This Relationship Isn’t Secondary

Bob Toledo remembers besting Tom Hayes.

“I had two poles in the water at once and, boom, they both hit at the same time,” Toledo said. “He went nuts.”

Hayes recalls it differently.

“You kidding? I catch all the fish,” he said.

Fish stories can be embellished. Nobody’s watching. Football games are on the record. The whole country takes note.

Plus, there’s tape.

Toledo is studying every tendency Hayes displayed as a defensive coach at Oklahoma, Texas A&M;, even with the Washington Redskins. Hayes is in his first year as Kansas defensive coordinator, but the UCLA coach puts less stock in watching the Jayhawks’ opening 24-10 victory over Southwest Missouri State last week. He knows his old bass fishing buddy too well.

“He was holding stuff back,” Toledo said, arching his eyebrow.

Hayes thinks back to 1989 and ‘90, the years he and Toledo were on the Texas A&M; staff. Great years, bowl games, their wives shopping together, their children attending the same schools, pool parties, barbecues.

Get serious. He’s thinking about Toledo’s play-calling tendencies.

“There are things he loves to do and I know what they are,” Hayes said. “It’s all about when you do it. That’s maybe where I can get a feel for something.”

This is friendly foe week for several UCLA and Kansas coaches. Listing all the connections is like drawing flight patterns on a map.

Deep breath now ...

Pepper Rodgers left Kansas to become UCLA coach in 1970 and brought along an assistant, Terry Donahue, who became coach six years later and hired Hayes as an assistant in 1980. Ed Kezirian was added to the Bruin staff in 1982, leaving Hawaii, where he worked alongside assistant Rip Scherer. Hayes left UCLA for Texas A&M; in 1989-where Toledo was offensive coordinator-and hired John Pearce as an assistant. Pearce and his good friend Clarence James had coached all over Texas until James was hired as an assistant at Oklahoma in 1991, the same year Hayes joined the Sooner staff. Already at Oklahoma was linebacker coach Johnny Barr, who eventually left to work under Phil Snow at Arizona State. Toledo left Texas A&M; for UCLA in 1991 and succeeded Donahue as coach in 1996. His staff this season includes Pearce and Snow. Kezirian is the Bruins’ academic services director.

Fifth-year Kansas Coach Terry Allen brought in seven new assistants this year, including Hayes, Barr, Scherer and James. College coaches are notorious nomads. They change jobs frequently, often at the whim of impatient boosters or trigger-happy athletic directors. They make friends along the way, and those relationships become valuable currency.

“You never know when you’ll need to rely on somebody or when somebody will rely on you,” Pearce said.

These are ultracompetitive men putting in untold hours preparing to beat their buddies.

“It’s not uncommon for coaches to cross paths, but we’ve got so many friendships with Kansas coaches that it really is interesting,” Toledo said. “There will be a lot of hand-shaking before and after the game.

“During the game all I’m trying to do is win. I’ll use any advantage I can get.”

Toledo is pleased with Snow, whose defense passed its first test in last week’s 20-17 victory over Alabama. But with all the problems he has had with defensive coordinators the last few years, it’s surprising he never tried to lure Hayes back to Westwood.

Hayes, 52, was at UCLA when the Bruins won bowl games seven years in a row-then a national record. He was defensive coordinator when UCLA defeated his alma mater, Iowa, in the 1986 Rose Bowl. He was the secondary coach when interceptions by Don Rogers, Danny Lauter and Neal Dellocono keyed a comeback from a 21-point deficit in a 31-27 victory over Michigan in 1982.

In his last UCLA game, the 1989 Cotton Bowl, the Bruins allowed Arkansas 42 yards in a 17-3 victory.

“That coaching staff stayed together for a long time,” Hayes said. “I think that was key, the continuity.”

But change is inevitable in coaching. Hayes left for Texas A&M;, became friends with Toledo, spent four years at Oklahoma and five with the Redskins before hooking on at Kansas.

He’ll do his best to beat the Bruins. Beat Toledo. It’s his job now.

“Bob’s trying to tell me we can’t stop this and that,” Hayes said. “Maybe he’s right. We’ll see.”