Coach Q&A: Meet SMU's Tyler Olker

As one of the new faces of the SMU staff, Tyler Olker comes with a lot of experience and a lot of ideas to help SMU football grow.

Olker came to SMU and joined Sonny Dykes' staff in February after being the director of recruiting operations for Kansas. Now with the same title at SMU, Olker's utilizing the days to be a part of the turnaround with the Mustangs, on and off the field.

And that can come in a variety of ways, from conversing with high school reps to building eye-catching graphics -- including this impressive way to define #PonyUpDallas.

A former offensive lineman at Northern Colorado, Olker was a Big Sky all-conference player before transitioning to coaching. He was a student-assistant, then a graduate assistant before finding a home at Kansas.

You can learn more about Olker through his bio, courtesy of SMU football. He is the latest to be featured by The HillTopics in this week's "Coach Q&A" segment.

You're one of the newest faces to the SMU staff. What's it been like for you?

It's been really good, really fun. I think coming in, being the new guy, then two weeks later, you're out for a couple months because of everything that's going on, it's definitely been a change. But I think the guys around here have made the transition a lot easier, the fact that I knew a few people already on staff and had worked with them before.

You came here from Kansas, and before that, you were at Northern Colorado. What's been the biggest difference in where you are now versus where you were then?

We're all pretty organized in what we do. SMU's a little bit smaller of an operation coming from two staffs at KU. The more recent staff, there was a lot of support staff and a lot of people. Here, it is a smaller setup, but I think it creates a little more opportunity to be more organized and more thorough with certain things.

I've worked with [director of player personnel] Jeff Jordan before, and he's probably the sole reason why I'm here. I trust that guy with anything I do. He's one of the smartest human beings I've been around. If he's the one leading us in recruiting, I think we're going to be in a good spot. He's a savant. He's so good and so well-liked with the high school coaches. It's unbelievable some of the stuff he does in his time.

Now that athletes are getting more clearance to return to regular routines, how does this affect what you do and the next steps for SMU football?

We had a really good period -- with the coronavirus, all things considered -- where we've recruited well. We've picked up some commitments, and I think the thing that will be tough moving forward is, with everyone getting back, I think our main focus now is keeping those kids. We've got a couple of guys we're still targeting, but we have to keep the coaches consistently thinking about retaining the guys we have. We have to stay in constant contact with them.

The #PonyUpDallas acronym and graphics ... were those your ideas? How did that all come about?

A lot of them had been used before I got here. I was with [assistant director of creative media] Mark Jenkins, our graphic designer, and we were talking about some things we'd done in the past. He was talking about how [defensive line coach] Randall Joyner had this really good idea, but it never got followed through on. Mark sat down with the creative staff, [chief of staff] Anthony Crespino and a couple other people to put together all of the words that made up the acronym. I put some facts together to go with it and where you could build those graphics off of.

I think it's kind of a cool deal, and obviously, we're still going with it. That goes out to all the recruits, and it'll be something we continue to build on, but I think it's a cool way to show what #PonyUpDallas is and how it links to SMU.

Watching this 2021 class mold into a nationally ranked class, let's hear your thoughts about that?

Coming off a great season last year, I think there's only one way to go with it, and that's to build the best class we can. We had three practices before we went on this break, but in those three practices, we had more talent on campus than I've ever seen. That speaks volumes to Texas high school football and the kids in the proximity of SMU. I think if we can continue to keep kids home, that's even better.

The proximity thing for us is a big deal. We want to get these kids on campus as many times as we can. A lot of these kids have grown up together playing ball, so they all know each other. If you get one, you can get two, and that can get the ball rolling.

Put your futuristic hat on: Where do you see this football program in five years?

In five years, the way things are going right now, I wouldn't be surprised if SMU is a Power 5 program at that point. It's already run like one and funded like one. I can see SMU maybe to the Big 12 if there's some sort of realignment. With all this coronavirus stuff, I could see things going a lot more regional. There would be some teams that probably wouldn't want that, just because of our proximity to Dallas and Fort Worth, but I wouldn't say that would be out of the picture.

I'm not going to say it's for sure going to happen, but I can see it, especially if we continue to have success like we've had. I know Coach Dykes loves this place, and he speaks very highly of it. I know he wants to be in Texas for a long while. This could be a really good spot for a lot of people.

TRACKING THE HILLTOPICS' COACH Q&A SERIES

Feb. 16: Co-offensive coordinator/OLs coach AJ Ricker

Feb. 23: Co-offensive coordinator/QBs coach Garrett Riley

March 1: Defensive coordinator/LBs coach Kevin Kane

March 8: DLs coach Randall Joyner

March 15: TEs coach Josh Martin

March 22: WRs coach David Gru

March 29: Safeties coach Trey Haverty

April 5: RBs coach Ra'Shaad Samples

April 12: CBs Kevin Curtis

April 19: Director of recruiting relations and community engagement Scott Nady

April 26: Assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Chris Brasfield

May 3: Assistant director of football operations Bret Grant

May 10: Offensive analyst Hunter McWilliams

May 17: Assistant director of player personnel Joe Grilz

Today: Director of recruiting operations Tyler Olker