Sonny Dykes to TCU? Will SMU head coach cross sides of town?

Update November 26, 5:55 p.m. The rumors are true, and Dykes is now the incoming head coach of the Horned Frogs. It’s a stunning move that rarely happens in college football, but he’ll be on the other sideline for the Iron Skillet game in 2022.

The college football coaching carousel has gone into hyperdrive over the past week and on Monday, Chris Hummer of 247 Sports reported that TCU is honing in on SMU head coach Sonny Dykes to become its next head coach.

Rumors of Dykes being a top candidate for the job started revving up almost immediately after longtime head coach Gary Patterson stepped down from the post in late October. SMU has reportedly already offered him an extension that would make him one of the highest paid head coaches in the Group of Five. But if new reports are true, it appears that he’ll be switching his allegiances in the Iron Skillet rivalry.

The move for Dykes makes sense considering that he’s basically an heir of the Big 12 conference. A native of Lubbock, Sonny attended Texas Tech where his father, the late Spike Dykes, is the second all-time winningest head coach in Texas Tech football history. As TCU transitions into a new era of the conference sans Texas and Oklahoma, it makes sense to have someone with deep institutional knowledge of both the state and the conference running the show in Fort Worth.

This move would also crystallize the pecking order of the the new American Athletic Conference with SMU losing its head coach to a crosstown rival of similar stature. Dykes has a career head coaching record of 71-62, with a 30-17 record currently at SMU. His Mustangs are 8-3 heading into this Saturday’s season finale against Tulsa.