, to have the ability to win street video games, grind by among the robust moments we needed to grind by, I feel reveals we’ve got a very good soccer workforce.”

TCU’s 12-0 season is the primary within the Massive 12 since Texas in 2009.

The Horned Frogs’ 62 factors got here in opposition to an Iowa State workforce that was eighth nationally in scoring protection, permitting 16.5 factors per sport, and had solely allowed one workforce, Baylor on Sept. 24, to attain greater than 30 factors. The Cyclones solely allowed three different groups to high the 20-point mark.

Dykes mentioned quarterback Max Duggan, who was 17 of 24 for 212 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday, has had a senior season price Heisman Trophy consideration. Duggan, who did not begin till the second sport of the season, handed for 3,070 yards, 29 touchdowns and three interceptions and rushed for 5 extra. Baylor’s Bryce Petty in 2013 is the one Massive 12 quarterback in historical past with extra passing touchdowns (32) and fewer than 5 interceptions.

“I feel anyone that is watched us this 12 months, y’all know what he means to our soccer workforce and program,” Dykes mentioned. “He definitely may be very deserving of a chance to get to New York.”

Dykes, who took over for legendary TCU coach Gary Patterson, who parted methods with the varsity amid a 5-7 end final season after 21 years as head coach, can now flip his workforce’s consideration to the Massive 12 championship sport after practically a month of clinching a spot within the sport.

He wrapped up a historic debut by incomes his 83rd profession win, surpassing his late father, former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes, who retired in 1999 with 82 victories. However he is not prepared for this season to finish but.

“I might prefer to play as many video games as we will with this group as a result of I feel we’ll determine a strategy to win ’em,” Dykes mentioned.