Blaine Newnham / Times associate editor
'Win now' approach takes too big a toll

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Chris Tormey was clearing out his office as quickly as he could, stashing books and videotapes in a box.

"I'm going to say goodbye to my players, and then I'm moving on," he said yesterday. "My career isn't over. Coaching football is what I do and what I'm good at."

He just wasn't good enough at Nevada, even though he engineered an upset of Washington, even though his team got better every year.

Just like Frank Solich wasn't good enough at Nebraska, even though his team won nine games this season, and his career record at Nebraska was 58-19.

Tormey and Solich were fired this weekend, two of 12 Division I-A coaches who have quit or been fired already this season.

When will schools learn that success comes with stability, that the reason WSU was so good this season was that Mike Price was allowed to coach there for 14 years?

Or at Oregon, for example, where there have been two coaches in 25 years, where there was continuity in recruiting and developing players.

Washington's best teams were the result of coaching stability that extended over five decades with just two coaches, much as Nebraska's was.

After beating Washington and Tulsa, Nevada lost four of its final five games to finish 6-6.

"If we win one of those games," said Tormey, "then we aren't having this conversation."

The margin can be that slim, the patience that short, athletic directors looking for the quick fix in order to ignite excitement at the gate and balance budgets at home.

It didn't matter that Tormey, 48, lost five starters on defense, or almost beat Rice and Louisiana Tech. Or that he inherited a mess four years ago, or that he beat Washington, Nevada's first victory over a Pac-10 team since 1947.

In his four years in Reno, he didn't have a winning season, he didn't get to a bowl game, and he didn't beat rival UNLV.

As an assistant at Washington, Tormey recruited Napoleon Kaufman, Mark Brunell, Donald Jones and Ed Cunningham. He was recruiting better athletes each year to Nevada, and would have had his best team next season.

But none of that mattered to Chris Ault, the athletic director. The week after beating Washington and Tulsa back to back, the Wolf Pack drew 22,000 for a home game against Louisiana Tech. Attendance was even lower for home games after that.

Tormey's teams hadn't excited the community. When Nevada was battered by Boise State 56-3 in the season's final game, Tormey was gone.

Ault believes Nevada should be challenging for the WAC title. The problem is that Boise State, Fresno State and Hawaii all have better programs, and that isn't likely to change, no matter who Ault hires.

In fact, the emergence of Boise State as a program that could compete at the Pac-10 level has left others in the WAC wondering what to do, just as Oklahoma's return to prominence has done to teams in the Big 12.

In firing Solich, Steve Pederson, the Nebraska athletic director, said, "I refuse to let the program gravitate into mediocrity. We won't surrender the Big 12 to Oklahoma and Texas."

Oklahoma has won 48 of its past 52 games, setting a standard that measures Nebraska's 9-3 season as mediocre.

Pederson called Nebraska "the best job in the country."

But is it?

And what if, in the bid to modernize Cornhuskers football with a space-age passing attack, Nebraska loses what it has had — bulldozing offensive lines and quarterbacks who run like the wind? What if Nebraska is no longer special, just someone else trying to do what Texas or USC or Florida does better?

Nebraska isn't entitled to win a national championship every other year, as it once did. Nor is Nevada expected to compete with Fresno State and Boise State.

Expectations can be as daunting at Nevada as they are at Washington. Or Nebraska.

Someone actually asked me if Washington State's Bill Doba was in trouble after his team lost to Washington.

Change in college football means news conferences to fire and hire a coach, it means renewed excitement for spring football, perhaps even a few ticket sales — but for every Pete Carroll to turn around a program, there are three times as many Bob Davies or Paul Hacketts or Tom Holmoes.

A guy of top-notch character, Solich coached in a national-title game during his six seasons at Nebraska. It took his predecessor, the legendary Tom Osborne, 21 seasons before he did as much.

But those were different times.

"You know," said Tormey after he'd been let go, "I never had time to think about the win over Washington. As a coach, the next game is always the most important event in your life.

"Maybe I'll think about it after I get another job."

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com

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