UPDATE: Dykes picked over former Raiders Head Coach.
Ok, this Cal Alum is excited that Sonny Dykes is coming to Cal and bringing the Airraid Offense , but the news from a good source that he was selected over former Oakland Raiders Head Coach Hue Jackson is, to be frank, a real shocker.
Hue Jackson had openly stated he wanted the Cal Football job, and would have been an excellent fit for Cal, has recruited before, and is well-known in the Bay Area and in all of football.
Hiring Hue Jackson would have produced a no-brainer, very excited response from Cal Alumni and from people who are observers of the Cal scene. It would have translated into ticket sales and snagged a lot of recruits. So, from that perspective, Sonny Dykes comes into Cal with a head of steam that’s generated by the anger of a core group of Cal Alums who are down right pissed off with Cal AD Sandy Barbour.
But with that, look: Sonny Dykes is a ball coach. I’m confident he will do a great job at Cal, but the fact is, if he falters, there will be grumblings that Hue Jackson would have done better.
Moreover, and it has to be said, with so few black college head coaches, why would Sandy pass on a proven good football coach in Hue Jackson? It was just a year ago that Coach Jackson had Raiders fans excited for the future of Raiders Football. And considering how bad this year’s Raiders team is, and is just hours from an expected pasting at the hands of The Denver Broncos, many say that firing Hue was just plain dumb on the Raiders part.
Bringing Hue Jackson in would have been a master stroke, like it was when Sandy hired Mike Montgomery to coach Cal Basketball.
Wow. What a big ass mess.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll