Chow's Status Unclear
It’s hard to imagine a coach with a more interesting career than Norm Chow. He spent most of it at BYU, getting both credit and blame for the Cougars’ production. When it finally became burdensome, Chow left for North Carolina State. He has since coached for the Tennessee Titans, as well as USC and now UCLA. He has enjoyed wide success.
Now he’s under fire, as Bruin head coach Rick Neuheisel is reportedly mulling Chow’s status.
“I’m a big guy,” Chow told ESPN Los Angeles. “I’ve been around this business a long time. I’ve been fired before. It’s part of the deal. Obviously it’s something he’s thinking through. That’s his prerogative as a head coach.”
After UCLA’s bowl win last December, the L.A. Times asked Chow if he’d be back in 2010.
“Check back next week,” said Chow.
I didn’t know Chow as well as some of my colleagues. But I liked Chow, he always seemed pretty up-front to me when he was at BYU. At the same time, after he left BYU he was sometimes evasive about talking with the Utah media. When BYU played USC in football a few years ago, he only made himself briefly available in a post-game press conference.
I’m no psychologist, but he always seemed candid but thin-skinned. I’ve heard from former players who said he could be difficult. At the same time, he’s coached three Heisman winners. His overall career has been brilliant.
Why Chow has never been a head coach is a conundrum. His name has come up at Stanford, Hawaii, UCLA, NC State and Kentucky. I have to figure somewhere among those great offenses he has produced, a school would take a chance and hire him as a head coach. Yet I’ve always suspected that not becoming a head coach was largely Chow’s decision. In the 1980s, when the Utah job came open (his alma mater), I called to gauge his interest. He told me he wanted no part of a program that treated Chuck Stobart they way it did (by firing him).
I’m guessing it’s sort of always been that way — Chow isn’t all that worried. With a reported salary of $940,000 this year at UCLA, he doesn’t need to jump to a head coaching position. When you’re making that kind of cash, it’s easy to be picky. Or maybe his demands are too high.
In any event, he continues his most intriguing career as one of the most decorated assistant coaches never to be named the boss.