For most college football programs, news coverage in January means that an incredible season has been capped off with an appearance in one of the top bowl games in the nation. For the Cal athletic program, it meant a surprising and expensive firing and an embarrassing revelation about finances.
The “coaching carousel” — the process of college football coaches moving from program to program amid hirings and firings — starts right around the end of the regular season in November and almost always stops spinning by the time a new year is brought in. So when Cal fired Sonny Dykes on Jan.