Dykes takes over at La. Tech

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Louisiana Tech has tapped Arizona Wildcats offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes to replace Derek Dooley as head football coach.

Dykes, who was introduced Wednesday, has coached in college for 15 years and has been with Arizona since 2007, serving as both offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He has never been a college head coach.

Last Friday, Dooley left to replace Lane Kiffin at Tennessee.

Dykes, son of Texas Tech coaching legend Spike Dykes, is known as a spread offense specialist and figures to bring the same wide-open style to Louisiana Tech.

Dykes played baseball for Texas Tech in college and later returned to Lubbock to join Mike Leach's staff. He coached the Red Raiders for seven seasons under Leach, rising to co-offensive coordinator in 2005.

While at Arizona, Dykes' offensive scheme set single-season records for passing yards, passing yards per game, completions, touchdown passes and completion percentage. Also, former quarterback Willie Tuitama set several single-game records, and his career marks for yards, yards per game, completions and touchdowns are the best in Arizona history. This season, Arizona won eight games and averaged 384.5 yards and 27.4 points per game.

Louisiana Tech contacted Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson about the head coaching position, but both withdrew their names from the search.

Louisiana Tech offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo and defensive coordinator Tommy Spangler also were candidates for the position.

Graham Watson covers college sports for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Watson joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four seasons covering the Missouri Tigers and the Big 12 Conference for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also covered college football recruiting for the Dallas Morning News.