As The Wolfpacker has noted on our coaching hot board, we believe that four candidates have emerged for the vacant NC State head coaching job.
We will be looking at each of those four coaches in-depth in alphabetical order. Here is our second in-depth look, at Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes.
* Dykes is a noted spread offense specialist, thanks to his time in the air raid attack at Texas Tech under Mike Leach. Much like Leach, he has an interesting back story. Dykes was a Texas Tech baseball player from 1989-93, and the Texas native got into high school coaching and teaching at the end of his collegiate career.
* Dykes has coaching in his blood - he is the son of former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes (1986-1999) and his older brother, Rick, is also a former coach, who has served as the offensive coordinator at schools such as Texas Tech, Virginia and Arizona, among others. Spike is the second winningest football coach in school history behind Leach.
* After one year of coaching baseball and football at the prep level, Dykes took the running backs coach job at Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Tex. The school reached the 1996 state championship game, which was Dykes' second year with the team, when he served as the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
* The next year, Dykes was hired as a graduate assistant at Kentucky under Hal Mumme, one of the fathers of the spread offense and the originator of the "air raid" system. In his one year at Kentucky, Dykes was in charge of the tight ends and he helped mentor James Whalen, who eventually became the NCAA's record holder for pass receptions by a tight end and was named a consensus first-team All-American as a senior in 1999.
* In 1998, Dykes served as the receivers coach at Northeast Louisiana, where he mentored future Chicago Bear Marty Booker. Booker set school season and career records before he was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft.
* He returned to Kentucky in 1999 as the special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach, before going to Texas Tech under Leach, who succeeded Dykes' father in 2000. Dykes coached outside receivers, while current West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen mentored the inside receivers. Before the 2005 campaign, Dykes and Holgorsen were elevated to co-offensive coordinators.
* At Texas Tech, the offense was highly successful, and they ranked in the nation's top ten for both total and scoring offense with Dykes as the co-offensive coordinator. He helped mentor quarterback Graham Harrell, who ranked third nationally in total offense in 2006, while the team ranked third in passing and sixth in total offense. The offense average 32 points per game, had two receiver in Division I-A's top three and a third ranked in the top 20 for receptions per game.
* Dykes coached NFL wide receivers Michael Crabtree of the San Francisco 49ers and Wes Welker of the New England Patriots at Texas Tech, and he specifically recruited Crabtree, a two-time unanimous All-American and Biletnikoff Award winner, to the Red Raiders. When he signed with Tech, Crabtree was ranked as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com and the No. 16 athlete in the land.
* In 2006, Dykes' second and last year as the co-offensive coordinator at Tech, he was named as one of the top 25 recruiters in the country by Rivals.com and he was also awarded the All-American Football Foundation's Mike Campbell Award as the nation's top assistant.
* Beginning in 2007, Dykes served as Arizona's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Mike Stoops. The offense immediately increased its output with the arrival of Dykes. From 2006 (Arizona's last year without Dykes) to 2008, the Wildcats' offensive production increased by 145 yards per game and its passing efficiency increased 43 points. The team set a school record and ranked 10th nationally in 2007 with an average of 308 passing yards per game. The program broke nearly every single-season passing record during Dykes' time, and quarterback Willie Tuitama earned second-team All-Pac 10 honors in 2008. In two years of playing in Dykes' system, Tuitama set nearly every program single-season and career passing record.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski thrived in Dykes' offense, as well - all three of his college years were spent under Dykes. Due to injury and leaving early for the NFL Draft, Gronkowski, who never redshirted and appeared in just 22 games, shattered nearly every school record for receiving by a tight end - including career, season and single-game marks.
* NC State strength and conditioning coach Corey Edmond was hired at Arizona in 2004, so he and Dykes were on the same staff for three seasons.
* Dykes was also credited with securing a commitment from four-star junior college offensive tackle J'Marcus Webb at Arizona, although the big man never played for the Wildcats. Webb has started 39 of his 41 appearances in three seasons for the Chicago Bears after he completed his collegiate career at West Texas A&M.
* Dykes left to become the head coach at Louisiana Tech before the 2010 season, where he would succeed former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley. When Dooley left to coach the Vols, he had a career record of 17-20 at Tech, including 4-8 in his third season.
