Carroll’s departure from USC affects UA
Coaching carousel takes Dykes to Louisiana Tech
By Anthony Gimino
Sonny Dykes’ departure to Louisana Tech means Mike Stoops must hire his third offensive coordinator in seven years at ArizonaArizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes was announced as Louisiana Tech’s head coach late Wednesday afternoon, leaving the Wildcats without a key coach two weeks before signing day.
At his introductory press conference, Dykes said that as of yesterday, he still “fully expected” to be at Arizona. “That’s the way this business goes sometimes,” he said about a fast-moving coaching search.
Dykes thanked Arizona coach Mike Stoops and the Wildcat players, although he did incorrectly refer to his former school as “Arizona University.”
“Without them,” he said of the Arizona coaches and players, “I wouldn’t have this great opportunity to represent Louisiana Tech.”
Dykes replaces Derek Dooley, who resigned late last week to become the coach at Tennessee, which had to replace Lane Kiffin, who left for USC when Pete Carroll bolted for the Seattle Seahawks.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS AND SPECULATION ABOUT DYKES’ REPLACEMENT AT TUCSONCITIZEN.COM
Tags: Mike Stoops, Sonny Dykes
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January 20th, 2010 at 2:16 PM
Any ideas about who Stoops will go after?
January 20th, 2010 at 2:59 PM
Speculation
http://tucsoncitizen.com/wildcatreport/2010/01/20/whats-mike-stoops-next-move-on-offense/
January 20th, 2010 at 3:57 PM
I’m a little surprised Dykes is taking the offer from La Tech. Is he just jumping at his first offer? If UA’s program continues an upward progression next season, then Dykes could have had his name in the mix for head coaching positions at larger programs.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:48 PM
Tech is a good program. Lots of young talent. Went 8-5 last season. Is in good position to challenge for the second-best program in the WAC after Boise State.
He can win there, and learn a lot of things about being a head coach, without enormous pressure. This isn’t like taking over New Mexico State or San Jose State, or most Sun Belt teams. Tech has talent.
And, as Derek Dooley, showed, Tech can be a heck of a launching pad to a bigger job.
If the Arizona job does open up in the near future, for whatever reason, this move by Dykes just increased his chances of becoming head coach here. Of course, he does have to win with Tech.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:23 PM
Funny…thought UA dodged the bullet when Tubberville was given the TT job. One thing we know for sure is that Dykes probably wanted the TT job and didn’t get it. LaTech is a good job for him and I wish him the best.
Now Stoops faces his biggest challenge ever at UA…a few weeks from signing day. TIC TOC TIC TOC
January 21st, 2010 at 12:45 AM
Here is a very interesting article from the Tulsa World. Seems like both Stoops brothers are having an active coordinator off-season:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OU/article.aspx?subjectid=92&articleid=20100120_92_0_Oklaho822232
Looks like Heupel is seriously looking at an O-Coordinator position. He has interviewed at Minnesota…UA has to be a better job…right?
January 21st, 2010 at 9:11 AM
The reality is that with Gronk deciding to go pro and defenses starting to catch up to the spread offense (just by ASU, late play by USC and then NE), it was time for him to get out while his stats were in tact. He wanted the TT job but did not get it then ran to LT as fast as he could? AZ such a bad place to coach? There may be more trouble internally inside the AZ Cats management than we are aware of. To loose both coordinators going into a season of what most fans think is serious contention is quite odd.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:15 AM
I don’t buy the internal drama theory. We saw with Mac what happens when there is management drama. I think the more logical argument is that Stoops is a well connected coach with an eye and understanding for hiring talented staff members. We hear time and time again that Stoops is a well respected football coach among other coaches. When you have a good football team with young and talented coaches you are going to get raided every couple years or so. It was logical that both Mark and Sonny would be leaving sooner than later. I think the biggest surprise was that it all happened so suddenly.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Num1uofan
I agree 100% with you. When you have a program doing good things and making new, others are going to take notice. Mark Stoops needed to get out from under his brtoher’s wing and make a name for himself, on his own. How many coaches get into coaching with the idea they will always be below the head coach? Not many I assure you. They all aspire to be head coaches.
At some point in time, with continued sucsess, the big boys will come calling for Mike Stoops. At that point if he leave, it would be nice to know that we have coaches out there who learned under Stoops who might be ready for a head coaching job here.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:18 PM
sorry for the spelling. Typing fast at work.
January 21st, 2010 at 8:25 PM
Tunnicliffe (QB Coach/Co-OC Coord.) + Bedenbaugh (OL Coach/Co-OC Coord.) = a winning combination.