One of the most underrated parts about moving back to a city you previously lived in for well over a decade is familiarity. There isnβt angst about settling in or finding your favorite places to eat, even if itβs been two decades.
Just ask Duane Akina, Arizonaβs newest senior defensive analyst, who coached at Arizona for 14 seasons under the late Dick Tomey and was a part of the winningest era of Wildcats football.
βI know where all my Chinese restaurants are and all my restaurants, so I donβt have to go hunting,β Akina said. βMy wife is right back with her old tennis crew, so itβs been a perfect blend for us.β
A little bit has changed since the 66-year-old Akina left Arizona in 2000 β notably the construction of the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center and the Dick Tomey Practice Fields named after the man he coached with for decades at three stops: Hawaii, Arizona and Texas.
Where the UA football team practices now is where the Arizona baseball program played its games the last time Akina coached in Tucson. And the weather?
βItβs beautiful. How can you beat this? Weβre practicing, looking at mountains and palm trees as weβre working,β Akina said. βThe energy here is incredible. Itβs what I remember from the 14 years I was here at the University of Arizona, and Iβm excited to be a part of this. Iβm excited about the direction that weβre going.β
Akinaβs passion and charisma are tough to put into words. Arizona linebacker Justin Flowe was asked to describe Akinaβs personality. He pondered the question and responded with a battle cry, followed by βenergy, energy, energy.β
Akina, who Arizona coach Jedd Fisch said βhas a great love for the University of Arizona and for the city of Tucson,β provides not only energy but a wealth of knowledge. Considering Akinaβs rΓ©sumΓ© includes coaching three Jim Thorpe Award winners at Arizona and Texas (Darryll Lewis, Michael Huff and Aaron Ross), along with six Rose Bowl appearances, it took no time for him to garner respect from his colleagues and players.
βYou get a guy like Duane Akina, what a blessing for us first and foremost to be with a guy thatβs been to big-time places and coached at the highest level, coached in the highest games,β Arizona tight ends coach Jordan Paopao said.
Paopao, who is Polynesian, has always carried a high level of admiration for Akina, a Honolulu native who helped instill Polynesian culture, values and principles to set up the foundation of the renowned βDesert Swarmβ era and success in the late 1990s that included a Holiday Bowl victory to cap off a 12-1 season in β98. Fisch and his staff have tried to follow a similar blueprint.
βWhat heβs been able to do at the forefront of being one of the first guys coaching at the highest level as a Polynesian coach,β Paopao said of Akina, βfor a young dude like me, those are the guys you emulate. Those are the guys, whenever you get a chance to work with (them), you learn as much as you can, not only from a football perspective but ... through the phases of life.β
Football as family
Under Tomey, football played second fiddle to another F-word: Family.
βThis game can eat you up. At times, you can spend more time with other peopleβs children than your own,β Akina said. βBut what Coach Tomey did was give us an opportunity to be good parents too, which became good models for the players, and balancing that.β
Akina learned under Tomey that coaching football is βteaching more than just Xβs and the Oβs and trying to get a first down.β
βThis game is a laboratory for life, because everything you learn on the gridiron β put your ego in your back pocket, compete, adversity, getting up at 6 a.m. β is what companies are looking for,β Akina said. βWhen they leave here, theyβre joining another team in the workforce. ... They just transfer it over because thatβs their new team.β
One of Akinaβs favorite memories of his time at Arizona was a galvanizing loss at No. 1 Miami. The Wildcats nearly upset the top-ranked Hurricanes at the Orange Bowl in the early portion of the 1992 season but fell 8-7 after Steve McLaughlin missed a 51-yard field goal to end the game.
βNegative situation, right?β Akina asked.
McLaughlin sulked in the shower area of the locker room while others trickled in. Just before Tomey delivered his postgame speech, then-freshman safety Brandon Sanders, who is now on Fischβs staff as coordinator of football alumni and high school relations, shared to the team that βone of our ownβ was hurting.
βEntire team gets up and goes into the showers,β the emotional Akina said. βWeβre playing without our starting quarterback and all of that. We have our meeting in there, and that was the guts β right there, in my opinion β of the whole Desert Swarm. β¦ It was all about the players who loved one another.
βWe competed like heck, but there was true love. β¦ This was the guts of my coaching philosophy. It was because of Coach Tomey.β
βWe all pitch inβ
Once he left Arizona for Texas in 2000 following Tomeyβs resignation, Akina held defensive backs coach, defensive coordinator and associate head coach roles under longtime Longhorns coach Mack Brown for 13 seasons, then spent nine seasons as a defensive backs coach under David Shaw at Stanford.
βIβm just really excited that every stop Iβve been at β¦ Iβve been around a lot of really good coaches,β Akina said. βAnd I continue to grow as a coach here as Iβm learning from Coach (Johnny) Nansen and a lot of the younger coaches, like the (graduate assistants), so itβs been a positive experience without a doubt.β
Why does Akina continue to coach rather than wear Hawaiian shirts and golf year-round like several men at this chapter of their lives do?
βWhat I know about this profession is that itβs all about the people youβre lining up with,β Akina said. βWhen we sat down and talked about βWhatβs your vision? What are we looking for here?β ... the direction that itβs moving in, itβs very much what Iβve been raised on by the man weβve named this practice field (after). Itβs about the team and simplifying things so we can play fast and chase the football.β
Akina works alongside safeties coach Chuck Cecil and first-year cornerbacks coach John Richardson. Akinaβs voice β even with rap music blaring at practice β echoes around the field. Heβs constantly emphasizing to players β whether itβs 7-on-7 or a team drill β to swarm to the ball.
Nansen, Arizonaβs second-year defensive coordinator, said adding Akina to the Wildcatsβ defensive staff brings βa lot of experience, a lot of knowledge β¦ in every phase.β
βHeβs one of the best coaches there is, and itβs been nice to get some feedback into what weβre doing and how we can do it better, so itβs been great,β Nansen said.
With Akinaβs wisdom and expertise, coupled with Nansenβs defensive foundation, the Wildcats are striving to restore the prominent defensive identity the program had in its heyday.
βAs I learn the system on how weβre canceling gaps and what weβre doing on the back end, (then) I can marry it to some of things weβve done in the past, whether it was here with (Desert) Swarm or when I was at Texas and at (Stanford),β Akina said. βWeβre blending whatβs been done in the past and what Iβve done in other areas, along with Chuck and (Richardson) β Iβm just a piece of the puzzle to this staff.β
Besides assisting Arizonaβs secondary, Akina is among the most active coaches during the teamβs special-teams segments during practice. Akina was also Arizonaβs offensive coordinator for four seasons. He knows the game through and through.
βWe all pitch in when weβre needed here. β¦ Iβve worn every title you can wear,β Akina said. βTitles arenβt important, you know? If thereβs a job, somebody go do it, and thatβs where weβre at.
βIn this profession, all I know is that you have to put your ego in your back pocket. I have not been around staffs that are selfish and are looking for their own self-improvement. The places Iβve been, itβs about the team, and if you do well, weβll all be successful: Players will become All-Americans and pros, coaches will move from a position coach to a coordinator to a head coach, and thatβs what Iβm feeling here.β
If you ask Akina, his return to Arizona feels more like a ride than a job.
βI appreciate them letting me jump on this train and go with them,β he said. βIβve been to six Rose Bowls, and Iβd like to get one with the University of Arizona.β