Campus & community, Campus news

Cal makes change in football leadership

By Public Affairs

Sonny Dykes
(Photo by Al Sermeno, cal.isiphotos.com)
Sonny Dykes

(Photo by Al Sermeno, cal.isiphotos.com)

Sonny Dykes, who has overseen the Golden Bear football program for the past four seasons, has been relieved of his duties as head football coach at UC Berkeley, Director of Athletics Mike Williams announced Sunday.

Over his four seasons as head coach, Dykes led the Bears to a 19-30 record. After a 1-11 mark his first season in 2013, Cal improved to 5-7 in 2014 and finished 8-5 during a 2015 campaign that ended with an Armed Forces Bowl victory over Air Force. This past fall, the Bears posted a 5-7 record with wins against ranked opponents Texas and Utah, as well as victories over Oregon and UCLA. The Bears ranked fourth nationally in passing offense and 10th in total offense, but were 125th in total defense and 127th in scoring defense.

In the classroom, Dykes engineered a turnaround with improved Academic Progress Rate (APR) results. After successive one-year scores under 930 in the two years before Dykes arrived on campus, the past three rates for the football program have been 969, 946 and 997 to lift the squad’s four-year APR average to 960 – its highest since 2008-09. Cal’s 997 APR for the 2014-15 academic year tied for the highest in the Pac-12.

Williams said that offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital will serve as interim head coach.

Read more at CalBears.com