Everything from Sonny Dykes’ introductory press conference at TCU

TCU officially announced Sonny Dykes as the new football head coach on Monday night, confirming one of the worst kept secrets in college football over the past month. Just hours later, TCU landed their first two recruits of the Dykes era - two 4-star wide receivers from the DFW area.

On Tuesday morning, Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati and Dykes met with the press in new Legends Club & Suites to formally introduce the new head coach. Here are the highlights from that press conference (watch the full presser below, or on our YouTube channel).

TCU Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati

“Today is an incredibly exciting day for TCU football, for the TCU community, and the city of Fort Worth. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in our football program’s rich history, and a chapter I am confident will see us reclaim our place amongst the elite programs in the Big 12 Conference and in all of college football.”

“I am thrilled to stand before you here today and say to all of Horned Frog Nation, we got our guy.”

“I’d like to thank Gary Patterson, and all of the TCU coaches and staff that worked for him during his tenure. And I’d especially like to thank all of the TCU former football student athletes that played for coach Patterson. Frankly, we would not be standing here today, in this beautiful Legends Club, if it were not for their collective efforts in elevating this program. I’m positive it’s because of them that we were able to attract a coach and staff of this caliber.”

“When we started the search in early November, we laid out some criteria that we were looking for in an ideal candidate. One, we were looking for candidates with head coaching experience, with proven success. Two, someone with a detailed plan to recruit the state of Texas with a particular emphasis on the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Three, someone who could present a comprehensive and holistic strength and conditioning and injury prevention plan.”

“Four, someone who was adept at navigating the new realities of college athletics like the transfer portal and Name Image and Likeness. Five, someone who had a history of building great team culture and would invest in our student athletes. In their futures and their development on and off the field.”

“Finally, and ultimately, someone who could help us compete for and win championships here at TCU.”

“In Sonny Dikes we not only found someone who met all of those desired criteria, he was far and away the best fit for TCU and for this university.”

TCU Head Coach Sonny Dykes

“Well, wow. Thank you all for being here. This is a fantastic crowd. I really, really appreciate your support. The welcome last night was overwhelming. It was fantastic to have an opportunity to get around our players and spend some time with them.”

“This is a fantastic place, and it’s been a long process to get here. It has taken a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of investment from a lot of different people to make TCU the special place that it is today. So all of you play a big part in that, so I just want to say thank you for doing that.”

“You know I think the thing that we’ve got to do here, and our goal from the very beginning is to play and win championships. I talked to our players yesterday, and that’s our standard. Our standard is to compete for and win championships. Really there are three steps I believe in order to do that.”

“Number one, and I think this is probably as important as any of them. It’s all about talent acquisition. What does that mean? It means surrounding yourself with the best people you can. We have an outstanding coaching staff, a really remarkable support staff. Some people with incredible energy and vision, and we’re going to maximize every opportunity that TCU affords us.”

“The second thing we’ve got to do is develop our players. That’s going to be a big part of it. Player development is so critical to building a college football program. And that all begins with strength and conditioning. We’re really fortunate to have Kaz Kazadi here, who I think is the best strength and conditioning coach in college athletics. Kaz will get with our players and will build something really special. He does an outstanding job of doing that. You guys will have an opportunity to get to know Kaz and see what he does for our program. There’s many steps involved. He does many different things. Not just making players bigger, stronger, and faster, but dealing with injury prevention, and emphasis on nutrition, and emphasis on mental training, and all those things that I think contribute to championship level football programs. So we’re excited to have him. His staff will hit the ground running when players report back in January, and I know we’ll make some huge strides to get our guys ready for spring football.”

“The third part of it I think is probably as important as any of the parts, is building a culture. I think that’s what we have to do here at TCU. Players come and go. Guys graduate. People move on, but the culture sustains itself. And the way you build a culture is by getting young people to be unselfish. Getting young people to realize that the team is bigger than the individual. That’s easier said than done. In today’s world a lot of times people think it’s all about them, and we intend to make sure everyone knows it’s all about us.”

“That’s something that we’ll talk about from the very beginning to the very end. That will be a big part of our success that we have.”

“I’m really, really fired up to be here, can’t wait to get started. We have a lot of positive momentum right now happening with guys in our program right now, current players. Also recruiting. We certainly intend to hit the ground running. We have a great staff that’s already done that. We’ve surrounded ourselves with some guys that can build relationships with young people and help motivate them, and help them get where they want to go in life. So that’s why we’re here, and we intend to be the Big 12 champion and play for championships consistently.”

Watch the full 30 minute press conference right here: