Posted by SpartaRick on 12/24/2007, 12:09 pm, in reply to "Didn't know that Dick Tomey interviewed at UCLA way back when PART ONE"
75.36.146.229
The coaching ranks can be compared to a rather small fraternity. When Stanford hired Teevens, Dick Tomey was one of the candidates said to be in the mix. When Cal hired Tedford (lots of T's here) the choice is said to have come down to him or Dick Tomey. When we hired Dick, one name prominently mentioned for our opening was Jim Harbaugh. They're all joined at the hip.
--Previous Message--
: Dick Tomey gets all sorts of press here. He
: interviewed at UCLA in 1976 and was also
: interested in the UTEP job that went to Mike
: Price.
:
: This is a great read -- congrats to Billy
: Witz.
:
:
: Search for college football coaches has
: gotten tougher
: Billy Witz
: Los Angeles Daily News
: 12/24/2007
:
: When UCLA football coach Dick Vermeil left
: UCLA for the NFL after the 1976 Rose Bowl,
: it didn't take athletic director J.D. Morgan
: long to search for a successor.
:
: On a Tuesday night, he interviewed three
: assistants - Terry Donahue, Lynn Stiles and
: Dick Tomey. The next day, he hired Donahue.
:
: UCLA's search for a successor to Karl
: Dorrell, who was fired earlier this month,
: has been considerably different.
:
: UCLA hired a consultant to assist with the
: search. Athletic director Dan Guerrero and
: assistant athletic director Bob Field have
: flown to Philadelphia, Kansas City, Dallas,
: Eugene, Ore., and who knows where else -
: sometimes on a private plane - to interview
: candidates.
:
: Some, most notably Oregon's Mike Bellotti,
: have said thanks but no thanks. Two of them,
: Rick Neuheisel and Al Golden, have been
: flown to Los Angeles to meet with UCLA
: chancellor Gene Block. Defensive coordinator
: DeWayne Walker, who served as the Bruins'
: interim head coach for the LasVegas Bowl, is
: expected to do the same later this week.
:
: The search is now on its 21st day.
:
: "Everything has changed," said
: Tomey, the former Arizona coach who is now
: at San Jose State. "With agents, the
: salaries, with the Internet, with talk
: radio. All those things have changed the
: process - and obviously the dollars."
:
: Stakes are higher
:
: College football has undergone an explosive
: financial growth over the past decade. If
: Notre Dame's football program were a
: stand-alone entity, it would be valued at
: $101 million, according to Forbes magazine's
: analysis last month.
:
: Thus, hiring the stewards of these programs
: has become a high-stakes proposition for
: universities. The average college football
: coach's salary topped $1million this year,
: according to an analysis by USA Today. When
: Alabama hired Nick Saban a year ago, it
: lured him from the Miami Dolphins with an
: eight-year, $32 million contract.
:
: Committing millions of dollars to a new head
: coach might be reason to proceed with
: caution, but the attention from fans and
: media demands immediate action. Of the 17
: openings this year, only two - SMU and
: Michigan - have taken longer to fill than
: UCLA's.
:
: "It's interesting that on a university
: level, it often takes 18months to two years
: to hire a president or dean," Kentucky
: athletic director Mitch Barnhart said.
: "Yet in a two- to four-week period,
: you're expected to find someone to lead one
: of the most visible programs at the
: university. That's a daunting task.
:
: "Everyone says have a name in your
: pocket, but there are a lot of other
: considerations - agents, attorneys,
: advisers, the families of coaches. There's a
: lot of moving parts and some things you
: can't know or won't know until you get into
: that process."
:
: Checking references
:
: Increasingly, athletic directors are turning
: to head hunters to assist in the search.
: These consultants help develop a list of
: candidates, make initial contacts with
: agents to gauge their clients' interest and
: salary demands, and do background checks so
: that nobody ends up like Notre Dame when it
: hired George O'Leary, only to have it
: revealed by a newspaper that he'd fabricated
: his playing career on his resume.
:
: "The resumes at this level and the
: materials they all present are all slick -
: it could be a script for a Hollywood
: presentation," said former Cal athletic
: director Steve Gladstone, who hired Jeff
: Tedford in 2001 without using a search firm.
:
: Gladstone was checking references for a
: candidate whom he hadn't met, an NFL
: assistant. So, he called an NFL coach to ask
: about him.
