A TCU receiver secures a catch while a UCF defender makes contact during the Horned Frogs’ Big 12 road game in Orlando.

I've been on both sides of this.

I've been the player who screwed up.

I've been the coach trying to figure out why a player screwed up.

One of the most important things I learned along the way is that accountability works a whole lot better when it starts at the top.

TCU lost 21-13 to UCF on Saturday. The Horned Frogs turned the football over four times. They committed 11 penalties for 86 yards. They rushed for 33 yards and lost a conference game in which they outgained UCF 343-266 and possessed the football for almost six minutes longer.

Players made mistakes. Players committed penalties. Players turned the football over.

I'm not interested in pretending otherwise.

But at some point, when the same kinds of mistakes keep showing up, I stop asking only what the players need to fix.

I start looking at the guy responsible for making sure they get fixed.

And that's where I have a problem with what I'm hearing from Sonny Dykes.

After TCU lost to North Carolina to begin this season, Dykes was asked what the Frogs could do differently after being penalized 11 times.

"Not have ACC officials."

Maybe he was right to be frustrated.

Maybe some of those calls were bad.

I played enough football to know officials miss calls. I've been part of games where everybody on the sideline knew a call was wrong. Coaches get frustrated. Players get frustrated. Sometimes the officials deserve criticism.

But here's what I've also learned.

The official doesn't coach your football team.

So when your team gets penalized 11 times in a loss, then comes back a few weeks later and gets penalized 11 more times in another loss, we aren't talking about one officiating crew anymore.

We're talking about a football team that hasn't corrected a problem.

That's even more concerning to me because the first few weeks of a season are usually when a team should be making some of its biggest improvements. Coaches finally have real game film. Players have seen what works and what doesn't. Problems have been exposed, and now you get the opportunity to correct them.

When the same problems keep showing up, that's when I start looking beyond the player who made the mistake.

And ultimately, Sonny Dykes has to own it.

Not because he committed the penalties.

Not because he fumbled the football.

Not because he threw the interceptions.

Because he's the head coach.

Players don't need protection from accountability.

Everything you do on a football field is being watched. Your position coach sees it. Your coordinator sees it. The head coach sees it. Then you walk into a meeting room, turn on the film and see it again.

Your mistake gets identified, analyzed and corrected until everybody in that room understands what went wrong and why.

When you jump offsides, you know it.

When you miss an assignment, you know it.

When you turn the football over, you know it.

Trust me, nobody has to explain to the quarterback that an interception was bad. By the time he gets to the sideline, he's already replayed it in his head.

Then he gets to watch it again in the meeting room.

That's why I believe the head coach has a different responsibility when he steps in front of the cameras.

Hold him accountable in the meeting room.

Make him watch the mistake until he understands exactly why it happened and how to keep it from happening again.

But when the head coach walks in front of the cameras, he's no longer speaking only for that player.

He's speaking for the entire program.

His job isn't to protect players from accountability. They're going to get plenty of that inside the building.

His job is to show them what accountability looks like from the top.

Players own their mistakes.

Head coaches own the standard that keeps producing them.

One penalty can be a player's mistake.

A turnover can be a player's mistake.

A missed assignment can be a player's mistake.

But when those things become patterns, coaching enters the conversation.

TCU had 11 penalties against North Carolina.

Now it has 11 penalties against UCF.

Saturday, the Frogs also turned the football over four times.

That's 22 penalties in TCU's two losses this season.

At what point do we stop treating those things like isolated mistakes and start asking why they keep happening?

That's not me saying Sonny Dykes should take the blame every time a player does something wrong.

Football doesn't work that way.

Players have responsibilities. Position coaches have responsibilities. Coordinators have responsibilities.

But there is only one person responsible for the entire operation.

That's why they call him the head coach.

I don't want to pretend Dykes has never accepted responsibility.

After TCU got embarrassed by Georgia in the national championship game, Dykes said the program needed to look in the mirror.

Then he said something every head coach should understand:

"It all starts with me and works down from there."

After the loss to SMU in 2024, he said something similar. He talked about players needing to take ownership, but he also acknowledged that a lot of it started with him.

After the UCF loss Saturday, Dykes said he was surprised by the performance.

"I didn't see it coming," he said. "I thought we would play better."

Then, when he was asked to elaborate, Dykes said something that caught my attention.

"Yeah, probably should have, you know, seen it coming."

That's the part that sticks with me.

Because by this point, some of it had already shown up.

The penalties had already shown up. The self-inflicted mistakes had already shown up. TCU had already lost a game because it couldn't get out of its own way.

So if the head coach says he probably should have seen it coming, I think it's fair to ask why those warning signs hadn't already become corrections.

But Sonny knows what accountability from the head coach sounds like.

That's why I'm listening for it now.

Because this isn't about whether a coach knows the right words.

It's about whether the standard remains the same when the same problems keep showing up.

There's something powerful that happens inside a football team when the person with the most authority accepts the most responsibility.

It takes away everybody else's excuse.

If the head coach stands up and says, "This starts with me. We weren't good enough. I have to coach it better," what's the linebacker going to say?

What's the quarterback going to say?

What's the offensive line going to say?

Everybody else has to look in the mirror too.

Accountability isn't taking blame for things you didn't do.

It's accepting responsibility for the things you're responsible for changing.

That's a major difference.

Sonny Dykes didn't commit 11 penalties Saturday.

But he's responsible for coaching a football team that doesn't commit 11 penalties.

Frogs had every opportunity to go ahead but penalties kept them out of the endzone. They settle for a FG and trail by 1 at the end of the 3rd. We need a spark.

He didn't turn the ball over four times.

But he's responsible for creating a program where protecting the football is non-negotiable.

He didn't miss the blocks that contributed to TCU rushing for 33 yards.

But he's responsible for figuring out why his football team couldn't run the football and getting it fixed.

That's what being the head coach means.

You don't have to personally make the mistake for the problem to belong to you.

The Frogs have lost two games in which they were penalized 11 times.

They just lost a game where they outgained their opponent, held UCF to 266 yards and possessed the football longer.

The official TCU-UCF box score makes the frustration even clearer.

That should bother everybody in that building.

Because those are the games that make you look in the mirror.

If the other team is simply better than you, sometimes you shake their hand and go back to work.

Thirty-three rushing yards.

And when the evidence starts repeating itself, somebody has to own it.

I've heard Sonny Dykes criticize officials.

I've heard him explain what players didn't do well enough.

Some of those explanations may be completely accurate.

But that's not what I'm listening for anymore.

I'm listening for what comes before all of that.

We have to prepare them better.

Not because those words magically fix anything.

Because that's where accountability begins.

Then you walk back into the building and prove you meant them.

Hold players accountable.

Hold assistants accountable.

Hold coordinators accountable.

And before you do any of that, hold yourself accountable.

That's the standard I'd expect from the players.

It's the standard I'd expect from my assistant coaches.

And if I'm the head coach, it damn sure has to be the standard I expect from myself.

TCU's players have plenty to fix.

Nobody should excuse them from that.

But when mistakes stop being isolated and start becoming patterns, the conversation has to move higher.

Coordinators own their units.

The head coach owns the program.

OMG, please do not let this be a sign

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