Cal Rivals Publisher Trace Travers answered our questions about Sonny Dykes from his time as the Golden Bears' head coach. Trace worked for the team as a student when Dykes first arrived took over the program and covered him for Rivals through his firing in 2016.
Join the conversation on the Hilltopics Premium Message Boards.
1. What is Dykes' coaching style with the players? How easy do you think it will be for him to win over the current players?
From what I saw at Cal, Dykes was cordial with the players and his door was open, but he wasn't the most outgoing with everyone. He wanted to coach football, and the hope would be that since his time at Cal, he has learned that he has to be more connected. As far as discipline goes, that goes more toward the strength and conditioning coaches he'll hire. As far as winning over current players, it can be hit and miss. Unlike at Cal back in 2013, SMU has more of a structure to work with, thanks to Chad Morris. When he was brought in at Cal, the Bears had academic issues that needed solving, and a number of players transferred out. I don't think the same thing will happen at SMU thanks to that base. I don't foresee it being the easiest thing for him to, but I think it'll depend on who he hires to fill out his staff.
2. How did Dykes' do with recruiting at Cal?
Some good, some bad. He recruited a ton of good DBs that are playing well for the Bears now, along with some solid receivers. They had enough of an eye for lower rated guys that are currently making an impact. Dykes also left the Bears with a ton of holes. Recruiting on the line and the front seven was lacking. He got Jared Goff thanks to the previous staff, but didn't have any QB he recruited play much of a role. He recruited the South well, doing well in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Georgia, thanks to his ties to Texas and his experience there, but struggled recruiting in Northern California and other areas where Cal had been historically successful. His recruiting of the South will be much more welcomed at SMU.
3. In your opinion, where did he go wrong during his four seasons?
The wandering eye he had for jobs in Texas and elsewhere was probably the biggest part of it. The lack of a defense that the Bears had was a smaller, yet significant part. Then there's not recruiting the Bay Area well, and all these things, along with not winning consistently, led to fewer season ticket holders and donor apathy. The wandering eye is solved now that he's in Texas, and he can certainly recruit in the south. Getting a solid defensive staff is going to be his issue, because he really didn't pay too much attention to the defense during his time at Cal.
4. How extensive is Dykes' coaching tree and how could he use it for his staff?
With Sonny, he's from the Hal Mumme tree, the Mike Leach tree, and there's plenty of people he could give a call to, at least on the offensive side of the ball. There's guys at Washington State, under Leach (who he coached for at Texas Tech), who he could bring in. There's guys at West Virginia, with Dana Holgorsen (they were co-OCs at Tech in 05-06) and Jake Spavital (his OC last year), that he can bring in. Defensively, I wouldn't be surprised to see him keep whatever staff he can there, just based on the fact that his defensive coordinators at Cal had very little success.
5. What was Dykes' offensive/defensive strategy at Cal and did he have the talent to pull that off effectively or did he try to make players fit his system?
Defensively, he was pretty hands off. He's either going to need to hire a good defensive coordinator who will be able to handle having full control of the defense, or he's going to need to retain the defensive staff in place if he can.
Offensively, there's going to be a lot of Air Raid concepts, where he's going to recruit to fit the system, while there will be some molding to make current guys to fit in. In Texas, it appears that a lot of high school teams have gone to that sort of spread-style that Dykes runs, so there's plenty of talent to work with in that regard. He likes to play fast, likes to go for it on fourth down in plus territory, and occasionally will punt with the QB depending on the situation. Cal had the talent to make this work offensively (with 2 QBs, 2 RBs and 7 WRs making it to the NFL) , but defensively it didn't work, as they didn't recruit well up front and they didn't coach guys up well enough in that regard. It'll really depend on the staff he puts together on that side of the ball.
