In unusual circumstance, newly-hired Sonny Dykes to coach SMU's bowl game
SMU is making its first bowl appearance in five years later this month, and will do so with new head coach Sonny Dykes leading the team.
It’s a pretty unusual circumstance.
Dykes, the former head coach at California and Louisiana Tech, was formally introduced as Chad Morris’ replacement (Morris left for Arkansas) on Tuesday and confirmed a report from the Dallas Morning News that he will coach the Mustangs against, coincidentally, Louisiana Tech just up the road from Dallas in the Frisco Bowl on Dec. 20.
Jeff Traylor, the Mustangs’ associate head coach and running backs coach, was tabbed as the interim head coach when Morris left. With Traylor has accepting a job on Morris’ staff in Fayetteville this week, Dykes will be on the sidelines just eight days after his introductory press conference.
That’s not something that usually happens. Ordinarily, a staff member from the previous regime, usually a coordinator like Traylor, leads the team through the bowl before handing the keys over to the new guy. In this instance, Dykes, who was very complimentary of Morris’ rebuild of the program, felt like this was the right move to continue building off the turnaround from 1-11 in the year before Morris arrived to 7-5 this year.
He said it all starts with the bowl game.
“We want to continue to build on the success and the blueprint that Chad started. The most important thing we can do is get off to a good start by winning a bowl game,” Dykes said.
Dykes is following a path few have taken. Over the past 25 years, Tommy West (Clemson, 1993) David Cutcliffe (Ole Miss, 1998) Chris Scelfo (Tulane, 1998) and Brian Kelly (Cincinnati, 2006) are the only other two coaches we can recall to leave one school and immediately coach their new school in the postseason.
To do so, SMU athletic director Rick Hart said Dykes will “bring in a few staff members to supplement the remaining staff” for the game. It’s going to be a “crazy” week leading up to the game, Dykes admitted.
“I’ve got to hire a football staff and try to get three or four coaches here with some current staff members and go figure out a way to win a football game,” Dykes said.
Dykes said the decision to coach the game was by “necessity” more than anything else.
“We thought it was going to give our current players the best experience that they could possibly have. I told them last night it’s not about me. It’s about them,” Dykes said. “When you have worked as hard as this group has worked and accomplished as much as this group has accomplished, then you need to be rewarded. Those young people need to have that reward. For us, it just made the most sense given the circumstances.
For the bowl game, Dykes said things will stay the same as they’ve been all year, especially on offense. In fact, quarterback Ben Hicks, Dykes said, is going to teach him the offense.
“I told him he may be the only player-coach in college football right now,” Dykes said. “We’re going to keep the terminology the same.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to coach in a lot of bowl games through the years. And the only important thing, at the end of it all, is whether you’ve won or lost.”
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
