TCU Horned Frogs College Football Postgame Quote, 12/31/2022

COACH DYKES: Man, couldn’t be more proud of these guys sitting up here and the rest of our team. I mean, what a hell of a football game.

It was a hard-fought game. I thought both teams really played hard. Really proud of these guys. We talked about all week leading up to the game how important it would be to play physical. And I thought we were definitely the most physical team on the field tonight.

Our ability to run the ball, we almost outrushed Michigan for 100 yards. Our ability to stop the run, I think, was the difference in the ballgame. Obviously made some big plays defensively; scored two touchdowns. That was critical.

Held them out a couple times to get inside the 5-yard line a couple times early and came away with no points. What this group did tonight is what they’ve done all year. They just played really tough football, hard-nosed football, believed in each other, believed in their teammates, and just found a way to overcome and persevere.

It’s kind of what we’ve done all year. We did it tonight. That’s who we are. That’s our football team. And we look forward to teeing it up again in ten days and having a chance to win a national championship.

Max, can you describe the emotions right now compared to after the Big 12 title game?

MAX DUGGAN: Yeah, this one is a little bit better. (Laughter) Feeling a little bit better after this one.

I think after that Big 12 championship, I think that stung for everybody. I think a lot of people were emotional, because you get so close to a league championship.

And then for us to battle back and kind of avenge that loss and be able to win this one tonight against a great opponent and have the opportunity to go play for a national championship, I think just means so much to the guys up here, the guys in the locker room, our coaching staff, our fans, our university. I think that’s the biggest thing.

We spent a lot of this week talking about the conferences and how you guys matched up. Did this one feel like an old-school Big 12 game?

COACH DYKES: In some ways it does. It’s funny, we talked to the team just kind of in pregame about the importance of confidence and where confidence comes from. And these guys have epitomized that all year.

You look at this game, there were so many momentum swings. It seemed like two or three different times, Michigan had all the momentum, and then somebody made a play. Quentin [Johnston] made that big touchdown play and Max [Duggan] made a hell of a throw.

We had defensive stops when we needed. It was one of those things where every time we started to get on our heels a little bit defensively, all of a sudden there would be a three-and-out. We would stop them three-and-out, get the ball back, and the offense would score and put a little distance between us and Michigan.

It was, it was kind of an old-fashioned Big 12 shootout in some ways. But, like I said, we came out with a very physical mindset. It was a physical football game. And as I said earlier, we were the most physical team on the field tonight, and I think that was easy to see.

Dee, just a quick follow-up. You had a tremendous game tonight. Was it tiresome for you guys during the week just hearing so much about the questions about whether or not you guys could match up to Michigan’s physicality?

DEE WINTERS: I definitely would say, we used it as a little bit of a motivation. We feel like the Big 12 is a very physical conference. We just wanted to come out and showcase what the Big 12 is all about.

Coach, you lost Kendre Miller early in the third quarter to an injury and then Emari Demercado stepped in and had a really big game. Talk about his performance tonight and what that meant to you guys getting the victory.

COACH DYKES: That’s been what we’ve been all year. Somebody goes down, somebody else steps in and picks it up. Emari is just that kind of player. He’s one of those guys that has been here a long time. He’s been through a lot, a lot of highs, a lot of lows.

He’s one of those guys that’s ready every week. When he gets the opportunity, he always makes the most of it. I’m not surprised that he did what he did tonight because that’s what he’s done all year when he gets an opportunity.

Hate to see Kendre go down with an injury. We’ll obviously assess that and hopefully he’ll be ready to play a week from Monday. But couldn’t be more proud of Emari and what he did and what he’s done all year.

Quentin, after the Big 12 title game, you talked about after the fumble, you needed to set up going forward for the Frogs. Talk about your performance today, and did you feel like it kind of needed to be your moment to help your team get the win today?

QUENTIN JOHNSTON: Just kind of bouncing back off the Big 12 game. Like Max [Duggan] said, obviously that stung, and I feel like I could have got some more bigger plays that possibly could have helped us win that game.

