"Daniel "Sonny" Dykes" is an American football coach and former college baseball player. He is currently the head football coach at California Golden Bears football/ California. Dykes was named 2011 Western Athletic Conference/WAC Coach of the Year for leading Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football/Louisiana Tech to the 2011 WAC title and an appearance in the 2011 Poinsettia Bowl. Prior to becoming the head coach at LA Tech, Dykes served as offensive coordinator at Texas Tech Red Raiders football/Texas Tech and Arizona Wildcats football/Arizona. As an assistant coach, Dykes learned the air raid offense under mentors Hal Mumme and Mike Leach (coach)/Mike Leach. Sonny Dykes is the son of Texas Tech coaching legend Spike Dykes.

More Sonny Dykes on Wikipedia.

It's two contrasting styles. That's why this bowl game is so attractive. Our style of play is so different from theirs.

Basically, you're getting unlimited phone calls from someone who is a junior. Once it progresses, the phone calls and visits become more important.

They had more success against us playing man than I thought they would. When people come down and pressure you like they did, you've got to go make some plays. We couldn't get it done.

We have more home run hitters now than we had in the past. We (used to have) a lot of guys who could hit singles pretty consistently. But we've got some guys now who are big and physical enough to run through some tackles and make some big plays.

I'm doing what everybody else is doing and waiting to see what they're going to do. I'm still interested. I'm kind of anxious to find something out. The contact period in recruiting starts Sunday, so its pretty important something happens pretty quickly.

He's been a real pleasant surprise, honestly. He's improved a ton from the spring. The fact that he went through spring football was huge. I think that gave him a chance to get on the field this year.

There's such a difference between high school cornerbacks and guys in college, in how physical they play and how good they are at getting their hands on you. He just didn't have any idea how to get off the line of scrimmage and has really worked hard over the summer on that. I think that's the biggest area of improvement.