Dykes went 5-7 (4-4 WAC) in his first year at the helm. He was one of only four of the nation's 22 new head coaches to improve his team's record from the year before. The offense improved in several areas, including passing offense (91st in 2009 to 62nd in 2010) and total offense (66th to 52nd).
A huge jump occurred in Dykes' second year at the helm. He was named the 2011 WAC Coach of the Year and his team appeared in the Poinsettia Bowl after going 8-4 in the regular season, including a 6-1 mark against conference foes, and taking home the conference title. It was the program's first league crown in a decade.
* Dykes' team started 1-4 in 2011 - with close losses at Southern Miss (19-17), Houston (35-34) and at Mississippi State in overtime (26-20), in addition to a 44-26 defeat against Hawaii - but then his team went on a seven-game winning streak. The Bulldogs fell to then-No. 18 TCU, 31-24, in the Poinsettia Bowl. Since that 1-4 start, Dykes has coached his team to a 16-4 record.
* The team opened this year 9-1 to crack the national rankings - with the lone loss being a 59-57 defeat to then-No. 22 Texas A&M, who went on to beat then-No. 1 Alabama - before dropping an overtime game to Utah State, 48-41, and the season finale against San Jose State, 52-43.
Before the two losses, Tech cracked the AP poll for just the second time in school history, and they spent five weeks ranked among the nation's 25 best team. Their highest ranking was No. 18.
* Dykes' team has also reached back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 1977-78, and for just the second time in program history. The Bulldogs have also secured back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1996-97.
The team has a chance to win 10 games for the first time since moving to FBS in 1989.
* The coach needed just 33 games to reach 20 wins at Louisiana Tech, he is the third-fastest to reach that plateau in school history. In just three years at the helm, he has also matched the most wins by a coach in school history against BCS opponents. Dykes matched Jack Bicknell's program standard of three wins against big-time foes in five fewer seasons and 22 less games.
Dykes is 3-3 as a head coach against BCS opponents, and 3-1 in his last four such games. That includes wins over Ole Miss in 2011 and Illinois and Virginia in back-to-back weeks on the road this season. The lone loss in that span is a 59-57 loss to Texas A&M. However, if you combine the final scores of all four contests, Dykes' teams have outscored BCS foes by a total of 182-126. If you take out the loss, his teams have a 123-69 advantage.
* This year's Louisiana Tech team have set several new school records and finished the regular season ranked No. 1 nationally in first downs (31.5 per game), scoring (51.5 points per game) and total offense (577.92 yards per game). They also ranked fourth in passing offense (350.75 yards per game), eighth in sacks allowed (10 in 12 games) and 17th in rushing offense (227.17 yards per game). They also rank 12th nationally in turnover margin (+1.08 per game).
The team broke the program's single-season standard for scoring in just 10 games, and they have totaled 618 points in 12 games. They are the only team in the country to score 51 or more points in eight games this season, and they have boasted a 100-yard rusher in every game except one this year.
* Several individuals have also set records under Dykes this year. Fifth-year senior quarterback Colby Cameron won the 2012 Sammy Baugh Award, which is annually presented to college football's top passer. Cameron broke Russell Wilson's record of most consecutive pass attempts without an interception, and his streak ended at 449, dating back to last season. This year alone, he threw 428 straight passes without a miscue, and his regular-season totals stand at 4,147 passing yards and 31 touchdowns against just five picks, while he completed 69 percent of his passes.
Meanwhile, true freshman running back Kenneth Dixon set NCAA records for rushing touchdowns by a freshman (27), touchdowns by a freshman (28) and points scored by a freshman (168). He leads the nation in each of those categories this season, and has totaled 1,194 yards on just 200 carries (6.0 average).
Despite those eye-popping numbers, Dykes' balanced offense spreads the ball around - four Louisiana Tech players have rushed for at least 250 yards, while 15 different players have recorded a catch. Five receivers have totaled at least 30 receptions, while two eclipsed 700 yards through the air.
* ESPN.com's Travis Haney called Dykes the No. 1 name to watch in this cycle of the coaching carousel.
* The NCAA recently released their Graduation Success Rates and Louisiana Tech scored a 75 percent, which is the highest in program history and ranks second in the WAC. It ranks 29th among the 120 FBS schools in the land and is ranked eighth among non-AQ/non-Armed Forces programs.
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