Richmond Times Dispatch

[WoadBlue]

reports that Fuente has been fired.

There is a growing rumor that SMU HC Sonny Dykes is the top target. VPI boosters sending out feelers would explain why Dykes has shown very little interest in either the TCU or Texas Tech jobs, though each reportedly had him on a short list of 2 or 3 top candidates, and Dykes has ties to each program.

 

[tarheel0910]

Looks like the vast majority of his career has been in Texas, with a few years in Kentucky and Louisiana. Sounds like a bad recruiting fit for VT, but I'm all for them hiring a coach that isn't a good fit for them.

 

[WoadBlue]

So the very schools that are the 2 prime threats to keep UNC football from ever becoming the top program in the Coastal (VT and Miami) may both be hiring new coaches for next season. There is no guarantee that either school will land a coach who will be even 1 W per year better than the guy he replaces, much less a coach able to bring back the program's best days. But refusing to settle for being not much above .500 signals that those in charge of the program are serious about winning at the top level. They are not willing to tolerate mediocrity.

How many seasons of fewer than 9 wins will UNC tolerate? How many years of OL play that ranges from high mediocre to poor will UNC tolerate? How many years will UNC tolerate a host players on D who seem not to ever have been taught by their position coaches any fundamentals of tackling or taking angles to ball carriers or warding off blocks or communicating with teammates and working in sync?

 

[WoadBlue]

Looks like the vast majority of his career has been in Texas, with a few years in Kentucky and Louisiana. Sounds like a bad recruiting fit for VT, but I'm all for them hiring a coach that isn't a good fit for them.

Spike Dykes, Sonny's dad, was the best coach in TTU history, until Mike Leach arrived in Lubbock. Sonny played baseball at TTU, not football. But from growing up, he knew he wanted to coach football. His big break was Mike Leach hiring him at TTU. So he is a protege of Leach.

His next step was leaving being TTU co-OC to being Arizona OC. His successes there meant he was going to be hired as HC somewhere.

I assume that VPI would want Dykes precisely because he is a Leach protege but one who has grown on his own. Dykes did not fit in at Cal, but then again, who would except somebody from the region? Not for football reasons, but for regional culture reasons. TX seems foreign to CA, but TX is just western cowboy distant kin to Appalachia.

Dykes being able to recruit to Blacksburg will depend on the staff he assembles. He needs a proven top ACC-area recruiter on each side of the ball.

 

[Archer2]

So the very schools that are the 2 prime threats to keep UNC football from ever becoming the top program in the Coastal (VT and Miami) may both be hiring new coaches for next season. There is no guarantee that either school will land a coach who will be even 1 W per year better than the guy he replaces, much less a coach able to bring back the program's best days. But refusing to settle for being not much above .500 signals that those in charge of the program are serious about winning at the top level. They are not willing to tolerate mediocrity.

How many seasons of fewer than 9 wins will UNC tolerate? How many years of OL play that ranges from high mediocre to poor will UNC tolerate? How many years will UNC tolerate a host players on D who seem not to ever have been taught by their position coaches any fundamentals of tackling or taking angles to ball carriers or warding off blocks or communicating with teammates and working in sync?

I’ll bet you’re fun at parties. Not.