Football: Four assistant coaches depart, two new ones arrive, Michalczik stays put — maybe

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Jeff Faraudo

New Cal football coach Sonny Dykes fired four of five holdover assistant coaches Tuesday while announcing the hiring of two former Louisiana Tech aides.

Among the five assistants who were retained when head coach Jeff Tedford was fired on Nov. 20, only Jim Michalczik will remain on the staff. He will coach the offensive line.

*** UPDATE: Former assistants Ron Gould and Wes Chandler both told me all five assistants — including Michalczik — were let go on Tuesday. A Cal spokesman early Tuesday evening could not confirm that.

Coming to Berkeley from Dykes’ staff at Ruston, La., are offensive coordinator Tony Franklin and assistant head coach/wide receivers coach Rob Likens.

Gone from the previous staff are running backs coach Gould, an assistant at Cal for 16 years, along with Chandler (wide receivers), Ashley Ambrose (defensive backs) and Marcus Arroyo (passing game coordinator/quarterbacks).

Franklin’s addition to the staff was no surprise. He worked all three seasons at Louisiana Tech with Dykes, running the offense and calling plays. The Bulldogs were 9-3 this fall and led the nation in scoring.

“Tony Franklin is an innovative and creative mind who is one of the top offensive coaches in the nation,” Dykes said in a statement. “He’s had a tremendous amount of success producing some of the most prolific offenses in college football.”

“I’m incredibly excited for the opportunity to come to the No. 1 academic institution in the country and try to also make it the No. 1 football program in the country. That’s our goal,” Franklin said. “To be able to do that with Sonny is kind of like a fantasy that started years ago.”

Franklin, 56, was a 2012 nominee for the Broyles Award given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach and one of four finalists for the FootballScoop.com Offensive Coordinator of the Year.

Likens coached 2012 second-team AP All-American and Biletnikoff Award semifinalist Quinton Patton, who caught 104 passes including 13 touchdowns this season.

“I have known Rob Likens and admired his coaching abilities for a long time,” Dykes said. “When I had the opportunity to hire him three years ago at Louisiana Tech I jumped at the chance, and he was everything that I believed he would be and more.”

Dykes will has much of his staff to assemble, including the entire defensive side.

Jeff Faraudo

Calfan1

JF,
per “other sources” i’m hearing coach M is gone too. Can you please confirm and update if needed? thanks.
joey

It is going to be 4 years of pain with Dykes. He and Sandy will both be gone in 4 and we’ll have to start all over again.

Ron Gould will be a name thrown around as a potential coordinator down the road.
Will

Yep, Gorcey’s saying M is gone too.
daredevilfan

Maybe he said, screw it given all the other changes. gonna be a rough rollercoaster ride for awhile gents…
Juancho

On the one hand its a plus that the entire la tech offensive staff is probably coming.

But on the other hand none of these guys even franklin have any recruiting name recognition out here. So theyll probably not be an improvement over tedford in recruiting untilmthey show some results next year.

A d coordinator that moves the needle could be pivotal to flip some defensive recruits like vanderdoes and hutchings.
wehofx

Calfan, check out JF’s twitter feed. He’s annoyed w misinformation.

moron, you d bag, at least use moron sn so I don’t have to read your punk ass bs. why do you think there are so many posts on previous thread after 5pm?

twitter rumor I like: Ryan Maquiñana ‏@RMaq28

A source told me earlier this wk that former #Cal RB coach Ron Gould interviewed for the vacant UCDavis HC gig. He deserves it. #GoBears
covinared

I think the school and head coach are much bigger factors in a recruit’s decision than assistants.
Juancho

You guys should google mike silvers twitters. He seems mad about gold. Disenchanted with sonny michellin man dykes. And seems to be very open about having wanted hue jackson.
Will

Covina, I would have agreed with you before the Tosh fiasco.
rob bear

ALL of the assistants had to go, regardless of past success and or failures. It’s a new era. It’s Dykes’ show and he will run it like a Dykes – period. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. BEAT NORTHWESTERN WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!
Juancho

You know whats interesting about mike silvers rabble rousing. Hes saying that dykes is upsetting people on the inside of the athletic program bc of the gould thing. I have to imagine its bc goulds wife is a higher up in the athletics department.

