Former Cal coach Dykes gets SMU job
SMU has hired former Cal and Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Dykes as its new coach. The school will hold a news conference today to officially announce that Dykes will replace Chad Morris, who left SMU last week to be the coach at Arkansas.
Dykes went 22-15 in three seasons at Louisiana Tech from 2010-12, and he spent four years at Cal, with just one winning season. He was fired after the 2016 season and spent last year working as an offensive analyst at TCU.
SMU has been on the rise under Morris, who took over the program when it was coming off a 1-11 season. The Mustangs went 7-5 this year to reach the postseason for the first time since 2012.
Dykes, 48, is a Texas native who is familiar with the landscape.
“This is home and this is a program I grew up watching. I watched Mustang legends compete and I could always see myself putting on that iconic pony,” Dykes said in a statement. “Coach Morris did great things here and I am fortunate that I have been selected to take the foundation Chad and his staff put in place and take it to a new level.”
LOVE A FIRST-TEAM ALLAMERICAN » Stanford running back Bryce Love has been named first-team All-America by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and the Associated Press. Cardinal defensive back Justin Reid was named second team by both organizations and defensive lineman Harrison Phillips was second team FWAA and a third team pick by AP.
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, offensive tackle Orlando Brown and tight end Mark Andrews were also selected to the AP All-America team, giving the Sooners more players on the first team than any school.
Four of the top five vote-getters for the Heisman Trophy made the first team, including Mayfield, Love, San Diego State running back Rashaad Penny and Penn State running
back Saquon Barkley, who made the team as an allpurpose player.
Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, last year’s Heisman winner, was selected to the second team. CAL’S LOONEY TO PLAY IN ALL-STAR GAME » Cal defensive end James Looney has accepted an invitation to play in the 93rd East-West Shrine Game to be held Jan. 20 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Looney tied a career high with 3.5 sacks this season and was named honorable mention All-Pac-12 for the second year in a row.
OLE MISS QB TRANSERRING TO MICHIGAN » Mississippi quarterback Shea Patterson says he will transfer to Michigan, where coach Jim Harbaugh has gone through three starting QBs this season.
Patterson is recovering from a right knee injury that cost him the final month of last season, but he should be ready to compete in 2018.
In seven games, Patterson passed for 2,259 yards and 17 touchdowns, with nine interceptions.
Ole Miss was hit with NCAA sanctions two weeks ago that included a bowl ban next season.
GATORS DT OPTS FOR NFL DRAFT » Florida defensive tackle Taven Bryan has decided to forgo his
senior year and enter the NFL draft. The 6-foot-4, 291-pounder had 40 tackles and four sacks this season.
Surfing
BRUCE BROWN DIES AT 80 » Bruce Brown, who molded the modern image of surfer as seeker and transformed the sport with his 1966 surfing documentary “The Endless Summer,” has died. He was 80.
Alex Mecl, general manager of Bruce Brown Films, said Brown died of natural causes in Santa Barbara on Sunday.
Along with the music of the Beach Boys, Brown took surfing from a quirky hobby to a fundamental part of American culture. Brown, who took up surfing in the early 1950s, had made five other documentaries about the sport before “Endless Summer,” including 1958’s “Slippery When Wet” and 1960’s “Barefoot Adventure.”
Olympics
RUSSIAN ATHLETES STILL WANT TO COMPETE » Russian athletes are overwhelmingly in favor of competing at the Pyeongchang Games despite a ban on the national team, the country’s Olympic committee said Monday.
Sofia Velikaya said the Russian Olympic Committee’s
athletes’ commission, which she chairs, has heard from “all the athletes in all sports” on the Olympic program, with a majority in favor of competing.
The International Olympic Committee last week barred the Russian team from Pyeongchang because of doping offenses at the 2014 Sochi Games, but is allowing Russians to compete under a neutral flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”
Golf
GOVERNING BODIES UPDATE SCORING RULES » Players no longer will be penalized two shots for an incorrect scorecard if they were not aware of a rules violation when they signed their card.
The USGA and R&A also will no longer respond to most TV viewers’ calls during the tournament.
The changes are part of a local rule effective Jan. 1 and are part of a broader standard for using video that both ruling entities are updating.
SHARMA WINS DELAYED JOBURG OPEN » Shubhankar Sharma won his first European Tour title by a shooting 3-under 69 Monday in the final round of the weather-delayed Joburg Open in Johannesburg.
He finished the event at 23-under 264.