TCU

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TCU Bans Star-Telegram Over Locker Room Incident Reportingour readTCU Coach Sonny Dykes Criticizes Officials After Loss to North Carolinaour readThe Baylor rivalry

Big 12 · Sonny Dykes, year 5 (37-18) · Amon G. Carter Stadium · 46,000 · 37,600 avg in 2026

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#52 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #54 (+3.9) · FPI #41
The marketTCU by 20vs Arkansas State · our model 87% TCU · a number, not a pick

LastW 63–7 vs Grambling · Sat Sep 12 · Jaden Craig 391 pass yds, 4 TD, 53 rush yds

Nextvs Arkansas State · Sat Sep 19 · 8 pm ET · Amon G. Carter Stadium · TCU by 20 · series 2-0, won the last 2 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist staturePower Program II#38 all-time– holding
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 99-54 12 seasons
Best season 13-2 2022
Top-10 finishes 2 AP polled only
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 12-1 '15 11-2 '16 6-7 '17 11-3 '18 7-6 '19 5-7 '20 6-4 '21 5-7 '22 13-2 '23 5-7 '24 9-4 '25 9-4

TCU's 2014–2025 record is 99-54. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.647
Ranked seasons (AP)
9/12
Best AP finish
#3

Program outlook

TCU was left out when the SWC died in 1996 — no Big 12 seat, no invitation, just the WAC. Twenty-six years later the Horned Frogs played for the national championship. Sonny Dykes just got extended through 2028. Back-to-back 9-4 seasons were already the question; opening 2026 with a 15-10 loss to North Carolina in Dublin, as a touchdown favorite, asked it louder.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

The 2022 run is the franchise moment, but it lives on a foundation built from grievance. When the Southwest Conference collapsed, Texas and Texas A&M took the Big 12 seats and TCU was left to wander — the WAC, then Conference USA, then the Mountain West — a decade and a half of conference exile that the fanbase in Fort Worth never quite forgot. The 2012 Big 12 invite was vindication of sorts; the 2022 national title-game appearance, in Sonny Dykes's very first season, was a verdict. The sport owed Fort Worth, and Fort Worth collected.

The two seasons after have been 9-4, 9-4 — Alamo Bowl wins, a No. 25 finish, a contract extension for Dykes in April 2026, and now a quarterback question. Josh Hoover transferred to Indiana; Dykes replaced him with Harvard's Jaden Craig, who threw for 2,869 yards and 25 touchdowns in the Ivy League in 2025. The Big 12 and the Ivy League are different sports, and Craig will be the most-scrutinized transfer-portal experiment in Fort Worth in some time. The first look, in the Aer Lingus Classic in Dublin, was rough: ten points, all of them in the opening quarter, eleven penalties, and a 15-10 loss to a North Carolina team TCU was favored to beat by a touchdown — the Frogs went scoreless for the final 49 minutes.

The 2026 season answers the question the title-game run left open: is TCU a 13-2 program that had two quiet years, or a 9-4 program that had one transcendent one? The Davey O'Brien Award goes to a quarterback every year, named for the Heisman winner who played in Fort Worth in 1938. The Horned Frogs produce history; what Craig produces is what 2026 is about.

On the field

Fort Worth pragmatic — opportunistic, defense-rooted, and allergic to being underestimated. Dykes's system is spread-RPO with enough tempo to stress zone coverages, and the defensive identity under his staff has been bend-without-breaking rather than pure aggression. Amon G. Carter Stadium is intimate and loud, and the fanbase carries the chip of a program that survived four conference moves and reached a title game. The identity is earned stubbornness.

program outlook · as of 2026-09-01

All-time record · TCU

TCU has won 53% of its games since 1903 — 61% at home, 46% on the road.

685-566-50 all-time · 123 seasons · 1903–2026

Home 362-211-25
Away 300-333-24
Neutral 23-22-1
42% 1900s
48% 1910s
62% 1920s
72% 1930s
47% 1940s
57% 1950s
40% 1960s
24% 1970s
31% 1980s
45% 1990s
77% 2000s
67% 2010s
62% 2020s

Coaching Era · TCU

Sonny Dykes

Sonny Dykes has held the program for 5 seasons — the era is established.

