Columnist Steve Guiremand: Another athletic director botches his job

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. His Around Campus column appears Friday during the football season.

With apologies to UNLV's Charlie Cavagnaro, an ex-sportswriter who obviously was smart enough to go on to bigger and better paying things, being a college athletic director these days really isn't that tough a job.

You attend a few boring NCAA meetings. You play golf and schmooze with big money boosters. You hire decent coaches and administrators. Then you do what you can behind the scenes to support and make them successful.

So why are so many ADs having trouble doing their job?

We all know what a disaster Mike Garrett has been to USC's athletic program, undermining John Robinson so he can bring in Paul "Can't" Hackett, swearing at many of his own athletes on the sidelines or in the stands with their stunned parents listening nearby.

You can easily explain that away because Garrett's only qualification for the job was winning the school's first Heisman Trophy and backing the university in its discrimination lawsuit against Marvin Cobb, won by a lawyer named Johnnie Cochran.

But what's Chris Ault's excuse?

The Nevada-Reno athletic director went the Garrett route after his team's 58-21 thrashing at Fresno State last Saturday, backstabbing the head coach he hired less than a year earlier, Chris Tormey, in the local newspaper.

"We're a better team than we're playing right now," Ault told the Reno Gazette-Journal of the 1-5 Wolf Pack. "It's a bunch of stuff. I'm not going to tell you what it is. That's his (Tormey's) job. That's my two cents. We're a better team than we're playing. That young thing only goes so far."

Rebuilding UNR, making the big move from the Big West to the Western Athletic Conference this year, generally was expected to battle Tulsa and San Jose State for the WAC cellar this year. Tormey has played 20 freshmen or redshirt freshmen after inheriting a very bare cupboard from Jeff Tisdel.

You'd think Ault, a former football coach, could see that. You'd think he'd also know how important it is to back his new hire in the rough early going like a good AD would. You'd think he'd also realize that opposing coaches no doubt will be reading his comments to potential UNR recruits in the next few months, making Tormey's rebuilding job even tougher.

For his part, Tormey took the high road and actually went out of his way to thank Ault for his support at his weekly booster luncheon on Monday.

"He's done everything he said he would do," Tormey said. "I appreciate your support."

Yeah, right.

UNLV Trojans?

Among the many letters to the editors grilling USC coach Paul Hackett in the Los Angeles Times last week was this one by George M. Lewis of San Luis Obispo.

Wrote Lewis: "Since USC has attained an enviable reputation for academic excellence, it is clear that the university now has too much integrity to sustain the quality and level of athletic performance that its fans demand, a dilemma that requires a solution worthy of the 21st century.

"What the university should do is franchise the athletic program to UNLV. John Robinson is already there, and Las Vegas has clearly established itself as a city that embodies the values that the NCAA and Division I college athletics have come to represent.

"The transition will be easy and cost little; UNLV will merely have to change uniforms, and Trojan fans everywhere will quickly embrace the new USC-UNLV Trojans. One can even imagine a lavish new casino-stadium-hotel entertainment complex created in the image of ancient Troy and staffed by former athletes who have either failed to graduate or succeed in professional athletics."

Swell idea, George. But would Carson Palmer be happy as Jason Thomas' backup for the next couple of years?

Once around the nation

Once around the MWC