Honey moon is definitely over. Sort of funny to read silvers tweets. Seems petulent.
BlakeStreetBear

@Rob Bear #10: you got it right 100%. Turn the page. Heck better yet to just throw the whole book out.

Welcome Sonny and your band of brilliant southerner football coaches. August 31st cannot come soon enough – we are due for some serious catharsis!

Go Bears!
BlakeStreetBear

And for those fretting over Dykes staff ability to recruit in CA: there are at least 11 players on the current LaTech roster from CA and I am willing to bet there were several more coming in next season. He got 11 players from CA to go all the way to RUSTON, LA! I think recruiting will be fine.

Plus, its not like our top recruits lately have been panning out anyway, save maybe McCain, S Williams, Sebastian and Scarlett, all defensive players. The KA/ZM fiasco is NOT what we need more of…I’d rather the underrated scrapper than the prima donna.
Juancho

Wait so is Michalzik staying or going ? I haven’t been this confused since I realized I like Taylor Swift music.
ConcordBear

I like it that SD is making waves. You can’t make everyone happy when you are a head football coach.
He is already making news with tough decisions.
Our program is going to hold all to a higher standard, that’s what I’m getting from his few days on the job.
It’s going to make people uncomfortable, others will be upset.
So be it, he needs to be all in on his way of doing things.
Players, coaches and staff that are not on board won’t be around.
Silver has opinion just like all Cal fans, his does not mean more than anyone else.
The only thing that will matter going forward is winning games and players staying in good academic standing and graduating. Doing both well, not just one or the other, but all things. Guys that are accountable, have character and desire to be great are ones we want repping Cal football.
gobears91

#14 = classic.
bigdruid

I feel bad about Gould because I thought he did a good job overall. I would’ve liked to have seen him stay on.

On the other hand, if your team wins a total of 15 games over 3 years (3 of them over FCS teams), you’d better expect to pack your bags when they hire a new HC.

I have no problem with SD starting over with an entirely new staff. I don’t give a damn about recruiting continuity – that’s what got us Holmoe. Get the best coaches you can, and give SD a free reign as at the end of the day he’s the one who’s held accountable for the results on the field.
bigdruid

Bah, meant “free rein” but apparently “free reign” has become so commonplace that it’s accepted now too. I CAN’T LOSE.
George Watson

CovinaRed:
“I think the school and head coach are much bigger factors in a recruit’s decision than assistants.”

Completely disagree and watch de-commits mount. Some of the latest ones say that they came on the assurances that assistant coaches would be retained. Players see much more of assistant coaches than head coaches.

(I don’t like the way things are going at CAL. Dykes is not a fit and it seems like Barbour is trying to graft southern-type football onto the CAL root. This isn’t going to go well, folks. Should’ve taken MacIntyre.”
George Watson

joey Says:
December 11th, 2012 at 4:57 pm

“It is going to be 4 years of pain with Dykes. He and Sandy will both be gone in 4 and we’ll have to start all over again.

Ron Gould will be a name thrown around as a potential coordinator down the road.”

I am down with this. Dykes wants to be in TX anyway. Barbour made a BIG error here. All we can do is watch. It’s hard to be a Bears fan.
George Watson

BlakeStreetBear Says:
December 11th, 2012 at 8:06 pm

@Rob Bear #10: you got it right 100%. Turn the page. Heck better yet to just throw the whole book out.

Welcome Sonny and your band of brilliant southerner football coaches. August 31st cannot come soon enough – we are due for some serious catharsis!

Go Bears!

The program is going to be just another faceless, nameless one, like the one at LouTech. At least, we had personalities before. These are going to be gone in system football.
bigdruid

“(I don’t like the way things are going at CAL. Dykes is not a fit and it seems like Barbour is trying to graft southern-type football onto the CAL root. This isn’t going to go well, folks. Should’ve taken MacIntyre.”