Like you said, the fumble obviously wasn’t my best highlight. I kind of dwelled on it for a minute. But as soon as I heard our name called for the College Football Playoffs, I kind of turned that loss into a lesson, as well as my teammates.

Just kind of shook that game off, shook the fumble off, and anything else I may have done bad, I just looked forward to the next game.

COACH DYKES: I want to add something to that, too. Our players and coaches, I think we did a really good job coming off of the Kansas State loss of looking in the mirror and saying, hey, look what can we do better?

That’s what I love about this group. No one ever blames anybody else. No one points fingers. The offense doesn’t blame the defense. The defense doesn’t blame the offense. There’s none of that on this football team. We’re all in this thing together.

The great thing about it is when somebody makes a mistake, which they’re going to inevitably make during the football game, everybody on the sideline is telling them to move on. Put it behind them. And that’s what makes this group so special.

I thought our coaching staff did a great job. There were some issues in the red zone, both defensively and offensively against Kansas State. Felt like we addressed those and made some corrections, and I think it showed up today.

So, again, I think all those things, when you play a team like Michigan and a team that’s as evenly matched as these two teams were, you’ve got to do a great job in the red zone, both offensively and defensively. And we did that today.

Coach Dykes and Max Duggan, we saw a lot of these crazy three-, four-play swings. It was really just crazy to watch. What do you think it says about the poise of your team to be able to withstand some of those major three-, four-play swings, particularly late in the third quarter, and to be able to still maintain a leading position throughout?

MAX DUGGAN: I think momentum is so big in college football. Whoever has it, it’s such a big advantage.

I think what Coach Dykes and our strength coach, Coach Kaz [Kazadi] does so well is preaching next play. If you walked up and down our sideline you are going to hear everybody on the sideline saying “next play.”

Continuing to fight, continuing to believe, not worrying about what that last play was, whether it was a successful play, whether it was a bad play ‚Äì just playing that next play. I think that’s kind of our mindset, which helped us kind of fight through some of the momentum swings.

COACH DYKES: I’ll add to that. I think it was crazy. I mean, it really was. It felt like there were about two series there we got on our heels a little bit defensively. You’ve got to give our players a ton of credit. They got on the sideline and got settled down. Our coaching staff, I thought, made some adjustments.

The guys just got refocused and took the field with the right mentality and went out and started making plays again.

It was a very unusual game. The last couple of minutes of the third quarter seemed like it lasted about an hour. It was wild, just big play after big play and big play, momentum swing.

But the thing we did over and over and over again was answer. When we had to, we put distance between us and them repeatedly. And that was the key to the ballgame.

Max, this is a lot of firsts for this team. First time College Football Playoff. First team from Texas. First time TCU is playing for national title since the 1930s. When you hear all those things, what goes through your mind, especially as a leader of this team, when all those things are put in front of you?

MAX DUGGAN: It means a lot. I think there’s been so many great teams that have come through and built this program up. There’s probably too many to name. They did a lot to get this program to where we’re at. And this means a lot to those guys, to our university, our fans, that have continued to support us, have continued to have our backs.

Just happy for the guys in this locker room. A lot of guys have been through a lot of stuff ‚Äì some lows, some failures, things of that sort. But guys keep fighting. We’re happy for this coaching staff that came in and believed in us and put us in spots to be successful. There’s a lot of pride amongst TCU and this university.

Coach, you said before the game that you were going to think about Coach [Mike] Leach before this one kicked off. With the way that game played out, with all those points being scored like that, what do you think Coach Leach would have said about that game?

COACH DYKES: He probably would have gotten a kick out of it, yeah.

It’s funny, you get into a game like this. Look, this is all of our lives. It’s these football players’ lives, the coaching staffs’ lives. It’s what we do. We pour our heart and soul into this. Everybody up here makes a ton of sacrifices.

You put so much in, you get a little emotional sometimes. And there was a time there, right when we took a knee, where I thought about my dad (Spike Dykes), thought about Coach Leach.

It’s pretty special when you can win one of these games. And you certainly wish you could share it with them. You feel their presence, you really do.