:
: "I got, `Oh, he's the greatest,"'
: Gladstone said. "He's got great
: management skills, tactical abilities, he
: was just fired up. So I called a friend who
: played pro football and said `I just got off
: the phone with coach so-and-so about this
: one guy.' He said, `Uh, Steve, he just fired
: him last year."'
:
: This explains why Nebraska athletic director
: Tom Osborne, who retired as a coach after
: winning back-to-back NCAA championships,
: recently employed a consulting firm.
:
: "It's not just giving them a list with
: names and phone numbers," said Jed
: Hughes, a former UCLA and NFL assistant
: coach who is a head hunter for the New York
: firm Spencer Stuart. "Athletic
: directors can talk to other athletic
: directors, but unless you know someone very
: well, getting the right information on an
: individual isn't always easy.
:
: "At Ohio State, I did 20 references on
: Jim Tressel. Clearly, I have access to
: people that other people aren't going to
: have. That can be a huge difference-maker.
: What coach is involved with a cheerleader?
: Does a coach have a degree? What about his
: behavioral habits, his social habits, how
: they work with others? There are all sorts
: of social pieces that you may not find on
: paper or in an interview."
:
: Hughes said his firm charges $200,000 per
: search, perhaps explaining why he does no
: more than one NFL and one college search per
: year.
:
: Nebraska spent $75,000, according to a
: school official. UCLA is believed to have
: spent about half that much on Bill Rees, a
: former UCLA assistant with Chicago-based
: Reilly Partners.
:
: Not that this guarantees much of anything
: beyond a well-vetted candidate pool.
:
: Gladstone, who still serves as Cal's crew
: coach, received plenty of scorn when the
: search he conducted - along with the Cal
: rugby coach and two associate athletic
: directors, one a former Cal football captain
: - dragged on for five weeks.
:
: Now, with Tedford having turned a program
: that had won 12 games in five seasons into a
: perennial Rose Bowl contender, the laughing
: has long since ceased.
:
: "The structure is not going to yield
: the best candidate," said Gladstone,
: whose rowing teams have won eight national
: championships. "What it takes is
: individuals to suss out human nature.
:
: "I don't think it matters if you're
: coaching football, wrestling or rowing,
: coaching is coaching. The qualities of a
: gifted coach are fungible. I (was) looking
: for a person who doesn't have the desire to
: win, but somebody with a profound need to
: win. Whether it's business or writing or
: coaching, there are people who are going to
: define themselves by their work, and when
: you bump into those people, there will be a
: full measure to the work they're engaged
: in."
:
: Coach-hunting season
:
: At Alabama, which is on its fifth coach in
: eight years, there has been a new, almost
: seasonal, sport to capture the fervor of the
: state. Along with football and spring
: football, there is now coach-hunting season.
:
: Five years ago, when Alabama was looking for
: a replacement for Dennis Franchione, who had
: just left for Texas A&M, a posting on a
: message board mentioned a Web site,
: flightaware.com, that could track any
: commercial or private flight.
:
: Soon, the Birmingham News reported that a
: booster's plane had been parked in
: Coeurd'Alene, Idaho, waiting for word to zip
: down to Pullman, Wash., to pick up
: previously under-the-radar candidate Mike
: Price when he accepted the job.
:
: Now, flightaware.com has become a de rigueur
: tool for reporters and fans, alike. The
: flight-tracking software led to the
: discovery early this year that Miami
: Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga was meeting
: with USC coach Pete Carroll - in Costa Rica.
:
: Alabama, though, remains ahead of the curve.
: Not only is there a stable of booster planes
: to choose from, but when all eyes became
: fixed on the Tuscaloosa airport, athletic
: director Mal Moore began flying out of
: nearby Bessemer, Ala.
:
: "The press is very interested, but the
: Internet - even though it might be right one
: out of 10 times - and talk radio have
: changed the way you have to do business in
: athletics," said John McMahon,
: president pro-tem of the Alabama Board of
: Trustees. "It's very difficult to keep
: anything confidential."
:
: UCLA found that out last week when Guerrero
: flew from Las Vegas to Eugene to meet with
: Bellotti. At first, Bellotti denied to local
: reporters that the meeting took place, then
: acknowledged it that evening, and turned
: down the job the next day.
:
: "Most high-profile coaches are in a
: terrible situation," McMahon said.
: "A lot of them are willing to listen,
: but don't want to be perceived as disloyal.
: Sometimes they may not even have a serious
: interest, but they may want to just
: listen."
:
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