Since when is the spread considered “southern-type football”?

“The program is going to be just another faceless, nameless one, like the one at LouTech. At least, we had personalities before. These are going to be gone in system football.”
I can remember several players from Dykes’ time at UofA, including Rob Gronkowski. I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about.

How could we possibly have less personality than the lackluster team we’ve fielded the last several years? Do you have fond memories of all the great personalities on that 5-7 Riley/Mansion team? How about this year’s team, with a QB pointing proudly at his arm on the way to an opening-day loss vs Nevada?

I mean, I love our team – I love watching Isi bounce up after a nice run, or Sebastian fly around in the secondary. But I’m not under any illusions that somehow this team has more personality than any other team in the country.
ScottyBear

Agree with you Bigdruid
daredevilfan

Seems like George Watson is a troll, probably Morens. Pathetic. Someone should get these people real counseling. Or just lock them away.
George Watson

“I mean, I love our team – I love watching Isi bounce up after a nice run, or Sebastian fly around in the secondary. But I’m not under any illusions that somehow this team has more personality than any other team in the country.”

I’m not talking about more recently: everything went to pot the last few years, culminating in this one. I’m talking about the tradition of QBs especially who stood out as pro-style QBs. Riley and Maynard are eminently forgettable, but guys like Bartkowski, Pawlawski, Boller, and Rodgers are not. (I;ll never forget when Pawlawski kicked a Stanford player on the sideline in a Big Game.) And RBs up until lately, beginning with Gary Fowler through Russell White and Lynch. (Does anybody remember WR Steve Rivera?)

Pro-style showcases talent: it’s was Cal football and it had faces. Spread offense showcases scoring. We’ll see what happens, but I just can’t believe the blind “fan” aspect here of you all. I’ve been a fan of Cal football since Marv Levy was coach and I want the best for the program, but “Sonny” brings great misgivings. (Does anybody think that he doesn’t want to move on to better things maybe like U of T once Brown gets the ax – which should be next year at the latest?)

Do you think five people, even sports fans, could name the starting QB for LouTech this season? How about the guy before Mariota in Oregon?

You can be blinded all you want to realities – hope in Sonny is what you got – but the rest of us see things from a rather longer perspective. Peace.
George Watson

Daredevilfan Says:
December 12th, 2012 at 8:16 am

Seems like George Watson is a troll, probably Morens. Pathetic. Someone should get these people real counseling. Or just lock them away.

Hey, why don’t you kiss where the sun don’t shine? And speaking of “Morens”: you should learn to spell words before you use them.
bigdruid

“Pro-style showcases talent: it’s was Cal football and it had faces. Spread offense showcases scoring.”

Hmmm. 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel plays in a spread offense. Do you just pull this stuff out of your rearend?
bigdruid

Also, didn’t RG3 run the spread at Baylor? God, why do I even bother responding to this nonsense?
Picard

George Watson = moron (and a mind-numbing one at that).
Eric

@George Watson

I get that you don’t like Sonny Dykes and his offensive schemes. But comparing them to Oregon is laughable because it means you would prefer losing to winning.

Oregon’s “faceless” system (which itself is absurd – if you don’t know that QBs since Chip Kelly took over, you must not follow Pac-10/12 football. It is Darren Thomas (who was spectacular in the Rose Bowl game last year); Masoli (who ran over the Oklahoma State safety and then was booted from the team, transferring to Ole Miss); Dennis Dixon (who would have won the Heisman but for blowing out his knee against Arizona) won three straight Pac-10/12 titles, played once for the NC, and has gone to 4 straight BCS bowls.