And it was, like you said, an old-fashioned shootout, and something he would have gotten a kick out of, for sure.

Quentin, when Michigan cut it to three at that third-and-seven huge catch, can you talk about what was running through your mind?

QUENTIN JOHNSTON: I think Max [Duggan] summed it up with Coach Kaz [Kazadi] and the whole strength and conditioning coordinators, up and down the sidelines every five seconds talking about “next play, next play, next play.”

Once you hear that, after a while, it’s like, all right, next play. Like the play that just happened, even if it was like he said, a real bad play, just kind of get a tendency to shake it off right then and there. Obviously we will come revisit it and stuff after the game, on film.

But in that moment, especially with a close game like that, you really have no time to dwell on what happened. If you stay in the shadow of that last play, it affects the plays following that. Just staying level-headed through the course of the game.

Max, given how crazy this game was, and now you got to go play the biggest game of your career next week, how long do you give yourself to enjoy this game? And how soon do you plan on getting on to that one?

MAX DUGGAN: This is a big win. We’re going to celebrate it tonight as a team and as a fan base. But we know that we got a bigger one coming up, and that’s the one we really want.

Right when we get on the flight back to Fort Worth is when our preparation starts. And I think that’s where our minds are at. We’re going to celebrate it. Obviously, we’re excited, but we know we got a big one coming up.

Michigan seemed very confident coming into this game tonight. Curious as a team or as a staff, if you noticed it? Is that something you spoke about as a group, if you needed that as motivation?

COACH DYKES: You know what’s funny? That kind of stuff hasn’t really bothered us. We said it a million times, but, look, we were picked seventh in the preseason poll in the Big 12. So at some point, you kind of just quit listening to what everybody says, and it doesn’t really affect you.

I think that’s what’s been so great about these guys. They have kept a really steady mindset from the beginning. Early on, we were told how bad we were. As we got a little better, we were told we could be pretty good. Then all of a sudden, how great we were and all that stuff.

Our guys never changed, you know what I mean? They didn’t change personally. Nobody all of a sudden became a tough person to deal with. Everybody’s just kept a great mindset.

Look, I heard it. It frustrated me. Again, I believe in our players. Look, I think we’re a physical, tough-minded football team. It bothered me that we heard all week about how we were going to get lined up and run through and all that stuff. And I’m sure these guys were extra motivated.

But at the same time, look, they do their jobs. They do it with great pride. They prepared incredibly well. We had three weeks of outstanding practices. I thought we had a really good plan coming to the bowl site and handling it the way we handled it. These guys were the biggest part of that.

We didn’t have a player miss curfew. We didn’t have anybody late to anything. They had a business mentality when we got here to Phoenix and it carried over to the game.

Coach, I know everything is calculated and analytics poured over and all that. On that third and 7 in the fourth quarter, you guys didn’t take a shot in the end zone. Kind of looks like you were going to kick a field goal. What was the thought behind that at that point?

COACH DYKES: The thought was we were hoping to get it down to fourth and 2 or 3 and go for it. That was the idea.

On second thought, having done that, probably didn’t turn out great. We would do it differently if we had a chance to do it over again. That was the mentality. Look, let’s cut it down to fourth and three, or fourth and four, and then we felt like we had a better shot of going for it. We lost a yard, so all of a sudden it turned into a field goal.

A field goal is big because instead of being up three, we’re up six, and that changed Michigan’s mentality completely when they got the ball back at the end of the game. It’s such a different approach when you have to score a touchdown than if you have to kick a field goal.

We felt like every point mattered in this game, and it turned out it did. It wasn’t an ideal exchange the way it went down. But, again, I think it turned out the way it needed to.

Did you guys feel disrespected? Some of the guys in the auxiliary room, like Johnny [Hodges] and Emari [Demercado] talked about how you had heard that Michigan players said “are they in the Big 12,” stuff like that? Did that motivate you guys?

DEE WINTERS: I definitely think that it motivated us. We heard all week that they were going to out-physical us. I think, like you said, it just gave us a little bit of motivation. So I think the guys handled it well during practicing and were very physical, and it showcased tonight.

