By Jordan Long
The University of California fired Head Coach Sonny Dykes. Dykes had been the football coach for the last four years. Was it time for him to go?
California hired Dykes on December 6th, 2012, after a successful run at Louisiana Tech where he was 22-15. This was Dykes’ opportunity to coach at a big name program. In his first year California was awful, only winning one game. In 2014 they improved to 5-7. Last season Dykes coached them to an 8-5 record and even went on to appear in a bowl game. They were selected to go to the Armed Forces Bowl and beat Air Force 55-36.
This season the expectations were even higher. The goal was to be in another bowl game and be in the mix for the championship of the Pac 12 North Division. That didn’t happen as they went 3-6 in conference play and 5-7 over all. According to ESPN, Cal Athletic director Mike Williams said, “After our bowl win last season, we showed our commitment to him with a contract extension. But after looking at a number of factors after the end of this season, I felt that we needed a change of direction for the good of our student-athletes and our program.”
This is the right decision for the University of California. Dykes had the chance to turn the program around. He tried but only coached them to one bowl game. That was not enough. Dykes contract runs through 2019 but California will only pay 70% of his remaining base salary, which is $5.88 million.
California will start looking for a new head coach. The interim head coach is offensive coordinator and quarterbacks’ coach Jake Spavital. There is one name they should have on top of their list, Chip Kelly. Kelly was the head coach of the University of Oregon from 2009 to 2012. His record there was 46-7. They went to a bowl game every year and even had an appearance in the National Championship Game in 2010. Kelly was most recently in the NFL as the Head Coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He was fired after a 2-14 season. Kelly is the right man to turn the University of California football team around.
What do you think of University of California deciding to fire Sonny Dykes? Who should be the next head coach of Cal?
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