The news that Ken Niumatalolo had been named Navy's head football coach was greeted with considerable applause in Nashville, Tenn., where Norm Chow is the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans and the poster person for Hawai'i-bred coaches.

"That's really great for Ken," Chow said. "He deserves it. He was due."

If there is anyone qualified to speak on the subject of someone being "due" for a head coaching job, it would be Chow.

Niumatalolo became what is believed to be the first head coach of Samoan ancestry in major college and perhaps only the second of Polynesian heritage on college football's highest level. Considering the first was Larry Price at UH in the mid-1970s, it has been quite a wait.

But, then, Chow, who is of Chinese, Hawaiian and Portuguese ethnicity, has seemed poised for a breakthrough on a couple fronts for years, too.

Stays as offensive coordinator at Brigham Young, North Carolina State and Southern California before going to the Titans amount to just the opening page of an impressive resume for a coach who has shaped three Heisman Trophy winners, groomed six first-round draft picks and been a nationally honored assistant.

Yet the one box that remains unchecked in a 38-year career is head coach. Part of it is that Chow didn't throw himself at every job that came down the pike, being content to raise three children in Provo, Utah during a 21-year stay before scanning the want ads. Even then, he looked over some and passed on at least two, including Southern Methodist. The wonder is that there weren't more because someone with his abilities and a PhD in education would seem to be an attractive enough candidate to have more than a couple of offers.

You get the feeling the job he really wanted and never got a fair shot at was Stanford, where the Cardinal had reason to rue the decision and eventually dump the two subsequent hires. The same for BYU, where Gary Crowton got the job after LaVell Edwards and didn't pan out. Of course, UH passed on Chow, too, in 1995 and came to regret the 0-12 season that came three years later.

Now, at age 61 with a salary said to be well above $1 million per season and the prospect of yet another extension at Tennessee where he has molded quarterback Vince Young, you have to wonder in the latest rounds of the coaching merry-go-round not only if Chow will get a head coaching offer but if it will be one he can afford to take.

"When I was younger, a coach told me once there are two kinds of assistant coaches," Chow said. "One that aspires to be a head coach. And, the other that is willing to work at his job and do the best he can do and one is not better than the other. Well, there's room for both coaches."

Somewhere — and before too long — you'd hope there will be room for Chow to experience both.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.