Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer
New SMU head coach Sonny Dykes is pictured during SMU football practice on campus in Dallas on Saturday, August 4, 2018. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)
At 8:49 a.m. on Saturday morning, Sonny Dykes crossed Schlegel Street and walked towards a tunnel of nine football staffers greeting the new SMU coach. He was on his way to his second preseason practice with the Mustangs, carrying a stopwatch around his neck, a water bottle in his right hand and the hopes of Mustangs fans on his shoulders.
Dykes is tasked with leading the program after previous coach Chad Morris left to take the head coaching job at Arkansas following three seasons in Dallas.