Texas Tech’s radio broadcast team was an hour or so away from going on the air at the Cotton Bowl last January when Terry Bowden popped into the booth with a purpose.

Sonny Cumbie, right, celebrates a touchdown with Texas Tech center Justin Keown (73). Cumbie is on the sideline as a graduate assistant coach after he spent four years balancing a playing career with radio work in his offseason.

Hired just two days before to coach Division II North Alabama, Bowden wanted someone to install a spread offense, and he quickly offered a spot on his staff to Sonny Cumbie.

The timing wasn’t right, or else it might have been another new role for Cumbie. Since he completed his Tech playing career five years ago, the 28-year-old ex-quarterback has worn all sorts of hats: NFL hopeful. Successful Arena League player in Los Angeles. Player-coach of an indoor team in San Angelo and analyst for four seasons on the Tech radio crew. Now he’s a graduate assistant coach for Mike Leach.

“I think it’s given me a really good look at football from all angles and all perspectives,” he said.

It’s also given him ample storytelling material, about everything from living in L.A. when he played there to recruiting players from Chicago to San Angelo when he coached. Through it all, Cumbie was never off the radar for Tech fans, because he returned in the fall as an on-air personality for Tech games from 2005 to ‘08.

“I really enjoyed each year I did the radio,” he said. “Each year, I put more into it, and the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. I had a lot of fun with it, but part of me always wanted to be in that booth next door in the coaching capacity.”

Now he’s there. Cumbie prepares Tech’s defensive scout team each week as well as working with Leach and the Red Raider quarterbacks.

“He’s just a really sharp guy,” Leach said. “I think he brings a sense of stability to our players. I think everybody respects what he’s done here. He’s a great influence and a knowledgeable coach.”

That’s partly because Cumbie has built a broad base of experiences since he led the nation in passing in 2004.

Right after his Tech career ended, the Snyder standout spent three years with the Los Angeles Avengers. He made the Arena League’s all-rookie team in 2005, passed for more than 3,200 yards in 2006 and really took off in 2007 with 4,370 yards passing and 83 touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the accommodations and the scenery were first-class.

“Being there was kind of like a vacation for me and my wife,” he said. “We lived in Marina del Rey. They paid for our housing in a nice apartment complex. We were three or four blocks from Venice Beach. We’d go to Manhattan Beach, Muscle Beach, all those places. We talk from time to time about how we’d like to go back and visit, because it was a fun time and a lot of fun things to do.”

In December, the AFL canceled the 2009 season, pulling the rug from under scores of players. Cumbie said he expects the AFL to return in some form, and some coaches have called to inquire about his interest. But he’s resisted the temptation to make a career out of Arena ball.

“I could play for a while longer,” he said, “but I didn’t want to end up being 33, 34, 35 years old wanting to coach in college and have to start out as a grad assistant at that point.”

Though the league suspended operations, Cumbie wasn’t quite done with the indoor game, and spent the first half of 2009 coaching and playing with the Indoor Football League’s San Angelo Stempede Express. However, San Angelo and the Indoor Football League, by design, are a more shoestring operation than Los Angeles and the Arena League, considering the latter lasted for 22 years and had games on network and cable television.

The Stampede Express taught Cumbie resourcefulness. He made calls to recruit players and helped arrange housing and meals. All the road trips were bus rides, and curfew on road trips was the head coach’s responsibility.

“That’s one of the differences here (at Tech),” he said. “Like on road trips (with the Stampede Express), we’d set curfew and I’d sit out in the hotel, making sure guys made it in. It’s such a finely tuned machine here, things just run themselves. It’s more about football here than it was about the other things there.”

Knowing Cumbie wants to coach, Tech radio color man John Harris was happy the ex-QB landed a spot on Leach’s staff. The last four years, though, he said Cumbie’s knowledge added to the broadcast.

Cumbie had to run an offense and recognize defenses while playing quarterback, and that skill set came in handy for the radio team.

“That’s what he did best,” Harris said. “Then came the hard part of trying to explain that in 15 or 20 seconds before the next play. I think as he got more experience at it, he got more and more comfortable and was really good at it.”