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The Pac-12 Media is today and it kicks off the college football preseason. New head coach Sonny Dykes was on hand with LB Nick Forbes and WR Bryce Treggs. Like most years, trying to glean anything of actual significance from the Q&A portions is sometimes impossible, but it's always fun to see a contrast in styles and demeanors from the coaches.
Here's a quick synopsis of what was said.
Dykes started off with crediting Larry Scott for all the work he's done in increasing the conference's brand and visibility. He also took a bit of a jab at his old conference (the WAC) by comparing their media day with the Pac-12's and saying they were just a "little different." Zing!
Is the no-huddle spread offense more dangerous?
The questions started with CGB referencing Nick Saban's concern that hurry up spread offenses lead to more injuries. Dykes didn't feel it was a fair assessment and actually felt that spread offenses might be safer. He would be interested in seeing a study done about how much safer players are in spread offenses because of how they spread out the players and subsequent contact. Dykes said that one could make the argument that traditional, smash mouth style football actually be more dangerous. "You need to get facts straight before we start making assumptions."
Oh dayyaaaam, take that Saban!
What are the expectations for Bryce Treggs?
The next question was in regards to the expectations for Bryce Treggs this upcoming season. Dykes credited Treggs' hard work, leadership, maturity and how quickly he bought into the new leadership. He reinforced that so much of the offense's success will run through the QB, and on that point he joked that if Treggs were smart that he'd wine and dine whoever the new QB would be if he wanted to get the ball a lot more.
But in all, Dykes emphasized a point he's been making all offseason long in the he thinks this wide receiver corps can be a pretty special group in that they feature a variety of sizes and skills and are probably the strongest unit of the offense. On the defensive side, the linebacker corps is clearly the strength, with what Dykes called "tremendous depth" with 10-12 guys who can be contributors.
Dykes rounded out his response by heaping on the praise of both Forbes and Treggs as student athletes. "These guys are what Cal football is all about."
Handling Media Expectations (or lack thereof)
Dykes was asked the inevitable question about dealing with the media expectations (picked to finish 10th in the conference) regarding his team. Dykes said you couldn't blame the media for feeling the way they did after the Bears finished with a dismal 3-9 record last year. He responded by saying that though from the outside it doesn't look very good, from the inside "we think it looks very good." Dykes knows the talent, dedication, the buy-in of his team. And though this very hungry group has some depth issues like any other team, he stated, "But at the same time we like we have a lot of potential."
Rollover Traditions
The next question was about what traditions he brought to Cal, and the most interesting part of his response was about trying to embrace the past history of the institution that he's in. In that, he pointed to the Big Game, and stated that he'd be interested to see how well can they compete against Stanford.
Thoughts on new Defensive Coaching Staff
Nick Forbes finally spoke when asked about the new defensive coaching staff and Forbes diplomatically replied that the best part about the new staff was that they were all on the same page. Each defensive unit received the same type of communications from the secondary staff, linebacker staff, etc. It's a bit of an ambiguous response, but in all fairness, it would have taken Forbes a lot longer to really expound upon that.
Thoughts on the QB from a WR
Treggs was asked the obligatory quarterback question, and handled it with a chuckle and the expected diplomacy. He stated that all the quarterbacks had done a tremendous job, and that he was "ready to go to war with any of them."
New Targeting Rule
A lot has been made of the new targeting rule (a player suspected of intentionally leading with the helmet might be automatically ejected from the game) and Forbes was asked for his thoughts on the matter. Forbes stated that while the prospect of an ejection was certainly scary, he felt fortunate to have a great coaching staff teaching great technique. "The best tackles are made with good form."
When it was done, Dykes patted the knees of both Treggs and Forbes to say "Well done."
And that was that. Sarkisian answer questions about why he was such a mediocre coach and Fat Tiger Woods put me to sleep. Now all that's left is for us to go play some football!
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