Rodney Allison has waited four years to hear the words and see the commitment. Never mind that the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach is entering his sixth season. Or that it could be his last season if he doesn’t dramatically improve his overall 16-40 record with the Mocs.

Allison can accept whatever happens after that final game against Samford in November.

What he couldn’t accept was what he saw during his first two years, when a mix of players he inherited and players he recruited on talent alone were making his life miserable.

So he went to Dallas to talk to the Tuna.

For those of you who’ve skipped the NFL for the past 25 years or so, the Tuna — or Big Tuna to some — is Bill Parcells, who many regard as pro football’s brightest mind. Parcells won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants and played for another with the New England Patriots.

After failing to generate similar magic with the Cowboys, the Tuna has now become a Dolphin by joining the front office staff in Miami.

But long before he became an NFL coaching legend he was the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech when Allison was a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback for the Red Raiders.

“I was a tough guy, and he liked tough guys,” said Allison at the close of Wednesday evening’s practice. “We got to be friends after I graduated. There was a lot of mutual respect there.”

According to Allison, Parcells respected that friendship enough invite the Mocs coach to Big D in the winter of 2005, just after Allison’s second UTC squad had followed a 3-9 record in 2003 with a 2-9 mark in ’04.

“He invited me down for three days,” Allison said. “We met for an hour and a half one day in his office, just the two of us. He told me a couple of things that changed the way I approached this job, especially recruiting.”

Parcells’ first bit of advice was to hire good coaches, then let them coach, which Allison has always done. His second suggestion ran directly counter to what Allison had always done in recruiting.

“I’d come up with Tommy and Terry Bowden,” said Allison. “They believe you sign talent first and worry about the character issues later. So that’s what I did my first year or two here.”

But the Big Tuna was a big proponent of character over talent.

“He told me to pick every player I have in my program personally,” Allison recalled. “You take character first. And that’s what we’ve tried to do around here ever since.”

It should be noted that except for the 6-5 season of 2005 (maybe the Tuna drew up a few game plans that winter, as well), the record hasn’t greatly improved under Allison’s revised recruiting formula.

Nice as it may be to recruit Boy Scouts, if they run the 40 in 5.3 seconds and bench press 105 pounds, they’re still going to get crushed on Saturday. And it doesn’t matter whether they went to bed the night before the game at 10 p.m. after snacking on milk and cookies. Or they partied until dawn.

Talent must still have its place if Allison expects to keep his place at the head of the Mocs’ table.

But to hear his players is to also believe he just might be onto something.

“The main difference this year is commitment,” said junior wideout Blue Cooper. “The guys who showed up for summer workouts is double what it was a year ago.”

Added Brent Hayes, the former Central High standout: “Attitude’s the difference this year. I don’t want to name names, but we had a lot of people (in past years) that didn’t want to follow the rules. They’re gone now.”

None of this will necessarily make the Mocs post their second winning season in four years or do enough to save Allison’s job if they don’t.

But as the coach was leaving Scrappy Moore Field late Wednesday, he let out a “What the (blank)!” in discussing a certain situation in the NFL.

Walking past, a couple of Mocs said, “Don’t you mean, ‘What the heck!,’ Coach?”

Maybe this is the year nice guys can finish first.

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