Sonny to leave for Tech?

[tristatecoog]

Fun facts:

In 2020, 59% of SMU's class was from OOS vs. 54% at TCU. Believe Baylor is around 36%.
In 2002, 46% of SMU's class was from OOS vs. 26% at TCU.

In 2020, SMU's middle 50% ACT was 29-33. TCU's was 23-28.
In 2002, SMU's middle 50% ACT was 25-31. TCU's was 21-27.

[SMU_Alum11]

PT - I agree about how 20 years of zero interest from the admin really hurt the schools ability to field a fanbase. I really hope the marketing team (if we have anyone) to get on a way to field both alums and non-alums. Seems like you need a couple of social media influencers to drive attention to the program.

[tristatecoog]

I agree that Mike Cavan was a pretty bad hire and occurred at a time when SMU was still trying to recruit scholar-athletes. However, Phil Bennett was a pretty hot commodity and I believe it wasn't too long after Stoops was hired from Florida as DC. So, Phil's not HC material but then June Cometh! Kept him a year too long but then stepped up with another hot commodity. Sonny was a solid, reasonable hire who's turned out really well.

The staff salaries may have only recently been boosted.
The IPF took a long time to come to fruition.
Education major and relaxed academic standards also took a while. Simmons School was funded in 2007 with $20MM gift.

[BleedingRed+Blue]

Surely Art Briles wouldn't get a look in Lubbock, would he?

[indianmustang]

Hunter Smith
@HunterSmithTV
According to a source close to UTSA, Texas Tech reached out to Jeff Traylor over the weekend regarding the head coaching position and the job is his if he wants it.
https://twitter.com/huntersmithtv/statu ... 78950?s=21

[SMU_Alum11]

Hunter Smith
@HunterSmithTV
According to a source close to UTSA, Texas Tech reached out to Jeff Traylor over the weekend regarding the head coaching position and the job is his if he wants it.
https://twitter.com/huntersmithtv/statu ... 78950?s=21

Good call from one tweet that tech wouldn't have fired wells unless they felt like they have a done deal with Traylor so he can pull his commitments and convince any players to transfer to Tech and gut UTSA easier.

[tristatecoog]

Didn't Traylor recruit a receiver (Michael Woods) or other player(s) to Arkansas when he left SMU before the Frisco Bowl?

[SMU_Alum11]

Not super encouraging from Sonny. I'm sure people are going to say that he doesn't want to publicly reject Tech but it would have been nice if he added "I'm committed to SMU Football" or something of that nature. Not wanting to talk about it reminds me of the comments Morris said whole he was here.

Instead: "Look, we’re focused on getting ready for Houston, and I’m not ever going to talk about other jobs. I just don’t think it’s fair to anybody. Look, our guys are excited to play, we’re focused to play, we know how big of a game this is for our program, and no one’s worried about anything than playing well Saturday night."

I don't think we need to start a thread of "Who's next" but it surely doesn't eliminate it.

https://247sports.com/college/smu/Article/Texas-Tech-coaching-search-SMUs-Sonny-Dykes-responds-to-question-about-job-opening-potential-candidacy-173921633/

[redpony]

says page not available- possibly removed or technical problems

[SMU_Alum11]

says page not available- possibly removed or technical problems

My bad. I fixed it.

[soccermom]

Call me naive, but I think (hope) he is exactly where he wants to be. He knows just because the conferences/schools might be bigger, doesn’t mean they’re a better fit. I really believe him when he’s talked about how much he loved SMU football when he was younger. Plus, if he didn’t mean that, IMO he wouldn’t be singing our fight song w/the players. I think he’s enjoying building our program up.
Now I hope I don’t see something soon saying that I am very mistaken!

[indianmustang]

time to start new SMU coach

But even as the rumors of Dykes’ departure from SMU have become more commonplace, this latest linkage between Dykes and the Red Raiders is taking on a different feel than times past. He has more connections to this job.

He also, when asked about it on Tuesday, took a starkly different tone than the last time he talked about Tennessee.

“Look, we’re focused on getting ready for Houston, and I’m not ever going to talk about other jobs,” Dykes said at a media availability. “I just don’t think it’s fair to anybody. Look, our guys are excited to play, we’re focused to play, we know how big of a game this is for our program, and no one’s worried about anything other than playing well Saturday night.”

For reference, this is what Dykes said when talking about Tennessee in February.

“As a young coach, sometimes you chase jobs, and those logos are important to you and all that. And I’m way past that,” Dykes said. “I have a really unique situation here in terms of my family. We love it. Dallas is my home. Texas is my home.”

Quite different.

But Dykes’ more professional, standard response is to be expected. This Texas Tech job is much more plausible for Dykes to take than at Tennessee

https://www.smudailycampus.com/sports/i ... ob-vacancy

[SMU_Alum11]

Scary post and I felt the same well about his demeanor. I feel better about him staying than I did with Chad because Chad never showed any interest in SMU. Here's at least a counter though other positions are still out there.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/smu-mustangs/2021/10/26/why-wouldnt-sonny-dykes-jump-at-the-texas-tech-job-because-the-smu-head-coach-can-do-better/

[redpony]

Really hope SD stays. We need him and I hope the money guys let him know that. I have often wondered about the last two coaches. First, IMO JJ came here with a lot of enthusiasm and produced some winners. Then he seemed to sour on the job- what caused that to happen? Then Chad came here. We all knew he would bolt in a few years but instead he was almost immediately looking to move. Again, what caused his change of attitude in such a short time. Obviously, those people are not going to trash the admin/staff they left- bad future references.
I have to wonder if they were told a lot of lies and made a lot of promises to come here and then later were told different. Just a theory. IMO most people, even coaches don't just ship out that fast.

[SMU_Alum11]

Sadly too many articles are claiming they have sources at SMU that fully expect Sonny to leave at the end of the year.

Who wants to begrudgingly start the "Who's next at SMU?"