SMU Football: Sonny Dykes’ team dismantled in DXL Frisco Bowl

1. Incoming coaches have nothing to gain from bowl games

A few weeks ago Chad Morris was the head coach at SMU. He was hired by Arkansas, leaving a vacancy for the Mustangs to fill. It didn’t take them long to zero in on former California head coach Sonny Dykes. That was all a fairly innocuous piece of the coaching carousel that takes hold of college football every December.

Then Sonny Dykes made the somewhat peculiar decision to coach SMU’s bowl game against Louisiana Tech. The Mustangs met Louisiana Tech in the DXL Frisco Bowl less than two weeks after Dykes had been formally hired by SMU.

Dykes took the helm of a team he did not recruit, did not coach for the entire regular season and had almost no familiarity with whatsoever. His chances for success weren’t good, but even if he had found a way to win, why would it matter? This is the Frisco Bowl, not the College Football Playoff.

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Had he opted not to coach this game no one would have faulted him for it. He could have focused on recruiting and next season like every other  new coach that was hired over the last month. Instead Dykes began his coaching career at SMU with a loss that could have been easily avoided.