On the surface, Sonny Dykes and Chris Petersen have quite a bit in common. Both were extremely successful during their last coaching stop, and both made the jump from the smaller pond to the Pac-12. While Dykes has one more season under his belt than Petersen, the lessons that they've learned in their transition certainly have certain parallels worth visiting.
Both Petersen and Dykes shared those lessons in an article ran by the Arizona Daily Star.
Upon taking the Washington job, Chris Petersen got a $1 million raise and the keys to a revamped stadium that cost the Huskie faithful a price tag of $280 million.
“I said from the second I took the job, my life just got a lot harder.” Petersen's immediate noted.
At Boise State, their facilities were hands-down the best in the conference, but at Washington they're competing with some of the newest and best facilities in the country. That includes Oregon's, which have been dubbed the Tahj Mahal among college football's elite.
“Everybody has got good facilities, and really good support. That’s the one thing that jumps out. I don’t know if there is a school that is clear-cut above everyone else,."
"Oregon’s got pretty good things going on here. But you come here and look at these brand new facilities, Arizona just built a new facility, it goes on and on. It’s hard to get an advantage in any area in this conference.”
For Sonny Dykes, who went 1-11 in his first year at Cal before turning things around into a 5-4 start this season, it had nothing to do with facilities, or on the field stuff. For him it came down to the difference between a small athletic department (like he had at Louisiana Tech) and a giant one like Cal's.
"You’re navigating a whole different set of circumstances. Our athletic department at Louisiana Tech was small. There weren’t a whole lot of people you had to deal with."
"As you get into larger athletic departments, more people have different roles, and the biggest thing you have to do is get everyone on the same page.”
While those are both very different challenges, they are also both notable reminders to coaches everywhere as the off season hiring cycle starts.