If that is what you DON’T want, you don’t want to win. I think you should change your name to Sidney Deane, so you prefer losing pretty to winning ugly.
Eric

And if you don’t understand the term “morens,” you either are the Moron or you are new to this blog.
discdude

As an assistant, whether one has been there awhile or not, you have to know you’ll eventually be sent on. It’s too bad if Gould is making a stink, he’s been good, but there’s no guaranteed employment, especially when there’s a new coach. You best always have your resume handy. Much of this 2nd hand info is probably wrong. And if Silver’s tweeting stuff, he needs to check his emotion at the door given his access and notoriety (as opposed to people who post here). He shouldn’t already be trying to undermine anything, especially his alma mater. He can not like it, but to go public is bad form and I’ll tell him to his face next time I see him (he attends Cal games in the stands)
Beastmode

Good that SD is hiring coaches who fit his system, and is not distracted by politics and prior loyalties. Gould reportedly had free reign from Tedford, which doesn’t sound compatible with Dykes’ collaborative managerial style on the offensive side.

Any recruits who are genuinely upset because of these coaching personnel decisions should strongly consider choosing another direction post-haste. The program has recent experience of being held hostage by recruiting decisions/promises and doesn’t need any new players unwilling or unable to fit into the new system and culture.

I’m disappointed by Silver’s radio appearances over the past few days, coming on the heels of his open advocacy for Hue Jackson during the search and “Hue would have retained Gould” tweet. I understand he has personal loyalties, but hope he quickly comes to realize that acting butthurt will only hurt his own standing with and access to the program.
daredevilfan

Thank you Eric. Funny stuff.
George Watson

BigDruid:
“Pro-style showcases talent: it’s was Cal football and it had faces. Spread offense showcases scoring.”

Hmmm. 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel plays in a spread offense. Do you just pull this stuff out of your rearend?
bigdruid Says:
December 12th, 2012 at 8:37 am

Also, didn’t RG3 run the spread at Baylor? God, why do I even bother responding to this nonsense?”

Thanks for your gracious replies. The last time I looked Sonny Dykes was not the coach of TA&M or Baylor, but that’s okay. You and your very enlightened friends, Picard, Eric, and Daredevilfan, apparently like to call people names more than anything else. Fair enough.

Thanks to Juancho, Discdude, and Wisdom Cow, etc. for some very entertaining stuff. As for BigDruid, Picard, Eric, Daredevilfan etc. – not so much. You pretty much say nothing and say that badly. But it is YOUR sandbox. Enjoy.

Peace out.
George Watson

Eric
PS Yeah, I get “Morens” – someone generally designated a USC troll. I was attempting a play on words with my post. But then again, you wouldn’t get that. Too subtle I guess.

Have a nice day.
Beastmode

Yep, it’s the troll with a new name.
Picard

Come back, George! Your idiotic input is invaluable fodder for name-calling.
Eric

Right George Watson. Nice attempt, but as John Wooden used to say, “Don’t confuse activity with excellence.”

Hopefully that isn’t too subtle for you. My comments on Oregon, which you ignore, definitely were not subtle.
wehofx

24, 26, 37, 38 & 39 Yeah!

ray finkle = joey = george watson (obsessive/compulsive multiple posts but “I’m not moron.”)

I guess all y’all shamed it so much when it posted as moron, it’s only using sn aliases. “Moron? I never heard of moron.” & “ima martyr.”

Dissociative break.

Anyway. 15, 27, 30, 32, 33 couldn’t agree more. SD was not hired to make friends with coaches from the old regime and their friends in the ath dept.
bigdruid

George, I think there are valid reasons to be leery of Dykes. It’s not clear that he can bring the discipline we need given how heavily penalized his teams were. He doesn’t really have a track record of academic excellence. He doesn’t have a history of solid defense. He is a “texas guy” and would probably be enticed to return there if a job opened up. So I don’t disagree with you at a high level that he’s a risky choice in many areas.

It’s just that your stated reasons are nonsense. I think you’re feeling unease, perhaps for the reasons I’ve mentioned, but can’t really express why, so you say silly stuff like “Dykes is bringing southern-style football here” and “the spread is about the system, not personalities”.

It’s fine to be pessimistic about the Dykes regime, it’s fine if you pine for the good-ol’ days where we lined up in the I formation and handed the ball off to Chuck Muncie or Russell White 25 times a game.

But also understand that there are those of us who are excited to see what Dykes is able to do with our talent, and who are willing to give him a chance to show results on the field before moaning about what a horrible choice he is.