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football Edit

Cal Fires Sonny Dykes

(Coaching hot board can be found here)

In a stunning turn of events, Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports announced that Sonny Dykes had been fired by Cal this morning, ending Dykes' four year tenure at Cal with a record of 19-30, and 10-26 in Pac-12 play. Dykes' teams were 1-11 against California rivals and never finishing above 4th in the Pac-12 North division

In the interim, Jake Spavital will take over the head spot.

(Recruit reactions to this can be found here)

Athletic director Mike Williams had this to say:

This was an extremely difficult decision and one that we take very seriously. There was no rush to judgment; we wanted to be thorough and thoughtful. Ultimately, it was a combination of factors that brought us to this outcome. We are continuously evaluating our program and looking for ways to make it better – whether that's through additional academic support, recruiting, facilities, staffing, culture, leadership or anything else that can help our football program succeed. Primarily, we want what's best for our student-athletes and have a head coach in place who is fully committed to our program and our university. Coach Dykes clearly built up our program – both on the field and in the classroom – and he leaves Cal in a stronger position than when he arrived. For that alone, he deserves credit and our thanks. 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. I understand that the timing may not be ideal – it rarely is. We did not want to make this decision until we were ready and did so for the health of our football program and department.

Our objective is long-term financial sustainability for our department. In order to do this, we understand that investing in football is critical. We believe that this change will reinvigorate the program, stimulate lagging ticket sales and renewals, and energize our donor base.

Football is very important to our department and it is essential that we provide the resources necessary to hire the right head coach and staff. We have invested in our football program and will continue to do so as necessary. Over the past few years, we have also added additional support personnel in virtually every area that touches the program to ensure our student-athletes have what they need to succeed on the field and in the classroom. We want to win championships. The success of our football program is vital to both our department and our university community, and its influence can be felt well beyond Berkeley.

Dykes had interviewed for multiple jobs following previous seasons at Berkeley, interviewing at Baylor after the conclusion of the 2016 season and interviewing at Missouri following the 2015 campaign. This is thought to have played into the decision to fire Dykes, with his commitment to the program not always apparent. Coupled with defenses that ranked near the bottom and slow moving to replace defensive coordinator Art Kaufman, the time was apparently right to let Dykes go for the athletic department.

Dykes's buyout is set at $5.88 million after the Bears signed him to an extension following a successful 2015 campaign

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