Anonymous Big 12 coach feels 2025 season 'really matters' for Sonny Dykes' future

One Big 12 coach believes Sonny Dykes‘ future at TCU could hinge a lot on what happens in 2025. Dykes is preparing to enter his fourth season as the coach of the Horned Frogs, having already gone through a few ups and downs in his short span in Fort Worth.

The coach led TCU to a national championship appearance in his inaugural season in 2022 but followed it up with a 5-7 finish the following year. The Horned Frogs are 14-11 overall since Dykes’ first year, showing improvement this past season to go 9-4 and win the New Mexico Bowl.

Athlon Sports recently published a series of anonymous interviews conducted with Big 12 coaches, and Dykes’ job security was a topic brought up by one. The mystery coach views this upcoming season as an influential one in determining how things might play out for Dykes at TCU, even with the success he had as recently as three years ago.

“It’s crazy to say this about a team who played in the national championship, but this is the season that really matters when it comes to Sonny,” the coach said. “They built depth and recruited to fill every deficiency on that five-win team. Now what? They have the best signing classes in the league, and that matters because they’re also building NIL to keep the kids they want.”

It sounds like whoever that coach is, they see TCU as a team that should be able to compete on paper. But failing to live up to those expectations and underperforming could potentially be damaging to Dykes’ reputation in the program.

Dykes’ contract with TCU runs through the 2028 season, but of course coaches can be let go early if the school is willing to pay the buyout. Another eight or nine-win season shouldn’t be a killer for him, but another losing year or even finishing .500 could put him in potential hot seat territory heading into 2026.

The Horned Frogs ended this past season in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Big 12, but were only one game out of first, which was a four-way tie. That is to say they were right there with the top eight teams in the conference, which really had very little separation between them.

TCU returns starting quarterback Josh Hoover and brought in the top freshman recruiting class in the Big 12 according to the On3 Industry Team Rankings. However, it didn’t attack the portal as aggressively as other schools in the conference, bringing in the second-fewest number of transfers with nine.

Still, that continuity on its roster could pay dividends with players such as Hoover, receiver Eric McAlister and linebacker Namdi Obiazor all back. Sonny Dykes also has much of the 2024 recruiting class back with a year of experience. TCU will have a shot to make a statement right away when their season kicks off Sept. 1 against Bill Belichick and North Carolina.