Sonny Dykes' tenure as the head football coach at Louisiana Tech and California was characterized by the air raid offense, a pass-heavy scheme that produces lots of yards and lots of points. But make no mistake: Dykes plans to run the ball in his first year as head coach of SMU football.

"My background is air raid and all that, but we want to run the football," Dykes said at the American Athletic Conference Football Media Days. "We believe that if you want to win a championship you've got to be able to run the football. I think that's going to be the strength of our team, we've got three backs that are really good solid players."

Those three backs are juniors Xavier Jones and Ke'Mon Freeman and senior Braeden West, who all gained over 500 rushing yards during the 2017 season. Jones led the way with 1,075 yards after having missed most of the 2016 campaign due to injuries.

The most prolific of the self-described "three-headed monster in the backfield," Jones enjoys having so much depth at the running back position.

"If you don't have a good sparring partner, then you can't get better," Jones said of the competition between backs. "We always know there's the next man, and the next man is just as good as the starter. And the starter is just as good as the third string. Having a room like that with so many elite guys with Ke'Mon and Braeden, it just makes us better."

That stable of weapons helps in the passing game as well.

"Oh that's how you open up the passing game, run the ball early and often," junior quarterback Ben Hicks said. "When you can run the ball it opens up play action shots and stuff like that. Not to mention it helps the offensive line when we're able to run the ball, pass protection becomes a lot easier."

While the running back room is full of talent, it has been Jones who has garnered the most preseason attention. He was named to the 2018 Watch Lists for the Maxwell Award, given to the College Player of the Year, and the Doak Walker Award, presented to the nation's top college running back and named after SMU's three-time All-American and Heisman Trophy winner.

But when asked about the prestigious awards, the Spring, Texas product remained single-minded.

"Honestly, I'm not worried about that right now, I'm just worried about helping my team win games this year," Jones said. "That's my main focus, everything else is secondary."

There's plenty of work to be done as a new coaching staff implements their vision for a tougher and more physical team, but Dykes' familial approach has made the transition easy.

"We've been around the game, we know how important it is to have a relationship with your players off the field," Dykes said. "We ask them to do so much for us, we ask them to sacrifice so much that the least we can do is welcome them into our family and make them a part of our family."

"The adjustment with the new staff hasn't been hard at all," Jones said. "Coach Dykes is a great guy, the guys he's brought in have been very flexible. They want to get to know us, they want to build relationships with us. Building a relationship with the new staff has been pretty easy."

It's not just the head coach-to-player relationship that matters. On a roster of over 100 players, the relationship between a player and his position coach is crucial. Jones immediately hit it off with running backs coach Chris Brasfield, who had recruited him during a stint at Oregon State.

"It's very important because at the end of the day, he's the one that's going to play you and he's the one that's going to look out for your best interests," Jones said. "And he made that clear that if we have any problems off the field, on the field, personal, not personal, we can come to him and talk to him. That's very important to have that relationship with a position coach."

The Mustangs now turn their focus to fall camp before opening the season with four straight opponents who made bowl games last year. Jones has embraced his role as a leader on a relatively young team facing a tough schedule.

"This year in the offseason I've been focused on getting the best out of everybody," Jones said. "I've always been quiet, so I've finally realized I need to step up as far as talking and bringing the young kids around, because, you know, we've got some seniors that we want to send out with a bang."