This is excerpted from The Athletic/The All-American's Q&A.

I urge all of y'all to subscribe. $48 a year ($4 a month). Comes with a great T-shirt. https://theathletic.com/plans/




What I didn't excerpt: How Dykes ended up at TCU. He wanted to work for a defensive coach. "I learned how he approached practice, offseason, recruiting, managing a team" from Gary Patterson, said Dykes.

https://theathletic.com//228062/2018/02/02/sonny-dykes-smu-football-coach-dallas-texas-recruiting/

"there might have been a little bit to it"

So yes, he did interview for other jobs but still tries to squirm away from admitting it.

ninetyfourbear said:

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"there might have been a little bit to it"

So yes, he did interview for other jobs but still tries to squirm away from admitting it.

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What's the big deal? Everybody knows he had been considering some other jobs. The point was, as Moraga reported here a number of times, the AMOUNT of job-seeking he had done was overstated. Every time there was an opening in or near Texas, some pundit would put Dykes' name on the candidates list and then he never came out and denied it, either because his agent told him it would drive up his value, or because he just didn't think to do it.

He had every right to look at other possibilities. The problem was, the rumors about it were getting a bit out of control. At the time of his firing, it sounded like that was one of Williams' reasons, but, as "Colorado" stated above, the best reason to fire him was that he wasn't winning enough.

I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

Dykes is gone so I'm not going to hammer him. The question is, is the guy really just now getting the memo on playing both sides of the ball and playing defense? Jesus, 4 years of bottom dwelling defense and stacking the offense...and now he gets it? So he was learning while making $2m per year at Cal? That's either a complete lack of common sense or some kind of divine confidence if you think you can only pay attention to half the game.

Another Bear said:

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Dykes is gone so I'm not going to hammer him. The question is, is the guy really just now getting the memo on playing both sides of the ball and playing defense? Jesus, 4 years of bottom dwelling defense and stacking the offense...and now he gets it? So he was learning while making $2m per year at Cal? That's either a complete lack of common sense or some kind of divine confidence if you think you can only pay attention to half the game.

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Well he just left it to Kaufman to fix after realizing Buh was in over his head.

MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

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And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

WIAF, I totally agree with you. SD had to go as his wanderlust, whether real or perceived, was undermining the football culture and dedication to his program (and ours) from the student athletes.

Sometimes when you are dining on a budget you go to a restaurant and it isn't very good. Other times you find a diamond in the rough. Same with CFB coaches. Sonny built a good offensive squad. But with a strategy that effectively precluded recruiting and building a good defensive unit. Hell, when he came here, I don't think he even knew that recruiting Poly kids was a thing. Whatever, he's gone. I don't wish him ill. But like ex-employees, he's dead to me.

wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

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And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

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Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

He had open practice. That aided my thirst to live and battle and persevere.

socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

---

And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

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Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

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There is a tendency to trash coaches and AD's when they move on. It generally is never all good or bad (there are exceptions). Sonny is no different IMO. Sonny did some things well: alumni outreach (which Wilcox, for example, needs to ramp-up), player academics, high scoring offense, etc. He recruited a lot of kids that were good fits for Cal. He was a young coach who also made some tactical mistakes. He (actually his agent) publicly said he didn't want to be here for whatever reasons (some which may have been legit, such as too small an assistant coaching pay pool), and he dumped on players which may be okay at some other schools, but not Cal. Another reason he was fired was because the team morale was bad per interviews the administration had with players. Sonny delegated most day to day interaction with players to assistants. I know one starter said he more time with Wilcox in Wilcox's fist week than he had with Sonny his whole time at Cal. This may sound outrageous, but there are a lot of head coaches who take this approach. It didn't work out at Cal and that may speak to the fit issue. And he didn't have a good relationship with his boss, Mike Williams. Also maybe a fit issue, though Mike is much more guarded, cerebral and introverted than your typical AD (and Mike would agree with that), and Sonny was a different personality, so it may be more personal.

That said, most fans/donors/alums only see the coach interviews, the improved academics and coach outreach, and have very little idea about the internal workings, so it is really hard to condemn them for saying Sonny appeared to be a fit. But as the article points out, even Sonny now acknowledges that he probably should have seen the termination coming.

KoreAmBear said:

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I'm not good with Cuonzo and will always be cynical about his motives.

