SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A day before facing off in a College Football Playoff semifinal, Texas Christian University’s Sonny Dykes and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh talked fondly about the fathers they followed into coaching and a time when they might have shared more than a stage for one final pregame news conference.
Dykes recalled returning home after midnight from a high school football game in West Texas to find his dad, Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes, having a drink with Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum. The Aggies were in town to play the Red Raiders the next day.
“So in that spirit, I was going to invite Coach Harbaugh to come by the hotel room tonight and see if he wanted to open up a bottle of bourbon and reminisce a little bit,” Dykes said Friday.
Replied Harbaugh: “That’s past my bedtime.”
No. 2 Michigan (13-0) and No. 3 TCU (12-1) meet for the first time Saturday at the Fiesta Bowl, a matchup of one of college football’s bluest blue bloods and the most unlikely team ever to make the four-team playoff since its inception in the 2014 season. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.