Who will replace Gary Patterson as TCU's next Head Football Coach?

Replacing a legend is never easy, but that is exactly what TCU's brass will ask of their next football coaching hire. With the Gary Patterson era officially coming to an end on Halloween 2021, TCU must now choose their next leader on the football field. Who are the candidates? 

SMU Head Coach Sonny Dykes

CBS Sports Dennis Dodd is reporting Sonny Dykes to be TCU's primary target. Dykes and the TCU administration are familiar with one another with Dykes having been brought on as an Offensive Analyst for the 2017 season. That season saw the Horned Frogs make the Big 12 championship game, beat Stanford in the Alamo Bowl, and finish 9th in the country. The offense averaged 34 points per game and TCU's only losses on the year were to Iowa State and Oklahoma twice, none of which were home games. Dykes would be hired as the SMU head coach at the end of the year and TCU has not had a successful football season since. 

Dykes grew up in Lubbock the son of Texas Tech's second all-time winningest football coach Skip Dykes, and attended and played baseball at Tech himself. With the Red Raiders having already fired their head coach last week, this could be a situation where TCU and Texas Tech both have Dykes tabbed as their #1 candidate to lead their respective programs for the foreseeable future. It should be fascinating to watch the situation unfold over the next coming weeks. 

His SMU Mustangs are currently ranked #23 in the AP poll.

UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor

Jeff Traylor is a Texas High School coaching legend. He spent 2000-2014 coaching his old high school, Gilmer High in Gilmer, Texas where he was named four-time Texas High School Coach of the Year for Class 4A, posting a 175-26 record (.871). The northeast Texas native made five state championship game appearances, winning three state titles and twelve district championships. In 2015 Gilmer High School renamed their football stadium from Buckeye Stadium to Jeff Traylor Stadium. In 2015 Traylor began his collegiate coaching career at the University of Texas as their special teams coordinator and tight ends coach before becoming their associate head coach for offense and wide receivers coach for 2016. He was named the Big 12 Recruiter of the Year for 2016. He spent 2017 at SMU and 2018 and '19 at Arkansas as associate head coach and running backs coach for Chad Morris before taking his first collegiate head coaching position at the University of Texas San Antonio in 2020. The UTSA program that he inherited was 4-8 in 2019 but Traylor was able to turn the program around in just his first year, leading them to a 7-5 record and just their second bowl appearance in school history. This year he has the Roadrunners 8-0 with victories over Illinois, Memphis, UNLV, Rice, and Louisiana Tech. Those wins and undefeated record are good enough to have UTSA ranked for the first time in program history, currently at #16 in the nation. On Sunday UTSA rewarded Traylor for his efforts with a ten-year 28 million dollar contract extension with a reported 7.5 million dollar buyout.

University of Louisiana Head Coach Billy Napier

So, about that bowl game that Jeff Traylor took UTSA to last year. It was against Billy Napier's University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns in the First Responder Bowl, and the Cajuns got the win.

After starting his college coaching career in assistant roles at Clemson and Alabama on the offensive side of the ball, Napier was hired as the Arizona State Offensive Coordinator in 2017 and then became the UL head coach in 2018. Napier has amassed a 35-12 record as head coach of the Ragin' Cajuns and was 2019 Sun Belt Coach of the year and 2020 Sun Belt Conference Champion and won the 2020 First Responder Bowl over Jeff Traylor's UTSA Roadrunners, finishing #15 in the final AP poll. The Tennessee native does not have the Texas ties of the first two candidates, but he does have the resume. His Ragin' Cajuns are currently ranked #24 in the AP poll.

Coastal Carolina Head Coach Jamey Chadwell

When TCU played Coastal Carolina in the 2016 College World Series not once but twice, TCU fans had no idea the Chanticleers had a football team. That is because Coastal Carolina did not play FBS football for the first time until 2017, and by 2020 Jamey Chadwell already had them on the national stage. While Napier may have gotten the best of Traylor in the 2020 First Responder Bowl, it was Chadwell who got the best of Napier on October 14th, 2020 when the Chanticleers got their first win over a ranked opponent, beating the #21 Rajun' Cajuns 30-27 and propelling Coastal Carolina to their first AP top 25 ranking in school history. 2020 would see Jamey Chadwell named

• AP Coach of the Year
• Walter Camp Coach of the Year
• Home Depot Coach of the Year
• Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year
• George Munger Award Winner
• Sun Belt Coach of the Year

Chadwell's Chanticleers currently sit at #21 in the AP poll.

Dark Horse Candidates

• Texas A&M Defensive Coordinator Mike Elko
• Former Boise State and University of Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen 
• Clemson Defensive Coordinator Brent Venables 

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