The water gets deeper for TCU in 2026.
The Horned Frogs are 2-2, having recently lost their Big 12 opener at UCF and also falling to North Carolina in Week 0.
Sonny Dykes’ team is among the most penalized in the country, with his own future in Fort Worth seemingly in question. The frustrations for TCU even reached the point of a players-only meeting before Saturday’s game with No. 10 BYU.
“I think those guys took initiative, you know, they felt the same things,” Dykes told reporters Tuesday of the players’ meeting. “They felt like we didn’t play as well as we needed to. We obviously didn’t need to point it out to them, our guys are very committed.
“Like I said from the beginning, I love this team. I love the fact that they really love each other, that they care about each other, that they’re accountable to each other. So I was happy that these guys wanted to get together, talk about some things and try to do everything we can to play better.”
Dykes is 38-19 at TCU, leading the Horned Frogs to the national championship game in 2022 and going 9-4 in each of the last two seasons. However, TCU has failed to factor in the Big 12 title race since the magic of 2022, and many now consider the program to be heading in the wrong direction. The worrying start to the 2026 season has certainly done little to dispel that belief.
“I would say not as much as necessary,” Dykes said, responding to a question about whether he thought his team was playing with confidence. “For me it was a bit of a problem.
“…It comes back to coaching. If you’re not playing well, it’s still coaching, and we always have to look at ourselves first. It always starts with us, and the players are the product of how we’ve coached them. We just have to get better in those specific areas.”
It’s a tough time for the Horned Frogs to be lacking confidence, as the No. 10-ranked and College Football Playoff-caliber Cougars come to town Saturday, fresh off their bye week and looking for their first win in Fort Worth since 2006.
TCU and BYU were fierce rivals in the Mountain West Conference, but that past animosity hasn’t been this heated since they met in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs beat the Cougars 44-11 in 2023, while BYU returned the favor with a 44-13 victory last year in Provo.
Dykes, who calls Kalani Sitake a “close friend,” shared his respect for how Sitake has elevated BYU’s program since joining the Big 12, saying he feels the 2026 Cougars are “probably his best team.”
“It comes back to coaching. If you’re not playing well, it’s still coaching, and we always have to look at ourselves first. It always starts with us, and the players are the product of how we’ve coached them. We just have to get better in those specific areas.”
— TCU coach Sonny Dykes on his team’s uneven start to the 2026 season
“It was a little rough at first (for BYU in the Big 12), you know what I mean? It took (Sitake) a little while to get going, and the impressive thing is they got better,” Dykes said.
“I think he had a vision of what the program needed to be. I think the fact that he’s been there and seen what the program was like when it was really well managed and organized and executed in its prime, I think he knows the BYU formula, understands the place and really just constantly improved.”
Dykes continued: “I think they play to their strengths. They’ve always had big offensive linemen. They’ve always been able to recruit physical guys and they’ve always played physical football. I think it’s their mentality, it’s the way they’re built, limiting mistakes and running the football.”
Against TCU in 2025, BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier had arguably the finest outing of his decorated freshman campaign, completing 70 percent of his passes for 296 yards and a touchdown while adding 56 yards and another score on the ground.
Bachmeier proved even better as a sophomore, particularly in the passing game, giving the Horned Frogs their biggest defensive challenge yet.
“I think he’s really knowledgeable about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it,” Dykes said of Bachmeier. “I mean, they just don’t make mistakes. This is a team that very rarely turns the ball over, very rarely has penalties, stays in front of the chains, runs the football consistently.
“And then the quarterback, he can run the football,” he continued. “He’s a big, strong runner. He’s also a very good thrower, and they have more speed at the wide receiver position now than in the past, they’re moving the ball down the field, shooting down the field.
“He’s been very accurate on his shot passes, and that’s created a lot of big plays. So he’s a guy right now that’s just listening, playing at a very high level, executing as well as he can, and playing with a ton of confidence.”
Losing to BYU would put TCU at 2-3 and risk missing a bowl game, while upsetting the Cougars would breathe new life into the Horned Frogs’ season — and freshen up the Dykes hot seat.
“We’re disappointed, we’re hurt, but we realize if we sit around and pout about this, it’s not going to make things better,” Dykes said. “…We’re obviously evaluating all aspects of our program, trying to understand why we’re not playing as well as we should to win games.
“We talked about it at the start of the season, an important point for us is the number of one-score games we are going to play and the formula to win these games, that is to say winning the turnover battle and limiting penalties and errors.
“Unfortunately for us, in those two (defeats), we didn’t do those things. So we have to figure that out as a team and investigate all the reasons why that was the case.”
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