Era Sonny Dykes · 2022–presentPrev: Gary Patterson (2014–2021)OC: co-A. J. Ricker / Gordon SammisPrev OC: co-A. J. Ricker / Kendal Briles (2023–2025)DC: Andy AvalosPrev DC: Joe Gillespie (2022–2023)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
5 years · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

1938

Dutch Meyer's title

An 11-0 season under Dutch Meyer brought TCU the 1938 national title

1996

The SWC collapse

The conference dissolves and TCU is left out of the Big 12, beginning the exile years

Wound

The 2011 Rose Bowl

TCU caps a perfect season with a Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin

The 2022 title-game run

Sonny Dykes's first team reaches the national championship game

Moment of the season — so far · TCU · 2026

Won 63-7 vs Grambling

Week 2 of 2026. A statement margin. Recruiting boards re-rendered overnight.

Decisive Margin

NFL Draft Pipeline

2023–2026

TCU has sent 16 players to the NFL Draft since 2023 — one of them in the first round.

Strong. 1 first-round picks. Recruits with NFL ambitions notice.

16 picks · 1 in round 1
#21 Quentin Johnston Wide Receiver · 2023 · Los Angeles · #34/488 final season
#36 Steve Avila Offensive Guard · 2023 · Los Angeles
#58 Jack Bech Wide Receiver · 2025 · Las Vegas · #26/466 final season
#42 all-time · 17 first-round picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Program factsStadium, mascot, and the vitals that don't change season to season.
Program résumé
1CFP apps
Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 1-1

TCU is 1-1 and unranked in the season's first weeks.

Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Sonny Dykes2022
  • Hired Jerry Kill2021
  • Gary Patterson departs181-79, 22 seasons
  • Jerry Kill departs2-2, 1 season
  • Hired Gary Patterson2000
  • Dennis Franchione departs25-10, 3 seasons
  • Hired Dennis Franchione1998
  • Pat Sullivan departs24-42-1, 6 seasons
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

TCU’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2016 · co-Doug Meacham / co-Sonny Cumbie2017–2019 · co-Curtis Luper / co-Sonny Cumbie2020 · Sonny Cumbie2021 · Doug Meacham2022 · co-A. J. Ricker / Garrett Riley2023–2025 · co-A. J. Ricker / Kendal Briles2026 · co-A. J. Ricker / Gordon Sammis
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014 · Dick Bumpas2015 · co-Chad Glasgow / co-DeMontie Cross2016–2021 · Chad Glasgow2022–2023 · Joe Gillespie2024–2026 · Andy Avalos
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Riff Ram Bah Zoo

since 1939

more

The fight chant: 'Riff Ram Bah Zoo, Lickety Lickety Zoo Zoo!' Nonsense syllables that became iconic, sung in unison by 50,000 purple-shirted fans. The most-cited 'how do you cheer for a horned frog' answer.

Horned Frog Mascot

since 1897

more

The Texas horned lizard (a real animal that 'cries blood' as defense) is one of the most-mocked mascots in CFB — and TCU fans embrace that. The 2010s 'Hypnotoad' meme became unironically the fan-voice; SuperFrog the actual mascot is gold.

Helmet Logo Vegetation

since 2010s

more

TCU has worn helmet decals featuring real Texas vegetation — bluebonnets, prickly pear, Texas Sage. The state-flora-in-helmet tradition expanded the program's regional identity beyond the horned frog.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2014-2025): 7-2

Most recent: 2025 — win 30-27 (home). Last 5 postseason: 4-1.

20252024202220222018
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

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[Postgame Thread] TCU Defeats USC 30-27 (OT)
Dec 2025 · r/cfb
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[Postgame Thread] SMU Defeats TCU 41-38
Sep 2019 · r/cfb
861
[Postgame Thread] SMU Defeats TCU 42-34
Sep 2021 · r/cfb

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