Cal coach Sonny Dykes disappointed in former assistant


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — California coach Sonny Dykes says he was disappointed and surprised when assistant coach Pierre Ingram was arrested for solicitation.

Ingram was arrested April 16 during a prostitution sting in Oakland. He was immediately placed on administrative leave before the school fired him last week.

"It's hard when somebody you know goes through a hard time in their life," Dykes said Thursday. "Especially somebody that you know well."

Dykes called the arrest a "very serious matter" and said the school dealt with it as quickly as possible and moved forward. He said he quickly contacted players, recruits and their families to explain what had happened.

"We got out in front of it and basically tried to address it with all the recruits with phone calls and sent emails to current people and didn't get anything back other than support," Dykes said. "I think everybody was surprised that knew Pierre. But you have to move on."

Ingram was Cal's recruiting coordinator, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. He spent the previous two seasons as running backs coach. He also worked three years under Dykes at Louisiana Tech.

With Ingram no longer on staff, special teams quality control and assistant inside receivers coach Burl Toler III has been activated to recruit off campus. Toler previously had been limited to talking to potential recruits on campus but could not call them or make visits.

Toler, a former receiver at Cal, will be a candidate for Ingram's job. Dykes said the rest of the staff has taken over Ingram's recruiting coordinator responsibilities and he hoped to have someone hired to take the job as soon as possible.

"It's an unusual time of year to hire a coach," Dykes said. "But I've been really pleased with the people who are interested in the job. I think it speaks to how people view the program. We're kind of up and coming by the amount of interest we've had in the job and some surprising interest. We'll find the guy who fits the best and make a determination here quickly."

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent National Sports stories

Related topics

CollegeNational Sports
JOSH DUBOW

    ARE YOU GAME?

    From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast