Tommy Cook liked his job in surgerical sales in Florida.

But he couldn't shake football.

His grandfather and dad were coaches, and he grew up a "fieldhouse rat," after all.

He had played for four years at the University of Kentucky as a receiver and invested so much, his college stay extended to six years after battling through nine surgeries, including ones to repair a broken leg, a torn ACL and a dislocated kneecap.

But he also still loved the challenges of business, of sales. He loved working with a budget, finding ways to get creative and get results.

"I always wondered how I could combine the two worlds of football and the aspect of business, and it just so happens that the paths ended up colliding for me in (football) operations," said Cook, Purdue's first-year director of football operations under new coach Darrell Hazell.

All Cook needed was a little nudge to change career paths.

When friend and Duke offensive coordinator Kurt Roper offered up these words - "If you wake up every morning thinking about football, you've got to make the jump and do it or it'll eat you up" - Cook was done in.

"Every morning, I was waking up thinking about football," Cook said last week. "I was just lucky enough to keep the contacts I did to get back in it."

Cook went back to where he was familiar, landing GA jobs under Joker Phillips at Kentucky, serving first a year on defense and then a year on offense before a new position was created for Cook. As assistant director of football operations and director of player personnel at Kentucky, Cook learned from director of football ops Nolan Jones.

He picked up the job quickly.

So when Hazell called in June 2012 - about six hours after Cook had returned from his honeymoon in St. Thomas - to ask if Cook wanted to come to Kent State, Cook was ready.

Even if he didn't know much initially about what he was getting into with Hazell.

He didn't know much about him and isn't sure how Hazell found him. But Cook learned quickly about his future head coach after a lunch at Cheesecake Factory in Columbus, Ohio, and then a three-hour interview later.

"Nolan kind of told me, 'You're going to be spinning your wheels here because you've already caught on and you're already doing everything I'm doing. So it's time for you.' So after he told me that, him being my mentor, I just went ahead and made the jump," Cook said. "It was a scary jump at first. But as soon as I got with Coach Hazell, the kind of program he runs from an organizational standpoint, always knowing where you're supposed to be, what you're doing, for me, it fits my personality.

"I think Coach Hazell and I are a lot alike in those regards. Just the pure organization and the kind of guy he is. He's an unbelievable man. So I've been very, very lucky and fortunate."

It's important for the director of ops to connect with the head coach, considering Cook's job description is to be Hazell's "right-hand man." Cook is at-the-ready to accomplish any day-to-day needs Hazell may have for the program, both in finding answers and executing results of projects or problems.

But Cook also is the program's liaison with the rest of the athletic department, whether that's offering insight on marketing, finances or meeting with athletic director and football sport administrator Morgan Burke.

And those are only the two major emphases of the job.

The list of responsibilities is long and typically depends on the time of year. Currently, Cook is working on coordinating the arrival of Purdue's 2013 signing class to campus, most of whom are coming for summer school in June.

It no doubt can be time-consuming and overwhelming at points with all that's on the to-do lists, but Cook can't envision a better fit for himself at this point in his career.

"I think it's a combination of being able to be on the business side of things but staying involved in athletics," he said. "I love being organized. I love knowing what to expect. Then when you have a head coach that demands high expectations of you, you wake up every morning looking forward to coming to work and not letting your head man down because he's that kind of leader and that kind of motivator. You do not want to let him down. Coupled with that and having a passion for what you do, it makes it fun to come to work.

"It's tough in this business, in the football profession, on a day-in and a day-out basis you're trusting your livelihood and the livelihood of your family on 18 to 22 year olds. Sometimes that's a tough job, but it's a great, great thing to do. I think there's a good vibe and a good excitement going on right now for Purdue football, and that's exciting for us."

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