BYU may have suffered its first loss of the season last week at Texas Tech, but TCU head coach Sonny Dykes knows his team can’t discount the Cougars this weekend.
“You turn the film on last week against Texas Tech and, you know, you look at the score and you kind of expect Texas Tech to dominate them, and it wasn’t the case at all,” Dykes told reporters earlier this week.
“I mean, it just came down to turnovers, and BYU had a couple of turnovers on their side of the field and led to some short fields by Texas Tech, and Tech had a really difficult time putting the ball in the end zone.
Dykes continued, “You know, (BYU is) one of the best teams defensively in the country in red-zone defense. I think that’s probably one of the biggest strengths they have is they’re excellent in the red zone. They’re very difficult to run the ball against. ... They’re probably the best team in the league in terms of red-zone defense.”
Dykes is plenty familiar with BYU. Prior to landing at TCU, he faced the Cougars twice as Arizona’s offensive coordinator in 2007 and 2008 along with in 2014 as the head coach at Cal.
Back in 2023, Dykes’ Horned Frogs thumped BYU 44-11 in Fort Worth.
Additionally, Dykes comes from the Mike Leach coaching tree, having spent eight seasons on staff with the famed BYU alum at both Kentucky and Texas Tech.
“They’re a big, physical team. It’s a typical BYU team,” Dykes said of this year’s Cougars. “You know, they’re always built up front. You go back and that’s always been their history, and it looks like that kind of team (this year).
“... And they’re, you know, experienced. They got tons of experience. We went back and looked at the (2023) film, when we played against them, and they got a lot of guys that are still playing that played on that team. Just experienced players, and just an overall really, really impressive football team on both sides of the football.”
Though neither of them played in that 2023 game at TCU, Dykes said he’s been impressed by Cougar linebackers Jack Kelly and Isaiah Glasker, who he referred to as “two of the best two linebackers on a team in the Big 12.”
“They’re fantastic blitzers. They’re long, they’re athletic, they can cover and run sideline to sideline,” Dykes said. “They don’t give up a ton of big plays. You know, I think that’s one thing that they’ve been consistent doing. They’re going to show the quarterback a lot of different pictures. It’s going to be hard for him to get settled in and know exactly what you’re going to see.”
As for BYU’s quarterback, Dykes made it quite clear that he’s a fan of true freshman Bear Bachmeier.
“I’m impressed with how he’s played. I think he’s shown a ton of maturity,” Dykes said of Bachmeier. “I think that’s what stands out is just, you know, he plays within himself. He doesn’t try to do too much. You can tell he’s got a lot of confidence in his teammates. He’s got a lot of confidence in the defense. He doesn’t play impulsive. He just makes really, really good, mature decisions with the football.
“They’ve done a really nice job of managing him and getting him to play with that kind of confidence. They’ve got a strong run game and that helps him. But he’s really good with the ball. He’s a big physical guy, he’s a better thrower than I think probably he gets credit for. When you give him a clean pocket, he can step up and throw the ball as well as anybody.
“So, (I’ve) just been really impressed with the way he’s performed this season, and to do it as a young player, I think is really a credit to BYU’s staff and to his maturity and just kind of their program.”
TCU is 6-3 on the season and all but out of the Big 12 title race, having fallen to Iowa State at home this past weekend.
While the Horned Frogs have a talented quarterback in Josh Hoover — who ranks second in the Big 12 in passing yards and touchdowns — their running game is somewhat suspect, with leading rusher Kevorian Barnes already ruled out for Saturday against BYU.
In each of TCU’s three losses this season, the Horned Frogs have turned the ball over three times. TCU has also only scored 10 points in its past five first quarters.
Dykes is well aware of those concerning trends and knows any path to victory against BYU will require flipping such a script in Provo.
“We know the deal. We’ve lost three games this year. In all three of those games, we’ve had three turnovers,” Dykes said. “If we don’t turn the football over, we’re going to have a chance to win against anybody that we play. And if we do turn it over, we’re gonna have a difficult time beating anybody that we play. That’s what it comes down to.”
“... (We) just have to settle in more quickly than we have offensively. We’ve got to do a better job early in the game of stringing some plays together.”
