Sonny Dykes leaving SMU to take TCU job, Rhett Lashlee replacing Dykes as SMU head coach
SMU head coach Sonny Dykes is the new head coach at TCU and Rhett Lashlee is leaving Miami to return to SMU as the head coach replacing Dykes.
In a move that was widely expected, SMU head coach Sonny Dykes is taking the job at TCU.
The TCU job opened in November with Gary Patterson and the university parting ways before his 22nd season could end.
Dykes taking the TCU job was first reported by ESPN’s Ian Fitzsimmons.
SMU Head Coach, Sonny Dykes will be the next head football coach at TCU. I am told SMU offered a package up to $4 million but TCU’s was “significantly more.”
— Ian Fitzsimmons (@Ianfitzespn) November 26, 2021
Rhett Lashlee returns to SMU to replace Sonny Dykes
The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reports SMU will name Rhett Lashlee as the head coach. Lashlee was the SMU offensive coordinator under Dykes from 2018-2019 and has been the Miami offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach since 2020.
Lashlee has previously coached at UConn and under Gus Malzahn at Arkansas State and Auburn where he looked poised to be a future head coach in the making.
Sonny Dykes record: New TCU football coach has big shoes to fill
Dykes is the son of Spike Dykes, the second-winningest coach in Texas Tech history. His ties to the state of Texas is one reason why he was the presumed leading candidate to replace Patterson after the time of the divorce.
Dykes went 22-15 in three seasons at Louisiana Tech, 19-30 at California after starting 1-11 in his first season and is 30-17 in his five seasons at SMU, including an 8-3 mark this year.
Patterson went 181-79 at TCU and leaves Dykes with big shoes to fill in Fort Worth. The Big 12 landscape is changing in the coming years with Texas and Oklahoma leaving and Cincinnati, Houston, BYU and UCF coming.
News of Dykes taking the TCU job seemed like a formality after some of SMU’s top commitments in their recruiting class recommitted from the program.
Dykes, 52, is 71-62 for his career and is 1-3 in bowl games.
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