Sonny Dykes pokes stick at Miss. SEC schools

Sonny Dykes has only been at Louisiana Tech for two seasons, but already he's got folks believing that the Bulldogs could eventually be one of the better teams in the nonautomatic qualifying leagues and perhaps beyond.

Louisiana Tech went 8-5 last season, just the second time the Bulldogs have won eight games since 1999. The Bulldogs beat Ole Miss, took Mississippi State to overtime and lost by just a touchdown in a bowl game to TCU.

After watching the game film, even Dykes was impressed by his team, so much so that he proclaimed to the Monroe News-Star this week that his players were better than those on the teams in Mississippi.

"We have better players than people think," Dykes told the paper. "Last year we played Mississippi State, and I swear to you there was no difference in our players and theirs. I was shocked. There was no difference. They might've had a little more depth, but across the board our players were about as good as theirs. We played Ole Miss, and we kinda played 'em at a time that wasn't really good for them, and I think we beat 'em by about 24 points and had better players than they did. I was shocked. I would like to say we coached 'em better or we were real smart and pat ourselves on the back, but we had better players than they did."

Oooo, dem is fightin' words.

Notice he didn't say his players were better than TCU's.

While Ole Miss fans might agree with the statement, Mississippi State fans probably aren't thrilled. Unfortunately, Mississippi's flagship schools don't play Louisiana Tech this season to disprove the theory, but Dykes' comments should catch the attention of Texas A&M, Illinois and Virginia, the BCS opponents on the La. Tech schedule this season. I think those games just earned a little extra attention, especially since the Bulldogs return 16 starters from last year's squad.

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