Why TCU football coach Sonny Dykes expects the Horned Frogs to take a jump defensively

TCU coach Sonny Dykes is expecting big things on defense after the unit showed modest improvement under Joe Gillespie last season. The national championship blowout to Georgia skews some of TCU’s defensive stats, but it was clear the Horned Frogs made strides. The upcoming season will be about if the defense can go from serviceable to potentially elite. “I think we’ll take a big step defensively,” Dykes said on Wednesday at Big 12 media days. “I think when you look at Joe Gillespie and his track record, I think his defenses, they get better. They just — the longer he’s there, the better the players understand what they’re doing defensively, the better he can do a lot of the little nuances things that make his defense different and unique and special.” It took awhile for the defense to adjust to 3-3-5 last season, but there moments like the game against Texas that showed what the defense is capable of when executed to its maximum potential. The Horned Frogs bring back seven starters on defense plus key reserve Shad Banks, who started in the Big 12 championship against Kansas State. Experience is crucial for success in college football and on the defensive side of the ball TCU has plenty of it. “I think our guys have a lot of confidence in the scheme and the technique. We’ve got a lot of depth,” Dykes said. Depth would be something the second-year head coach touched on numerous times Wednesday and for good reason. Remember that the back seven of TCU’s defense last year struggled with injuries. The entire reserve linebacker group outside of Banks suffered lengthy or season-ending injuries. “We played really most of the season with only four scholarship linebackers,” Dykes said. “We just had a lot of injuries and we were hurt, so that took a special way of adapting and adjusting the way we practiced, to preparation, to how we played guys in games, to taking guys off of special teams, everything we could do to keep that unit successful.” In the secondary there was a lack of bodies that could be trusted in game action outside of the starters at safety and corner. “We really were two deep at corner last year,” Dykes said. “The great thing about this group this year, we feel like we’re seven or eight deep at corner,feel like we’re eight or nine deep at linebacker,feel like we’re 10 deep on the defensive front. “So those things are all going to allow us to do different things defensively, and take that next step.” The spring offered an early glimpse at that depth like at cornerback. Potential All-American Josh Newton missed the spring with a toe injury, but there wasn’t a big drop off in production thanks to Florida transfer Avery Helm and junior college transfer Mason White and Channing Canada. At linebacker Jamoi Hodge was also held out of practice due to an injury and Johnny Hodges was limited in the back half as well, but that allowed true freshman Jonathan Bax to shine and allowed Banks to make a jump of his own as he looked like the defense’s best player at times. That’s not to mention key reserves like Marcel Brooks and Thomas Armstrong who are close to coming back from last year’s injuries. On the defensive line, the Horned Frogs just have more bodies, both young and old. True freshman defensive lineman Markis Deal has already caught Dykes’ attention in the preseason while Missouri State transfer Tico Brown and East Carolina transfer Rick D’Abreu should provide even more depth. Dykes’ background in offense is well documented, but he has a clear understanding of how important defense will be for the program to sustain it’s momentum from last season. “If you want to be a great program consistently, it all begins by playing great defense,” Dykes said. “I think it doesn’t matter if it’s seventh grade football or the NFL, teams that play great defense and teams that can run the football have had a history of winning football games and doing it over the long haul.” Shootouts are entertaining for fans, but stressful for coaches and his time at California and SMU let Dykes know that’s not a sustainable way to win at a high level. “I’ve been places where maybe our team wasn’t built that way and we’ve had to out-score people, which can be a little bit tedious,” Dykes said. Forget winning 45-42 or 38-34, Dykes would be more than comfortable with more games like last year against the Longhorns when TCU shut down an offense that featured potentially four first round draft picks. The nucleus of that performance is back with more talent to back them up. “We have a lot of speed,” Dykes said. “The group is physical, I think they’re good tacklers. They communicate well. All the things that good defenses do,we have the makings of getting there. My hope is sooner than later, we become a dominant defensive football team.”