TCU’s Sonny Dykes Selected Walter Camp 2022 FBS Coach of Year

Sonny Dykes, head coach of the TCU Horned Frogs, is the Walter Camp 2022 Football Bowl Subdivision Coach of Year.  

The Walter Camp Coach of Year is selected by the nation’s 131 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors.  Dykes is the second coach from TCU (Gary Patterson, 2009 and 2014) and the 11th from the Big 12 Conference to earn the award.  

No. 3 TCU (12-1) will face second-ranked Michigan in the College Football Playoff Semifinals in Glendale, Ariz., on Dec. 31.   TCU was picked to finish seventh in the preseason Big 12 poll.

Dykes was the unanimous Big 12 Coach of Year and twenty-one TCU football players received All-Big 12 recognition in voting by the conference head coaches.  TCU quarterback Max Duggan was a Walter Camp Player of Year finalist, and offensive lineman Steve Avila was a First Team Walter Camp All-America selection.


Dykes was introduced as TCU’s head football coach on Nov. 30, 2021.   Dykes arrived at TCU after serving the last four seasons as head coach at SMU, where he completed one of the more remarkable turnarounds in college football. Behind an offense that consistently ranked among the nation’s best, Dykes guided SMU to 19 weeks in the national top 25 and three consecutive winning seasons for the first time since the mid-1980s.

Before becoming SMU’s head coach, he served as an offensive analyst for TCU in 2017. He was instrumental in the Horned Frogs posting an 11-3 record, reaching the Big 12 Championship Game and finishing with a No. 9 national ranking.

Dykes began his collegiate coaching career with a two-year stint (1995-96) at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas. He also was a baseball assistant at Monahans High School in Texas in 1994 and a football assistant at Richardson’s J.J. Pearce High School in 1995.  

Prior to becoming a head coach, Dykes worked as an assistant in the Pac-12, Big 12 and SEC under Mike Stoops (Arizona), Mike Leach (Texas Tech) and Hal Mumme (Kentucky).    In addition to his stint at SMU, Dykes served as a head coach at Louisiana Tech (2010-12) and California (2013-16).  

Born in Big Spring, Texas, Dykes received his bachelor’s degree in history from Texas Tech in 1993 and was a member of the Red Raiders baseball team for two seasons. He and his wife, Kate, have two daughters, Ally and Charlie, and a son, Daniel.

Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation (www.waltercamp.org,@WalterCampFF) – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team. 

The Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association’s website, www.ncfaa.org

Walter Camp Coaches of the Year

2022 – Sonny Dykes, TCU

2021 – Luke Fickell, Cincinnati

2020 – Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina

2019 – Ed Orgeron, LSU

2018 – Nick Saban, Alabama

2017 – Mark Richt, Miami

2016 – Mike MacIntyre, Colorado

2015 – Dabo Swinney, Clemson

2014 – Gary Patterson, TCU

2013 – David Cutcliffe, Duke

2012 – Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

2011 – Les Miles, LSU

2010 – Chip Kelly, Oregon

2009 – Gary Patterson, TCU

2008 – Nick Saban, Alabama

2007 – Mark Mangino, Kansas

2006 – Greg Schiano, Rutgers

2005 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

2004 – Tommy Tuberville, Auburn

2003 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

2002 – Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

2001 – Ralph Friedgen, Maryland

2000 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

1999 – Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech

1998 – Bill Synder, Kansas State

1997 – Lloyd Carr, Michigan

1996 – Bruce Snyder, Arizona State

1995 – Gary Barnett, Northwestern

1994 – Joe Paterno, Penn State 1993 – Terry Bowden, Auburn

1992 – Gene Stallings, Alabama

1991 – Bobby Bowden, Florida State

1990 – Bobby Ross, Georgia Tech

1989 – Bill McCartney, Colorado

1988 – Don Nehlen, West Virginia

1987 – Dick MacPherson, Syracuse

1986 – Jimmy Johnson, Miami

1985 – Fisher DeBerry, Air Force

1984 – Joe Morrison, South Carolina

1983 – Mike White, Illinois

1982 – Jerry Stovall, Louisiana State

1981 – Jackie Sherrill, Pittsburgh

1980 – Vince Dooley, Georgia

1979 – John Mackovic, Wake Forest

1978 – Warren Powers, Missouri

1977 – Lou Holtz, Arkansas

1976 – Frank R. Burns, Rutgers

1975 – Frank Kush, Arizona State

1974 – Barry Switzer, Oklahoma

1973 – Johnny Majors, Pittsburgh

1972 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

1971 – Bob Devaney, Nebraska

1970 – Bob Blackman, Dartmouth

1969 – Bo Schembechler, Michigan

1968 – Woody Hayes, Ohio State

1967 – John Pont, Indiana

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