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The Chancellor and vice-chancellor that hired Cuonzo were no longer around. And Cuonzo didn't get any support re:the Yanni escapade. This, along with an ineffective and interim AD, made his situation less than what a head coach would want or need to grow a program. I wish Decuire was hired as Barbour and Monty recommended.

wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

---

And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

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Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

---

There is a tendency to trash coaches and AD's when they move on. It generally is never all good or bad (there are exceptions). Sonny is no different IMO. Sonny did some things well: alumni outreach (which Wilcox, for example, needs to ramp-up), player academics, high scoring offense, etc. He recruited a lot of kids that were good fits for Cal. He was a young coach who also made some tactical mistakes. He (actually his agent) publicly said he didn't want to be here for whatever reasons (some which may have been legit, such as too small an assistant coaching pay pool), and he dumped on players which may be okay at some other schools, but not Cal. Another reason he was fired was because the team morale was bad per interviews the administration had with players. Sonny delegated most day to day interaction with players to assistants. I know one starter said he more time with Wilcox in Wilcox's fist week than he had with Sonny his whole time at Cal. This may sound outrageous, but there are a lot of head coaches who take this approach. It didn't work out at Cal and that may speak to the fit issue. And he didn't have a good relationship with his boss, Mike Williams. Also maybe a fit issue, though Mike is much more guarded, cerebral and introverted than your typical AD (and Mike would agree with that), and Sonny was a different personality, so it may be more personal.

That said, most fans/donors/alums only see the coach interviews, the improved academics and coach outreach, and have very little idea about the internal workings, so it is really hard to condemn them for saying Sonny appeared to be a fit. But as the article points out, even Sonny now acknowledges that he probably should have seen the termination coming.

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In other words, Sonny being a bad fit at Cal was common knowledge across CFB (like literally every article during his tenure mentions) but to the Cal fans that got face time with him.

Academics as a sign of fit is interesting. Especially when the University itself handicaps your ability to take on academic misfits. By virtue of agreeing to coach a Cal, which now places great restrictions on who you can recruit (academically speaking), a coach is fit. He has no choice but to recruit to high academic standards.

Of course, he deserves some credit as we changed those rules after he was hired.

socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

---

And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

---

Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

---

There is a tendency to trash coaches and AD's when they move on. It generally is never all good or bad (there are exceptions). Sonny is no different IMO. Sonny did some things well: alumni outreach (which Wilcox, for example, needs to ramp-up), player academics, high scoring offense, etc. He recruited a lot of kids that were good fits for Cal. He was a young coach who also made some tactical mistakes. He (actually his agent) publicly said he didn't want to be here for whatever reasons (some which may have been legit, such as too small an assistant coaching pay pool), and he dumped on players which may be okay at some other schools, but not Cal. Another reason he was fired was because the team morale was bad per interviews the administration had with players. Sonny delegated most day to day interaction with players to assistants. I know one starter said he more time with Wilcox in Wilcox's fist week than he had with Sonny his whole time at Cal. This may sound outrageous, but there are a lot of head coaches who take this approach. It didn't work out at Cal and that may speak to the fit issue. And he didn't have a good relationship with his boss, Mike Williams. Also maybe a fit issue, though Mike is much more guarded, cerebral and introverted than your typical AD (and Mike would agree with that), and Sonny was a different personality, so it may be more personal.

That said, most fans/donors/alums only see the coach interviews, the improved academics and coach outreach, and have very little idea about the internal workings, so it is really hard to condemn them for saying Sonny appeared to be a fit. But as the article points out, even Sonny now acknowledges that he probably should have seen the termination coming.

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In other words, Sonny being a bad fit at Cal was common knowledge across CFB (like literally every article during his tenure mentions) but to the Cal fans that got face time with him.

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We are going to have to disagree. There were articles about fit when Sonny was hired (same for Wilcox btw), a lot of that owing to Cal's reputation. But not that many articles later until his agent shot his mouth off, and then Cal decided to have a public war by having Dr. White comment back. Don't assume most posters have the time to hunt down blog articles or read tons of outside sources. Moreover, most of us discount what the media says, because they often (particularly when they talk about sports from a national forum) don't know what they are talking about. There were countless articles that Philly was in the tank once Foles started. Yup, face time matters way more in making an impression.

wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

---

And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

---

Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

---

There is a tendency to trash coaches and AD's when they move on. It generally is never all good or bad (there are exceptions). Sonny is no different IMO. Sonny did some things well: alumni outreach (which Wilcox, for example, needs to ramp-up), player academics, high scoring offense, etc. He recruited a lot of kids that were good fits for Cal. He was a young coach who also made some tactical mistakes. He (actually his agent) publicly said he didn't want to be here for whatever reasons (some which may have been legit, such as too small an assistant coaching pay pool), and he dumped on players which may be okay at some other schools, but not Cal. Another reason he was fired was because the team morale was bad per interviews the administration had with players. Sonny delegated most day to day interaction with players to assistants. I know one starter said he more time with Wilcox in Wilcox's fist week than he had with Sonny his whole time at Cal. This may sound outrageous, but there are a lot of head coaches who take this approach. It didn't work out at Cal and that may speak to the fit issue. And he didn't have a good relationship with his boss, Mike Williams. Also maybe a fit issue, though Mike is much more guarded, cerebral and introverted than your typical AD (and Mike would agree with that), and Sonny was a different personality, so it may be more personal.

