Sidelines
Tomey an exciting
AD optionTHOUGH I'm in an occupation that requires there be no heroes or sentimental favorites, Dick Tomey is one of mine. And so I'm always delighted, as are a lot of people, to hear his name connected with the position of athletic director at the University of Hawaii.
Tomey's name is a good one, a public relations coup. He is the coach who first allowed us to dream big dreams, and his time at Arizona proved him to be a better coach than even we knew. He has been gone long enough to be absolved of his sins -- he has no losses now, I wrote last year when he first returned. Only wins.
And even the losses are heroic now when we recall them, our hearts tugged by this Tomey nostalgia. His Rainbows played in a golden age. Even his long, Quixotic, heart-breaking struggle against BYU only further cements him as one of "us."
Dick Tomey belongs to the University of Hawaii now. What a perfect way this would be to welcome him home.
So says my heart. And perhaps yours, too.
But this is a very different job we're talking about these days.
Athletic director is no longer home for ex-coaches. Athletic directors are CEOs now, businessmen, budget balancers, fund raisers, personnel wizards, power brokers, jugglers, spin doctors, miracle workers. They are not just scheduling games and counseling coaches now, they are running companies with bottom lines in the millions.
They are dynamic front men and deal makers and difference makers, which is why some whisper that a Lenny Klompus or a Keith Amemiya just might be perfect.
Many of today's ADs have never blown a whistle. They have gone to business or law school and they get a competitive kick out of sports. It's a completely different game.
This is a very big job.
It is more than just, as the Internet chatters put it, having "vision."
I believe Dick Tomey could do it, because I believe in Dick Tomey.
But I don't know what in his resume would suggest he fits this new profile.
Besides, Dick Tomey wants to coach, or Dick Tomey wants to be on big-time TV. And athletic director is not a fallback position, not these days, not here, not now.
Does he really want to do this?
I don't know why he would want these budget, these political, these Title IX headaches (other than it would be a tremendously flattering offer and, again, a chance to be back where he belongs, a chance to be a Rainbow forever -- and perhaps those reasons are reasons enough).
But his name keeps coming up.
And wow, my heart says his name is a very good one. Maybe yours does, too.
EVAN DOBELLE KNOWS THIS. If I were Dobelle I would already know who I wanted to be athletic director, no committee needed. And I believe Dobelle probably does have a possible name, or names, in his back pocket right now.
This is a big hire, too big to leave to chance, too big to pawn off on someone else, no matter how much you believe in democracy.
Too big to start thinking about on Monday, and I'm sure Dobelle has been thinking about this for a while, even if things officially kick off tomorrow, when the search committee members are announced.
You don't get elected President of the United States without having a pretty good idea of who's going to be in your cabinet.
You don't become a head coach without a notion of who your defensive coordinator might be.
And you don't initiate a conversation with Hugh Yoshida about Yoshida's future without an idea of what you're going to do if Yoshida takes you up on it.
So I think Dobelle has a plan.
Dobelle has been trying to find out more and more about this Tomey guy he had heard about, and Tomey is frequently linked to the opening, and I frequently smile.
But is Tomey simply a good "local" name to ply us with while other applicants sneak in the back door?
Or is he really, seriously, on "the list"?
And with today's qualifications for athletic directors, should he be?
Dick Tomey is the best coach in the modern history of University of Hawaii football.
His name makes my heart light up, and perhaps yours, too. We want him home.
His actual candidacy for this job might be more complicated than any of us realize.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com