FORT WORTH, Texas — To finish the final day of spring practice, the TCU football team played kickball.
Not exactly the Oklahoma drill, or running gassers 'til you throw up.
Somewhere Bud Wilkinson, Dutch Meyer and Darrell Royal threw up, too. Throw Gary Patterson into that group as well.
"It was amazing," TCU senior center Steve Avila said after practice. "The only thing like that we used to do was we'd go see a movie once a year, in August."
Every single thing the TCU football team does feels different, because most of it is different.
As such, nearly everything TCU does, and anything anyone associated with the program says, will be perceived as a criticism of the new University of Texas assistant-assistant football coach.
Because some of it is a rip on Gary Patterson. Most of it is not.
The players and coaches can't win on this subject.
Make no mistake, a lot of TCU people are thrilled that Gary works in Austin, even if he still lives around the block. The work days, and the ever-present fear of his sometimes wicked temper, exhausted even his most loyal supporters.
"It's a little bit more flow, a little bit less abrasive, which there's nothing wrong with an abrasive style, but a little less abrasive, a little more teaching and a little bit more of trying to cultivate having fun but at the same time getting what you want out of it, but not making it complete drudgery, which when I played that's just what it was," TCU offensive assistant Doug Meacham said Thursday morning.
Practices are open. Players are permitted to talk to the media, the same for assistant coaches, all of whom want to do it to help their profile as they attempt to move up the coaching ladder.
If TCU needed any of these changes, it's selling a program that became exclusively about one person. When you're not Alabama or Clemson or Ohio State, you need to be selling all parts of your program beyond just one face.
The glossy, fresh new car smell with the arrival of Sonny Dykes as the new football coach still permeates every blade of grass on TCU's football field, and every crevice in TCU's football practice facility.
It will be that way until Sept. 2, when TCU plays Colorado in Boulder.
TCU's spring season ended on Friday night with its spring game at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
He's not God. If this is going to work, it's going to take more than one season.
Most of what you hear now is as a result of the new coach coming in, and the normal verbiage that accompanies such a change.
The new strength coach is always amazing. The new coordinators are cutting edge, and the coaches let the "players be themselves."
This is all fine until TCU loses a game or two. That's the way it is for Lincoln Riley at USC. For Brent Venables at Oklahoma. For Brian Kelly at LSU.
And Dykes' arrival does not change the reality of his roster, and specifically his quarterback situation.
As evidenced by what happened last year at TCU when GP "resigned" during a 5-7 season, the team wasn't good.
The defense was one of the worst in the country, the offensive line had issues, and the QB was unable to provide an effective cover for his team's deficiencies.
Dykes' resume looked pretty at SMU when he found a quarterback in the transfer portal, and he has yet to do that at TCU. That's either by choice, or because he hasn't convinced an ex-Trojan, ex-Sooner or someone else to attend TCU.
Dykes killed it at SMU when he lured former ex-Longhorn Shane Buechele, followed by ex-Sooner Tanner Mordecai.
Do not be surprised if a new QB finds his way to Fort Worth in the next few months.
Dykes is currently saying the right things about incumbent Max Duggan, and No. 2 Chandler Morris. Dykes says one of these two is the starter, because he must.
The fact that Dykes won't name Duggan the starter is revealing. He's been the starter since he walked in the door, in 2019; after 32 games and 806 pass attempts as a college quarterback this should not be a conversation.
Though not a lack of effort, or caring, Duggan is not the 2022 starter today for a reason.
All coaches think they can "fix" or "correct" a player, and maybe Dykes can reach Duggan so he becomes the passer, and quarterback, the previous staff so believed is in there.
Right now, all things are possible because of the first-year head coach who has yet to lose a game.
