We all got the news last night that Sonny Dykes, current head coach of Louisiana Tech, former OC of Arizona (when their offense was good), has been hired as the Cal head coach.

In a lot of ways this is not at all a surprise. He’s been high on the list for a long time and unlike the others who hadn’t telegraphed interest in Cal, Dykes had both said he was interested and was currently sitting on a not-all-that-lucrative existing contract.

My guess is that Barbour got him for “cheap”, i.e. less than $2M, with a number of performance bonuses built in. I’m also guessing she’s planning on spending the extra cash on a top-notch defensive coordinator of Dykes choosing (rumor is New Mexico State head coach DeWayne Walker) and then also to generally boost the quality/pay of the assitants.

What surprises me is how much negative commentary there is out there about this hire. It seems like a good one to me. Seems to me all he needs to get to the next level is to have a good defense, something hopefully we have the money to hire someone as a DC who will do well for us.

Plus, he has Pac-12 connections (for recruiting) from his time at Arizona.

I think this is a good hire.