Is there a more disrespected team entering 2023 than TCU?
Is there a more disrespected team entering 2023 than TCU?
TCU played for a national title in 2022. The Horned Frogs had a strong offseason. But they continue to fly under the radar, including in their opener, taking a backseat to Deion Sanders and Colorado.
Sonny Dykes was fielding a question Tuesday about how his message has evolved from last year to this year when he went into a three-minute long tangent that touched on all of the topics that football coaches are normally loathe to discuss.
“I think the narrative in college football is ‘TCU got lucky’ and ‘TCU was lucky to win this game. They were lucky to win that game,’ ” the TCU coach told reporters. “And I think we certainly feel that as coaches and I know our players kind of feel that way. I think that we have a lot to prove.”
Narrative.
Outside noise.
Proving people wrong.
How often are those discussion points third-rail topics at news conferences? Then again, how often does the sport’s runner-up find itself lacking respect?
It is easy to forget that TCU played for a national championship last season. The talk nationally has been about Georgia’s chase of a three-peat, or of Michigan eventually breaking through and winning it all.
In the Big 12, the talk has been about Texas maybe being back, and of Texas and Oklahoma’s final hurrah before departing for the SEC next year.
TCU? The Horned Frogs are the undercard in their own opener, so over-the-top is the hype surrounding Deion Sanders’ first game coaching Colorado, which won all of one game last season. One Fox promo teased the game as the sport’s biggest opener in years … with a graphic of Sanders riding Ralphie the Buffalo.
Don’t think Dykes hasn’t noticed. Don’t think the short memory of the rest of the nation has been lost on the folks of Fort Worth.