Sonny Dykes jokes about anticipated season opener vs. Bill Belichick, North Carolina: 'Bad scheduling'

In 2023, fresh off a run to the national championship, Sonny Dykes and TCU opened the season against Colorado. That turned out to be Deion Sanders’ first game as CU’s head coach – and the Buffaloes pulled off the victory in Fort Worth.

This season, the Horned Frogs will have another highly anticipated season opener. They will head to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina – now coached by seven-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick.

It’s a familiar feeling for Dykes. In fact, he had jokes about going up against another high-profile coach in the first game of the year.

“Not sure how we pulled that off,” Dykes said with a laugh while speaking with ESPN’s Andrea Adelson at the Big 12 spring meetings. “It’s called bad scheduling.”

The 2023 matchup against Colorado turned into a crazy game as TCU wound up falling to the Buffaloes 45-42. That signaled the start of the Coach Prime era in Boulder before the program re-joined the Big 12 to become conference foes with the Horned Frogs.

Now, Dykes and TCU will play in another big-time opener – one that received an honorable mention in On3’s Pete Nakos’ top non-conference games of the season. North Carolina made quite the splash by landing Belichick, the architect of the New England Patriots’ dynasty, for his first-ever college head coaching role. This time around, Dykes is hoping for a different outcome.

“Hopefully we’ll fare better than we did last time,” Dykes said. “We didn’t play well last time, but we’ve got a second chance.”

Much like when Sanders took over at Colorado, Belichick will have a slew of new faces on the roster at North Carolina. The Tar Heels have 42 players coming in via the transfer portal, headlined by former Washington cornerback Thaddeus Dixon. He came in as the No. 33 overall player in the On3 Industry Transfer Rankings and is one of three Top-100 transfers heading to Chapel Hill. UNC’s transfer class ranks No. 8 in the nation, according to the On3 Team Transfer Portal Index.

Former South Alabama quarterback Gio Lopez is also preparing to suit up for North Carolina after coming in as the No. 18-ranked quarterback in the On3 Industry Transfer Rankings. He completed 66% of his passes for 2,559 yards and 18 touchdowns last season, and appears in line to be Belichick’s first starting quarterback at UNC.

The stage is set for Sonny Dykes’ second go-round against a high-profile coach in a season opener. TCU vs. North Carolina will kick off in primetime on a Monday night with an 8 p.m. ET kickoff on Sept. 1.