That said, most fans/donors/alums only see the coach interviews, the improved academics and coach outreach, and have very little idea about the internal workings, so it is really hard to condemn them for saying Sonny appeared to be a fit. But as the article points out, even Sonny now acknowledges that he probably should have seen the termination coming.

---

In other words, Sonny being a bad fit at Cal was common knowledge across CFB (like literally every article during his tenure mentions) but to the Cal fans that got face time with him.

---

We are going to have to disagree. There were articles about fit when Sonny was hired (same for Wilcox btw), a lot of that owing to Cal's reputation. But not that many articles later until his agent shot his mouth off, and then Cal decided to have a public war by having Dr. White comment back. Don't assume most posters have the time to hunt down blog articles or read tons of outside sources. Moreover, most of us discount what the media says, because they often (particularly when they talk about sports from a national forum) don't know what they are talking about. There were countless articles that Philly was in the tank once Foles started. Yup, face time matters way more in making an impression.

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Except they were right. He was a bad fit. And to the surprise of no one, he ended up back in Texas. Like the media had been speculating he'd wanted to do for years.

WIAF,

Thank you for another one of your always thoughtful posts. I am concerned about your comment that JW needs to ramp up his outreach to the alumni. Is that a serious concern or just a comment on something he has not yet gotten to given all of his other myriad of responsibilities?

WoodlandBear said:

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WIAF,

Thank you for another one of your always thoughtful posts. I am concerned about your comment that JW needs to ramp up his outreach to the alumni. Is that a serious concern or just a comment on something he has not yet gotten to given all of his other myriad of responsibilities?

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More of the latter. IMO Wilcox's focus has been on the team and recruiting. That seems the right priority, but as time goes on he has to shift into other roles, such as being the face of the program. Without an active AD, he is not being pushed into outreach, which Wilcox will need to rectify if he wants big salaries for the coaching staff (including himself) when the team starts winning. For example, I don't think you will see the usual post-signing day events until a new AD is on board.

Wilcox doesn't seem the suck-up, insincere type. It's probably what I like most about him. All coaches need to show face to program contributors from time to time, but the idea that big money donors need attention as a requisite to their contributions rather than, ya know, winning games, is telling.

socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

---

And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

---

Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

---

There is a tendency to trash coaches and AD's when they move on. It generally is never all good or bad (there are exceptions). Sonny is no different IMO. Sonny did some things well: alumni outreach (which Wilcox, for example, needs to ramp-up), player academics, high scoring offense, etc. He recruited a lot of kids that were good fits for Cal. He was a young coach who also made some tactical mistakes. He (actually his agent) publicly said he didn't want to be here for whatever reasons (some which may have been legit, such as too small an assistant coaching pay pool), and he dumped on players which may be okay at some other schools, but not Cal. Another reason he was fired was because the team morale was bad per interviews the administration had with players. Sonny delegated most day to day interaction with players to assistants. I know one starter said he more time with Wilcox in Wilcox's fist week than he had with Sonny his whole time at Cal. This may sound outrageous, but there are a lot of head coaches who take this approach. It didn't work out at Cal and that may speak to the fit issue. And he didn't have a good relationship with his boss, Mike Williams. Also maybe a fit issue, though Mike is much more guarded, cerebral and introverted than your typical AD (and Mike would agree with that), and Sonny was a different personality, so it may be more personal.

That said, most fans/donors/alums only see the coach interviews, the improved academics and coach outreach, and have very little idea about the internal workings, so it is really hard to condemn them for saying Sonny appeared to be a fit. But as the article points out, even Sonny now acknowledges that he probably should have seen the termination coming.

---

In other words, Sonny being a bad fit at Cal was common knowledge across CFB (like literally every article during his tenure mentions) but to the Cal fans that got face time with him.

---

We are going to have to disagree. There were articles about fit when Sonny was hired (same for Wilcox btw), a lot of that owing to Cal's reputation. But not that many articles later until his agent shot his mouth off, and then Cal decided to have a public war by having Dr. White comment back. Don't assume most posters have the time to hunt down blog articles or read tons of outside sources. Moreover, most of us discount what the media says, because they often (particularly when they talk about sports from a national forum) don't know what they are talking about. There were countless articles that Philly was in the tank once Foles started. Yup, face time matters way more in making an impression.

---

Except they were right. He was a bad fit. And to the surprise of no one, he ended up back in Texas. Like the media had been speculating he'd wanted to do for years.

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The reaction to the hiring of Dykes was optimistic and sanguine in general (naturally). IIRC the two that wanted the job and being considered were Dykes and Mac. When those are your choices, and you're coming off a three win season, it was reasonable to be so. But to rewrite history of bad fit at the time of the hire, I dunno, it seems inaccurate.

wifeisafurd said:

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iwantwinners said:

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Wilcox doesn't seem the suck-up, insincere type. It's probably what I like most about him. All coaches need to show face to program contributors from time to time, but the idea that big money donors need attention as a requisite to their contributions rather than, ya know, winning games, is telling.

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It may be telling, but it is part of the head football coach job description. And it is not a matter of sucking-up but selling the program and importantly to the administrators who have to sell sports internally to the other stakeholders on campus, representing and promoting the University. It also buys you goodwill when you have a down season to two.

I really don't know one Power 5 coach who this is not a priority. Crap I have to meet David Shaw more times a year than many relatives.

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I think there's a difference between having a job duty of shmoozing people and being a person who is insincere and slick.

To the poster above this, it is not true that everyone liked the hire from the get go. I'll leave it at that.

tequila4kapp said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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iwantwinners said:

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Wilcox doesn't seem the suck-up, insincere type. It's probably what I like most about him. All coaches need to show face to program contributors from time to time, but the idea that big money donors need attention as a requisite to their contributions rather than, ya know, winning games, is telling.

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It may be telling, but it is part of the head football coach job description. And it is not a matter of sucking-up but selling the program and importantly to the administrators who have to sell sports internally to the other stakeholders on campus, representing and promoting the University. It also buys you goodwill when you have a down season to two.

I really don't know one Power 5 coach who this is not a priority. Crap I have to meet David Shaw more times a year than many relatives.

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I think there's a difference between having a job duty of shmoozing people and being a person who is insincere and slick.

To the poster above this, it is not true that everyone liked the hire from the get go. I'll leave it at that.

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I heard Mike Silver loved the choice.

iwantwinners said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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socaliganbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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I don't think him looking at other jobs was the problem...doing it while on Cal's dime though..such as during a recruiting trip to Texas...

---

And doing it so publicly. At one point his agent said publicly there was no chance Sonny was coming back to Cal. Who wants a coach that obviously doesn't want to be at Cal? What does that say to you players? From the prospective of a real AD that knows what he is doing, you tell the coach to retract the statement publicly and get his butt back to work in Berkeley or if he doesn't, you fire him for cause, and let the lawyers handle it.

---

Which begs the question, why were donors still saying he was a "fit" so late in his tenure. It was so obvious he had one foot out the door for at least 2 years. Especially when the rest of the cfb world was screaming how bad of a fit he was.... sometimes access is blinding.

---

There is a tendency to trash coaches and AD's when they move on. It generally is never all good or bad (there are exceptions). Sonny is no different IMO. Sonny did some things well: alumni outreach (which Wilcox, for example, needs to ramp-up), player academics, high scoring offense, etc. He recruited a lot of kids that were good fits for Cal. He was a young coach who also made some tactical mistakes. He (actually his agent) publicly said he didn't want to be here for whatever reasons (some which may have been legit, such as too small an assistant coaching pay pool), and he dumped on players which may be okay at some other schools, but not Cal. Another reason he was fired was because the team morale was bad per interviews the administration had with players. Sonny delegated most day to day interaction with players to assistants. I know one starter said he more time with Wilcox in Wilcox's fist week than he had with Sonny his whole time at Cal. This may sound outrageous, but there are a lot of head coaches who take this approach. It didn't work out at Cal and that may speak to the fit issue. And he didn't have a good relationship with his boss, Mike Williams. Also maybe a fit issue, though Mike is much more guarded, cerebral and introverted than your typical AD (and Mike would agree with that), and Sonny was a different personality, so it may be more personal.

That said, most fans/donors/alums only see the coach interviews, the improved academics and coach outreach, and have very little idea about the internal workings, so it is really hard to condemn them for saying Sonny appeared to be a fit. But as the article points out, even Sonny now acknowledges that he probably should have seen the termination coming.

---

In other words, Sonny being a bad fit at Cal was common knowledge across CFB (like literally every article during his tenure mentions) but to the Cal fans that got face time with him.

