After losing Chad Morris to Arkansas, all we ever heard was that SMU wanted to hire another offensive minded coach who could & would recruit Texas all day long.
Although early on we heard SMU actually offered the job to Kevin Sumlin (who did not feel this was the right timing for him), we began to hear Sonny Dykes name shortly thereafter.
Yesterday, sources shared with FootballScoop that SMU is planning to make former Cal and Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes their new head coach.
Dykes spent last season on Gary Patterson's staff at TCU, serving in an offensive analyst role. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Cal and Louisiana Tech, where he went 41-45 with the two programs over seven seasons, three with the Bulldogs (22-15) and four with Cal (19-30).
We first shared that news last night.
All along, we heard that SMU wanted to bring in an offensive guy who would be able to keep recruiting Texas with the best of them, and high school coaches like Dykes a lot, so it's a good fit.
As for a staff, Chad Morris is expected to take most of the offensive guys. Interim head coach Jeff Traylor, who coached the running backs under Morris and also had the title of associate head coach, has been offered a position on the Razorbacks staff, per our sources. With his great and longstanding relationship with Texas high school coaches, it's also very likely that he's pursued by other programs within the Lone Star state as well.
On the defensive side of the ball, we understand that defensive coordinator Van Malone and most of his defensive staff will be available if Dykes wants to maintain some continuity on that side of the ball. We'll keep you posted as more becomes clear with Dykes' staff.
As always, we'll keep you posted on The Scoop.