Former Texas coach Mackovic to replace Tomey at Arizona

Monday, December 4th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) _ John Mackovic, who said he was retiring from coaching after being fired at Texas three years ago, agreed to a five-year contract to replace Dick Tomey as head coach at Arizona.

Mackovic, 57, had been a television analyst for the past two years.

``The TV gig was nice, but it wasn't coaching. It didn't have the same feeling of coaching,'' Mackovic said.

Athletic director Jim Livengood said he first talked to Mackovic eight days ago and the two worked out their agreement during meetings in Phoenix last week.

``The key for me was: Did he want to get back into coaching'' Livengood said. ``John Mackovic, being a great coach, is a no-brainer. All you have to do is look at his track record and background. He's been successful everywhere he's been and he's done it the right way.''

Mackovic was selected conference coach of the year in all three of his collegiate head coaching jobs _ at Texas, Illinois and Wake Forest.

University president Peter Likins declined to reveal Mackovic's salary pending approval by the Board of Regents.

Mackovic's emphasis has always been on offense and he said he would call the plays, although he plans to hire an offensive coordinator.

He said his goals were to ``fill the stadium to the brim'' and ``get this program to the Rose Bowl.''

Arizona is the only Pac-10 team never to play in the Rose Bowl.

Mackovic is a close friend of Tomey's and had several conversations with him before taking the job.

He said he had turned down another offer recently and had been contacted by a third school but had already accepted the Arizona job.

Mackovic was also head coach at Wake Forest from 1978-80. He coached the Kansas City Chiefs from 1983-86, Illinois from 1988-91 and Texas from 1992-97.

Mackovic's record in 13 seasons as a college coach is 85-64-3. He was 30-34 with the Chiefs.

Mackovic was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks' coach at Arizona from 1973-76 under Jim Young.

Mackovic has worked with several top offensive players, including Mark Hermann at Purdue, Danny White with the Dallas Cowboys, Jeff George of Illinois and Ricky Williams at Texas.

He was offensive coordinator at Purdue in 1977 and was quarterbacks coach for Tom Landry's Cowboys in 1981 and 1982.

Mackovic directed Texas to a 10-2-1 record in 1996 but was fired after the Longhorns went 4-7 in 1997. His overall record at Texas was 41-28-2.

Tomey stunned his players last month by telling them moments after the Wildcats lost to Arizona State that he was resigning after 14 years at Arizona, the longest tenure of any current Pac-10 coach.

``I just told them that I didn't think I could continue because the public debate has become so difficult for my family, for our team, for our coaches and their families,'' Tomey said at the time.

Tomey was 95-64-4 in 14 years at Arizona and 158-110-7 in 24 seasons with the Wildcats and at Hawaii. He had the most victories of any coach at either school.