Report: Baylor to pursue Cal’s Sonny Dykes
Sonny Dykes is getting a lot of attention for a coach who has a losing record the past four seasons. The latest report says Baylor is going to pursue the current Cal coach.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach said Tuesday night that Baylor officials are expected to focus their search on Dykes. Baylor is in search of a new coach after Art Briles was dismissed following the sexual assault scandal at the school and Jim Grobe stepped down following his season as head coach. The program initially negotiated with SMU’s Chad Morris, but talks hit a snag.
Dykes’ name has also come up in relation to both the Baylor and Houston jobs because of his Texas ties. His father is legendary former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes.
Dykes runs the “Air Raid” offense, which helped his Louisiana Tech teams go 22-15 in three seasons from 2010-2012. But Dykes found the Pac-12 to be more challenging, as he went 1-11 in his first season on the job at Cal before going 5-7 in his second season, as well as this current season. The Golden Bears did go 8-5 last season with No. 1 pick Jared Goff at QB.
Dykes’ offenses — especially the passing game — tends to rank towards the top of college football, but the counter to that is that his defenses are frequently at the bottom. This season, Cal’s 37.1 points scored per game ranked 23rd in the country, but their 42.6 points allowed per game was second to last out of 128 teams.
