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Cal football: Should Sonny Dykes get an extension yet? If not, what would it take?

Cal is 5-0, but how much more does Sonny have to prove? Also, Twitter reaction from Cal alum!

By benwemer, Vincent Sheu, Andy Johnston, Piotr T Le, Alex Ghenis, Nick Kranz, atomsareenough, and Kevin Wu
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images


2.  We've talked before about the fact that Sonny Dykes will probably need an extension after this year to ensure he will be the coach at Cal long term. How convinced are you that he should get one after the 5-0 start? Explain why.

Vincent S: I'm not sure. I can foresee a situation where Sonny gets the extension he's probably looking for (and honestly, for recruiting purposes, needs to remain effective), we lose a significantly higher number of games as compared to this year with much of the Goffense and defense (e.g. senior linebacking corps) graduating, and people begin questioning that extension. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Benwemer: Honestly, I have no clue. I have to see him without Goff and then I can judge. Unfortunately that's not possible so I think he will get it but I'm just not 100% sold on Dykes.

A.W. Johnston: Surprisingly, I am not there yet. I do believe we should extend Sonny, specifically because of the tectonic culture shift he has pulled off. However, his late game management is abysmal. During our last drive, had we could have run the ball and forced WSU to use their second timeout. Instead we throw an incompletion and gave them another shot with the ball. If we win one of the next three games and the Big Game, I am all for him signing the dotted line.

Piotr T Le: I am not yet convinced. We still need a marquee victory now that Texas seems to be a dead bull walking through it's schedule. Utah, UCLA, USC, Oregon, Stanfurd. We go 2-3 through those teams and then maybe we will extend him. Anything less will be worrying, anything more will be delightful. We go 4-1 and we ought to sign him before he walks out of the stadium at the end of the 5th game.

Alex Ghenis: I'll echo some of the other roundtable folks in that it's too early at this point in the season, because so far we've played some of our weakest opponents. Let's all remember that we started 5-0 in 2007, but proceeded to lose 6 of the next 7 and just squeaked out a bowl win. At the beginning of that year, everybody was singing Tedford's praises and calling for an extension. Let's be patient.

But of course, if we end up with 7 or 8 wins (I'm leaning towards 8), an extension is absolutely in order -  especially with the academic and cultural shifts that have happened

Nick Kranz: Barring a really unexpected series of events, I feel confident in saying that Sonny Dykes deserves a contract extension. In both the macro and micro sense, Cal football has continuously improved under Sonny. Obviously, the win totals and general performances have improved, but if you look at each position group and each phase of the game, most areas have seen continual improvement. And that doesn't even get into off-the-field considerations, which by all indications have been virtually spotless. He's mostly made good decisions as head coach, and when he hasn't (Helllooooo Andy Buh!) he's corrected them decisively.

I obviously don't think Cal should offer him a blank check - an extension at his current compensation level or maybe a bit more would be justified to make it clear to recruits that he's going to be here through their careers. And if this level of performance isn't good enough to warrant an extension, then the question is: What exactly where we expecting to get just three years removed from the hulking crater of the Tedford era?

KWBears: Definitely not.  He technically hasn't done anything yet.  We're not bowl eligible yet.  We need to qualify for a bowl game, but even that took him three years to do.  In my opinion, we need to challenge for the Pac-12 North division crown TWICE (that means two years) before Dykes gets an extension.  At this point, he's doing what he's supposed to do.  In the real world, you just get paid to do what you're supposed to do.  Do something even better than that, then you get paid more.

atomsareenough: I'm pretty positive that Dykes will merit an extension, but this is a question that really should be put off until the end of the season. The 5-0 start is great, but we really shouldn't be talking extension with the tough part of the schedule still to come. Let's look big picture, though. So far, he has taken a program in utter disarray and has slowly but steadily turned it around in pretty much every facet, from academic success, to player character/behavior, to talent level, to strength and health, to team cohesiveness, and even school spiritedness.

The results on the field have also steadily improved. Yes, he went 1-11 his first year, but at this point I'm mostly I'm willing to write that off as a transition cost to reshape the program. Let's consider that the team he inherited was already a bad 3-9 team, and when you factor in the unprecedented epidemic of injuries on defense, trying to install a new system on both sides of the ball, a true freshman QB, and trying to effect major cultural change all at the same time, they never really had a chance that season.

The team has gotten better every year though, and the trajectory of the program is clearly up, and barring complete disaster over the second half of the season (which I feel is unlikely) I think at the end of the year we will look at where the program is and conclude that deserves to have a chance to finish what he has started, and see if he can bring us a championship. I think he's still learning some game management stuff, but that comes with experience, and he's shown an ability and willingness to learn and adapt. Importantly, I think he really "gets" Cal and is a great fit for the most part, and I think he feels he can win here and like Tedford, is willing to stay here long term if he's successful. That's hard to find.

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