The final season of Western Athletic Conference football was supposed to be anti-climatic. The 2012 edition of the WAC is a far cry from the conference that at one time boasted a national champion, BCS busters and nationally relevant programs.
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Wide receiver Quinton Patton absorbs a tackle from Texas A&M defensive back Tramain Jacobs in the Aggies’ 59-57 win Oct. 13. Patton ranks second in the nation with nine touchdowns and has been Colby Cameron’s go-to receiver this season.
The current football make-up of the conference is as competitively and geographically unbalanced as it’s ever been — only two of the seven are in the Pacific time zone and two schools aren’t even eligible for the postseason as FBS transitional programs.
The conference isn’t going out without a proper swan song worthy of the 50-year old entity thanks to Sonny Dykes and his Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.
Last Saturday night the national spotlight turned to Shreveport, La., where the Bulldogs took on SEC opponent Texas A&M. Then ranked No. 23 La. Tech fell behind 27-0 in the first half, leading the nation to believe the WAC school was just another pretender. By the final seconds of the fourth quarter it was a failed two-point conversion attempt that prevented La. Tech from legitimately putting itself in a position to think about BCS busting.
While the 59-57 loss may have prevented a BCS bowl berth, it won’t prevent La. Tech from at least staying in the national conversation. After all, the Bulldogs still have a winning record against BCS conference opponents with road wins against Illinois and Virginia.
The first loss of the season for La. Tech does little to dampen the overall accomplishment of third-year coach Sonny Dykes. Dykes is 17-10 overall in Ruston, but 13-6 since the start of the 2011 season.
The focus now turns towards the WAC conference championship, which La. Tech is overwhelmingly favored to win.
“It is good to always have a new cause in some ways. I think it is good to be starting conference play. It will get us focused,” Dykes said. “Our guys know there are some really good teams in this conference and we cannot afford any slipups. They also know that we are going to have to play incredibly well to have a chance to win.”
Dykes would be the first coach to lead La. Tech to back-to-back conference championships since the program transitioned into Division I FBS in 1988.
Previously coached by current Tennessee coach Derek Dooley the Bulldogs have only enjoyed on-and-off success in the past decade in the WAC, with the 2008 Independence Bowl triumph sticking out from the Dooley era. La. Tech joined the WAC in 2001, though with the successes of Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada and Boise State it was hard for the program to find a consistent breakthrough.
In Dooley’s final season La. Tech went 4-8, a clear regression from winning a bowl the year prior, the same season Idaho defeated La. Tech 35-34 at the Kibbie Dome en route to its Humanitarian Bowl run. When Dooley jumped to Tennessee, it was Dykes, then the offensive coordinator at Arizona, who got the call.
“My advice to him was ‘take the job.’ Head coaching jobs are hard to come by.” Bill Bedenbaugh, a former Arizona assistant, said. “I knew they had some history (at La. Tech). I thought he’d be crazy not to take it.”
Bedenbaugh was an offensive assistant with Dykes at Arizona and Texas Tech and said he isn’t surprised with the success Dykes is having there.
“If you’re confident, then you can win anywhere,” he said. “Sonny’s got a great personality, he’s extremely positive. I knew he’d be successful.”
Under Sonny Dykes, La. Tech couldn’t have better timing finding its stride as a program. The Bulldogs will enter a wide-open Conference-USA race next season with an opportunity to build on its success in recruiting, fan base and facilities.
In the fall of 2010, Dyke’s first season on campus, the school announced a $20 million fundraising campaign to contribute toward a football operations facility and minor upgrades to Joe Alliet Stadium.
With success comes attention. A mid-major coaching job like La. Tech is commonly seen as a stepping-stone toward bigger jobs in BCS conferences, and Dykes is likely to be a hot name this winter.
Bedenbaugh said Dykes is the kind of coach who is just going to focus on what he’s got going on at the moment and time.
“If you’re not worried about the job you have, you can’t expect to do well,” he said. “All you care about is the game you have that week. That’s the most important thing.”
It might be that attitude that has Dykes succeeding where few have expected it.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]