The Louisiana Tech head football coach isn't thrilled with the idea of playing so-called "guarantee games" on the road against Bowl Championship Series foes.

The Bulldogs' athletic director is, especially when the payday is in the high six figures.

The football coach wants to tell assistant coaches to "just go" where and when they need to in recruiting.

The AD would like them to spend the meager travel funds more prudently.

All of which makes things interesting at Louisiana Tech, where Derek Dooley is both the football coach and AD.

Among the 119 schools that make up the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Bulldogs have the only football coach with dual responsibilities.

This means that, as the Bulldogs prepare for Saturday's game at Hawai'i, Dooley is watching both the Bulldogs' $11 million bottom line and their offense and defensive lines.

It is a balancing act going on seven months and has had its ups and downs. "Well, it depends upon the week," Dooley said. "If we win it is working great. When we don't win, it is not working so good. (But) I say that in jest."

Of course, some people thought it was a joke when Dooley, who was still 39 with one season as a head coach, was asked to wear two hats at the Ruston, La., school.

Even Dooley had strong doubts at first, turning down Tech president Dan Reneau's suggestion. "Initially, I did not want to do it," Dooley said. "And I was obviously concerned about not being able to put my energy into football the way I needed to. But the more we talked about it, the more I thought about it and the more I was convinced if we got the right structure it would work."

The school hired Bruce Van De Velde, a former AD at Utah State and Iowa State, to be chief operating officer and restructured other responsibilities.

Once upon a not-too-distant time, schools regularly turned their athletic reins over to the football coach. Dooley's father, Vince, held both jobs for a time at Georgia. At UH, there was even a push by some for June Jones to wear dual caps when Herman Frazier was under fire.

But in this day and age, when ADs are CEOs called upon to balance multimillion-dollar budgets, the trend has been to look toward board rooms rather than locker rooms for ADs.

For Derek Dooley, it has been an eye-opening and priority-adjusting change. "You get a little better handle for what you want versus what you need as a coach," he said. "I think (coaches) want everything and when they don't get it they feel like they are not getting the resources to win. But there is a balance somewhere of what you need and what you want."

Sort of like the time Dooley the coach was pained to see a road game with Louisiana State added to the schedule while Dooley the AD gladly signed the game, relishing the $750,000 payday.

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