Nathan Vaji takes a minute to relax in his office after completing one of his three or four game day Ford Stadium concourse walkthroughs. He sips on a Styrofoam cup of coffee, already his fifth of the day, and it’s only 1:30 p.m.
“I used to hate coffee,” SMU’s director of operations says. “Until I started working in college athletics. I even hated the smell of it.”
Since today’s game against Temple is a 7 p.m. start, Vaji hadn’t gotten to Ford until around 8:30 a.m. He’s thrilled, because he had a late night the previous night working a men’s soccer game at Wescott Field.