QUENTIN JOHNSTON: I’ve been hearing stuff like that as long as I can remember. But at the end of the day, that’s a part of it. That’s a part of good competition, and that’s what makes it on the field.

Me personally, I don’t really like to get caught up in the social media, he-said, she-said stuff like that, because at the end of the day, we got a job to do and that’s playing football.

In big games like this, I tend to stay off social media, just going on people’s pages looking about what they’re talking about, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if they can’t perform on the field.

COACH DYKES: And let me just say this, we know we’re going to hear it again. It’s not going to stop now. You know what I’m saying? We’re going to play again in ten days, and we’re going to hear the same crap for ten days that we heard leading up to this ballgame.

We got to do what we did this game. We’ve got to answer that criticism and show up and do what we’re supposed to do.

If we think that’s going away, I think you guys all know that’s not. That’s just the way it is.

Coach, you are a guy that has an appreciation for history. TCU being sort of left out of the conference and having to find its way back and then getting here and then being left out in 2014. You get in and you win. Sort of what does that mean in the grand scheme of things?

COACH DYKES: I think it validates the committee. What’s great about college football is every single game matters. You know what I mean? There’s no other sport that’s like it. And that’s why people pour so much into games in September and so much into games in October and so much into games in November, is because they all mean something. They are all really, really important. That’s what makes this sport great.

And in order to run through and win 13 games like this team has done, I mean, it takes an incredible amount of maturity and focus. You can’t slip up. You’ve got to prepare every week, and you’ve got to give your best every single time you take the field because if you don’t, you’re going to get beat.

And that’s what this group figured out all year, is how to do that. How to do it for 14 weeks, going into now 15 weeks. And just showing up, working hard, preparing.

But as far as history goes, I mean, look, this is a special team. I don’t know that ‚Äì you go back and you look at teams that have played for national championships, typically they are not picked seventh in their conference.

Again, that’s a credit to these guys. They never listened. They always believed. They rolled their sleeves up, they went to work every day, and they care about each other. They knew if they did things the right way something good would happen and it has.

You talked about the end of the third quarter, those final few minutes seemed like an hour. How long did that last play when y’all stopped them on fourth down and they were reviewing, what was that feeling like? When did you kind of allow yourself to start celebrating?

COACH DYKES: I probably celebrated a little too soon, honestly. I didn’t see the flag come in. I certainly didn’t anticipate that that was going to get reviewed for targeting.

That sequence of events was weird because they snapped the ball. The quarterback wasn’t ready. I wasn’t sure if his knee was down before the forward pass took place. There was just a lot of stuff that they had to sort through.

At the end of the day, you got to give officials credit. They got it right. They got the call right. And it was a hell of a way to end a ballgame, I know that. There was a lot of uncertainty about what happened.

But it did seem like a while. I don’t know how long it took, but it certainly seemed like it took about an hour to me.

You are a Texan. You remember what TCU was like 20, 25 years ago. There’s a handful of us in this room that remember it, too. Can you speak to what a win like this means to TCU?

COACH DYKES: We say it all the time, it’s credibility. You know what I mean? When you are a small private school, you got to fight for it. It’s just the way it is.

Michigan’s got 750,000 alumni. We got 75,000, whatever it is. And that’s just the way it is.

I mean, you always have to fight for credibility. It’s part of the deal. It’s part of what makes TCU great, though, is that they roll their sleeves up, they go to work, they figure out a way to do it. It’s not only the football team. It’s the entire university. It’s every athletic program at the university. That’s why there’s so much excellence at the place.

I mean, look around at the other teams, other sports and the other teams that represent TCU, and what they do and how they compete. I think we all have a chip on our shoulder. It’s part of the Horned Frog way. It’s just the way. And, again, that’s what makes the place special.

It’s what makes these guys special, is they show up, they go to work, they keep grinding, and nothing ever bothers them. They do, they carry a chip on their shoulder every day and it motivates all of us. I see it as a positive.