FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU coach Sonny Dykes and his Horned Frogs are already looking ahead and focusing on themselves after an impressive opening victory over North Carolina, even while there is still so much talk elsewhere about how badly Bill Belichick’s team lost in his first game as a college coach.

“We talked a little bit about the importance of moving on and just making it about us,’” Dykes said after TCU resumed practice Wednesday. “Didn’t hear one player talking about the game or any of the sideshow that accompanied the game, or any of that stuff. So I was proud of the guys for moving on and understanding that it’s over and done with.”

That was probably much easier to do in Fort Worth than in Chapel Hill, two days after the Frogs won 48-14 in the opener there that was much-hyped because of the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach working on a college sideline for the first time. And it was on display for all to see as the only game on the holiday Monday.

The Frogs got back to Texas about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, and didn’t necessarily have to rush back to practice with an open date upcoming before their home opener Sept. 13 against Abilene Christian. North Carolina faces instate opponent Charlotte on the road Saturday. But they were on the field for a usual morning practice Wednesday.

“I was a little worried about what we’d be like today, getting up early and practicing,” Dykes said. “We had a really, really good practice. Really attentive, really focused.”

No high-profile repeat

This was the second time in three years TCU went into a season opener as the opponent for the debut of a high-profile coach. The result was much better this time, scoring 41 unanswered points after giving up a game-opening touchdown drive.

In 2023, the Frogs were coming off a 13-win season and a national championship game appearance in Dykes’ debut when they lost their opener 45-42 at home to Colorado in Deion Sanders first game as coach of the Buffaloes.

Sanders is a Pro Football Hall of Fame player who was part of two Super Bowl championships. TCU this time faced the second-winningest coach in NFL history, and the one with the most Super Bowl titles, so Dykes certainly understood all of the conversation and interest going into the game.

“I think for us it was just about us trying to avoid those distractions as best we could,” Dykes said. “I felt like we had a better plan on how to deal with that than we had in ‘23 when we played Deion’s team and so I was proud of our mentality for that.”

Still unranked

Even with everyone able to watch Monday night, the Frogs didn’t make it into this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll. They did go from four poll points in the preseason ranking to 49 after the first games, settling six spots below No. 25 Utah, their Big 12 foe.

Since being No. 3 in the final poll of 2022, the Frogs have made only one Top 25 appearance. That was 17th in the 2023 preseason poll, then they dropped out after losing to Colorado.

“Our program, I think you look at us in ’22 and first-year staff, five-win program, you start 12-0 and win 13 games, beat Michigan the only game that they lost in two years and played for a national championship,” he said. “And it seems like everybody since then has been, ‘Yeah, but’ about TCU football. I think it’s a little bit of the same thing with this.

“You know, bluebloods are bluebloods for a reason, and we’d like to get to the point where people take our program seriously,” he said. “And I think really the only way to do that is to continue to win. And I think that probably we have to win more than other people have to win to catch the attention of our people I think. That’s just the way it is.”

After going 5-7 in 2023, the Frogs rebounded at 9-4 last year while winning their last four games. The victory over UNC extended the Big 12’s longest active wining streak to five.

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