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Tormey joins Cougars staff

Chris Tormey, center, leads his University of Idaho team in song after a 42-35 win over Southern Mississippi in the Humanitarian Bowl on Dec. 30, 1998. Tormey, most recently an assistant at Hawaii, is joining the WSU staff. (Douglas Pziac / Associated Press)
By Vince Grippi vincegrippi55@yahoo.com
Spokane native Chris Tormey will join the Washington State University’s football staff as linebackers’ coach, according to a report in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and confirmed by WSU athletic department sources Friday. Tormey, who played at Gonzaga Prep and Idaho, where he was an All-Big Sky linebacker, will replace former coach Travis Niekamp, who took a new position in the football offices. The 55-year-old Tormey has coached the University of Hawaii’s special teams and safeties for the past two seasons. Prior to that, he served three stints as an assistant at Washington, including a season as coach Jim Lambright’s defensive coordinator in the early 1990s. He left that spot to become Idaho’s head coach, where he posted a 33-23 record and led the Vandals to a Humanitarian Bowl victory in 1998. From Idaho he moved to Nevada, where he was 16-31 in four seasons. After being replaced at Nevada, he returned to UW under coach Tyrone Willingham, where he coached linebackers and was recruiting coordinator.