Cal head coach Sonny Dykes and new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital met with a group of local media members Thursday shortly after Spavital arrived for his first day at Cal. Below are a few excerpts from the conversation.
Head Coach Sonny Dykes
“Jake's name was certainly one that popped into my head at the very beginning. We've never worked together, but we've worked with so many people through the years, and people that I know well and respect. Literally I called Jake 15 minutes later after Tony [former offensive coordinator Tony Franklin] and I talked. It's a big hire for us and our program. I did a lot of homework, as I normally do, and everything checked out the way I hoped it would and thought it would. It was actually much better than I anticipated. I talked to everybody Jake has ever worked for or worked with and I got the same thing from everybody – good guy, high-energy coach, really good quarterback coach, excellent play-caller, a guy that knows how to win and then obviously the recruiting element was something that was really attractive, as well. We’re fortunate and excited to have him, and I look forward to working with him.”
“The key to our success has been that we work with like-minded people. We're not trying to be all-star coaches. There's not any competition in the room about who knows the most football and who's the smartest guy. We were all raised in the same school of thought and then everybody’s kind of done their own thing from there. Jake will be similar to Tony. When we hired Tony to be the coordinator at Louisiana Tech, we sat down and put the offense together, and he ran it. We'll do the same thing here with Jake over the next couple of weeks as we start getting ready for spring football. We'll sit down, figure it all out and let him start getting coached up. It will be a fun spring, and we're really looking forward to getting to work.”
“His age certainly wasn't a negative. The key is to find the right people. Good coaches identify with players, whether they're young or old. I do think that from talking to everybody, Jake's got a zest for recruiting. That's what makes somebody a good recruiter is that they enjoy doing it. I think he definitely enjoys doing it. For us to get to where we want to go and take that next step as a program, we've got to continue to recruit better. I think we have every year, but that trend has to stay in that direction. He'll be able to do that and identify with kids. Good recruiters are good recruiters whether they are young or old.”
“Jake is going to put his own spin on the offense. We'll go through and figure out our base stuff that we've always done and how we're going to call it. Is it going to be easiest for the players to learn different terminology or for us to learn different terminology. Putting all that together where it's a good system that makes sense will be the first step. Then it will all depend on spring football. Who goes out there in the spring and performs at a high level. All of a sudden, you get a guy that performs well and he starts featured in the offense. That's kind of what happened around here. Some guys who that were a little bit of unknown guys like Stephen Anderson, just performed at a high level and our offense adjusted and changed a little bit to feature those guys a little more. It'll depend on who's going to be the quarterback. How mobile is he? What are his strengths? We had to evolve the offense to fit Jared [Goff]. Jared's skill set was a lot different than Colby Cameron's at Louisiana Tech. They were just different guys. You always have to change it up based on who your quarterback is and what he does well. So I would think it's going to look a little different, but you're still going to recognize a lot of stuff.”
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Jake Spavital
“The red zone is a huge point of emphasis. Over the past few years, just playing in the SEC, you have to establish the run game and have a decent run game, just based off the style of defenses you face. Over the past couple of years, we've gotten creative with unique ways to run the ball in a spread system, adding certain guys into the box and making it a little bit harder on the defense in run fits. When it comes right down to it, you have to score points. The red zone is an area of the field that we're have high importance on. We'll critique it daily and have huge importance on it.”
“I've been fortunate to be around good people, great coaches and great players. Who would have ever thought after I was a student assistant at Missouri State that my first job is in the room with Gus Malzahn and Todd Graham. That’s my first college gig. From there I go on and get into the spread system and work with Dana Holgorsen, who coach Dykes worked with. It just kind of evolved from there. I was fortunate to be around a lot of quality coaches and a lot of good players on the way. If you just look at the quarterbacks that I’ve been fortunate to coach, they've all gone on to start games in the NFL. That attributes to a lot of the success I've had, especially at a young age.”
“Two years ago at Texas A&M we had an open quarterback competition, and it's something you give each kid an opportunity to compete. At the end of the day, it's going to be a group decision on who is going to be the best quarterback to put us in a position to win. They're all going to have their opportunity to show what they're capable of doing.”
“I'm excited to be here. I learned a lot of things at Texas A&M, and I had a great experience with coach [Kevin] Sumlin, but I'm excited to be here right now working for coach Dykes. I think it's going to be a fun time. It’s just putting our heads together and seeing if we can put some points on the board.”
“I’m looking for the guy [quarterback] who is going to help you win the most. If you look over the past few years at the quarterbacks we’ve played they’re all different. That’s part of just adjusting to what they do best.”
“Tony did a great job here, obviously. He's been a guy that I've followed over the years. I actually spoke at a couple of his clinics. He's done a great job. A lot of his concepts are very similar to what we all do. That was one of the things I thought was so intriguing about this place was how smooth of a transition it should be because all the concepts are very similar to what I've done in the past.”