---

We are going to have to disagree. There were articles about fit when Sonny was hired (same for Wilcox btw), a lot of that owing to Cal's reputation. But not that many articles later until his agent shot his mouth off, and then Cal decided to have a public war by having Dr. White comment back. Don't assume most posters have the time to hunt down blog articles or read tons of outside sources. Moreover, most of us discount what the media says, because they often (particularly when they talk about sports from a national forum) don't know what they are talking about. There were countless articles that Philly was in the tank once Foles started. Yup, face time matters way more in making an impression.

---

Except they were right. He was a bad fit. And to the surprise of no one, he ended up back in Texas. Like the media had been speculating he'd wanted to do for years.

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The reaction to the hiring of Dykes was optimistic and sanguine in general (naturally). IIRC the two that wanted the job and being considered were Dykes and Mac. When those are your choices, and you're coming off a three win season, it was reasonable to be so. But to rewrite history of bad fit at the time of the hire, I dunno, it seems inaccurate.

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There were a lot of people who immediately questioned whether Sonny, with an air raid background, could coach defense effectively. A lot of people, myself included, didn't think the win in a shootout approach would be successful.

The real problem was the underwhelming search and the lack of commitment to hiring a top tier coach, which is something Cal fans always have to suffer through.

Congrats to Coach Dykes for having a player he coached win the Super Bowl tonight.

tequila4kapp said:

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To the poster above this, it is not true that everyone liked the hire from the get go. I'll leave it at that.

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I don't disagree. Some folks worried (rightfully) that he didn't have the chops on defense. But the vast majority of posters liked the hire. The only major hire I recall that most Cal fans didn't really didn't get behind in recent times (I'm not really qualified to talk about say the Gilby era) is Jones. While I recall some posters taking a wait and see attitude on Wilcox, most posters, including me, liked the hire. We will see who was right. In fact despite the revisionist history, currently going on, most posters loved the Conzo hire.

wifeisafurd said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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To the poster above this, it is not true that everyone liked the hire from the get go. I'll leave it at that.

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I don't disagree. Some folks worried (rightfully) that he didn't have the chops on defense. But the vast majority of posters liked the hire. The only major hire I recall that most Cal fans didn't really didn't get behind in recent times (I'm not really qualified to talk about say the Gilby era) is Jones. While I recall some posters taking a wait and see attitude on Wilcox, most posters, including me, liked the hire. We will see who was right. In fact despite the revisionist history, currently going on, most posters loved the Conzo hire.

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Vast majority is a serious overstatement or a misread in my opinion. I didn't know any Cal fans off the board that were excited by the hire. It wasn't obviously bad like Holmoe so people gave it a chance and those that weren't thrilled held their tongues. Especially when Buh and Stewart were hired, a LOT of people were very dubious.

I felt a little better when a certain writer claimed Dykes had called Cal his dream job long before the job was even open, but I was still dubious, and would have ignored it if I realized then what a tool and mouthpiece for agents that writer is.

ColoradoBear said:

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I don't have any problem with what he said. OK, he deflects away some blame for looking elsewhere, but that was not the major reason he was canned. Dykes was a below average P5 head coach.

Obviously he's not going to comment on how season ticket numbers were getting hammered and that the defense was sorry.

I don't wish anything bad on Sonny, but feel like he had a ceiling at the P5 level and we're all better off now.

If he were back in 2017, I just don't think I would have paid $$ to watch the team getting boat raced again and again.

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I only wish that "being a below average P5 coach" was the primary criteria for firing coaches at Cal. Then I wouldn't have to worry about whether Cal is going to hold onto a lousy MBB coach or retain a FB coach after two straight losing seasons (if that were to come to pass).

As it is, Cal has no problem holding onto mediocre or worse coaches and giving them second, third and fourth chances to run the program into the ground. I have no doubt what Dykes said about personality differences being the reason is 100% accurate - that seems to be the only criteria MW uses to decide whether to hire, retain or fire coaches. Wins and losses are obviously irrelevant to him.

XXXBEAR said:

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He just trashed our current AD and admitted he shopped for jobs while working at Cal. Oh yeah -left out the worst defense in the nation.

There's nothing to interpret.

Bottom line-we weren't a respected program and never beat Stanford.

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Our current AD does a fantastic job of trashing himself without any help from ex-coaches. If anything, Dykes' backhanded criticism of MW was overly measured. Williams has proven himself, and continued to prove himself, to be one of the worst ADs in Cal history. I will be relieved when he is gone, though I don't envy the cleanup effort of his successor.