Early positions Tomey is a 1960 graduate of
DePauw University. At DePauw, Tomey earned three varsity letters on the
DePauw Tigers baseball team at
catcher from 1957 to 1959. He began his college football coaching career as graduate assistant and freshman coach at
Miami University under
John Pont in 1962, then under
Bo Schembechler in 1963. In 1964, Tomey became freshman coach at
Northern Illinois under
Howard Fletcher. From 1965 to 1966, Tomey coached
defensive backs at
Davidson College under
Homer Smith. He then coached the same position at
Kansas from 1967 to 1970 under
Pepper Rodgers, then followed Rodgers to
UCLA in 1971. From 1971 to 1973, Tomey was both offensive line and defensive backs coach under Rodgers. During Tomey's time as assistant, UCLA won the
1976 Rose Bowl following the
1975 season.
Hawaii (head coach) From 1977 to 1986, Tomey led his teams at Hawaii to their first in season top-20
Associated Press ranking in 1981, and their first AP first-team All-American player,
Al Noga. In 1981, he also earned
Western Athletic Conference "Coach of the Year" honors. He left as the winningest coach in Hawaii history, but was passed by
June Jones during the 2006 season.
Arizona In 1987, Tomey became head coach at
Arizona, earning
Pac-10 "Coach of the Year" honors in 1992. During his tenure, he coached five future
NFL first-round draft choices, 20
All-Americans, and 43 Pac-10 first team players. His best teams were in the mid-1990s, highlighted by a tenacious "Desert Swarm" defense. He led Arizona to two of four ten-win seasons in school history, highlighted by a 12–1 campaign in 1998, in which they finished fourth in both major polls, the highest ranking in school history. The Wildcats were drubbed in the 1999 season opener against
Penn State and won just six games that year; Tomey resigned after the 2000 season. The school president and athletic director represented Tomey's "nominal resignation was in lieu of termination by the university," but clarified in 2019 after Tomey's death that the threatened termination was a ruse to pass $600,000 to Tomey as a show of gratitude, as he would not be contractually entitled to it if he resigned. His 95 wins are the most in Wildcats history.
San Francisco 49ers and Texas In 2003, he was an assistant defensive coach for the
San Francisco 49ers specializing in the
nickel defense. In 2004, he helped lead the
Texas Longhorns to an 11–1 season and victory in their first-ever
Rose Bowl as assistant head coach and defensive ends coach.
San Jose State On December 29, 2004,
San Jose State University hired Tomey as head football coach. Despite a 3–8 record in his inaugural season, the Spartans posted a 3–2 record at home, their first winning record since the 2000 season, although one of these wins came against a
Division I-AA team. Also, the Spartans were the Division I-A leader in improved attendance. They were one of 11 teams to allow 100 fewer points from the previous year. Three of their losses were by only one touchdown and one of those came against the 2005 WAC co-champion,
Nevada. Finally, the Spartans closed out their season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 1997. This two-game winning streak ended during the 2006 season opener, when they lost to
Washington. In 2006, the Spartans finished their regular season 8–4, and participated in the inaugural
New Mexico Bowl against
New Mexico. San Jose State won the game 20–12 on December 23, 2006, and finished with a 9–4 overall record. In 2009, he was named President of the
American Football Coaches Association. On November 16, 2009, Tomey announced he would be retiring at season's end. Tomey finished his final season as the Spartans head coach with a 2–10 record in 2009, bringing his head coaching record to 25–35 at San Jose State and 183–145–7 overall in college football.
Hawaii (special teams) Tomey returned to
Hawaii to be special teams coach under
Greg McMackin for the 2011 season. ==Broadcasting career==