I never really thought of Kansas head basketball coach Roy Williams as being a jerk or really having any negative feelings toward people at all. He is a nice guy at press conferences after games and he always pays much respect to his opponents.

But he had decided to use his power within the Kansas athletic department to get his very own athletic director, Al Bohl, fired on Wednesday. Kansas, who is in a silent battle with North Carolina to have coach Williams for next season, was desperate and fired Bohl knowing Williams had a problem with him.

Williams’ biggest beef with Bohl began when Bohl came aboard in 2001 and fired football coach Terry Allen with two games left in the regular season. Allen, the former head coach at Northern Iowa and now an assistant under Iowa State’s Dan McCarney, was friends with Williams, who didn’t like the fact that he was fired while the season was still going.

Bohl’s reaction to this whole situation was outrage, as it probably should be. But he sounds like he is surprised that a head coach can have the power to get an athletic director fired.

Reaction from around college basketball and from various sports networks is that, while it is sad, this is the way it is. Williams has built a legacy at Kansas and has made four Final Four appearances, two of them most recently coming back-to-back.

In many cases, the head coach is quite the celebrity on a college basketball team. I could not imagine being Bobby Knight after witnessing the media frenzy that followed this man everywhere he went both in Dallas at the Big 12 tournament and when Texas Tech paid a visit to Ames in February.

Coaches like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Arizona’s Lute Olson have this kind of star power as well. Even Iowa’s Steve Alford and Iowa State’s Larry Eustachy are high-profile guys and not easy to get to.

Each one of these coaches and many more, especially coming off a successful season or seasons, could probably get their respective athletic director canned at the drop of a hat. All it takes is the right angle with the media and one or two good reasons.

I’m not saying that any of these men would do that or will do that, but they probably could and that is scary for athletic directors, who should technically have all the power within an athletic department.

It’s not easy for a coach to achieve this much power, but in big-time conferences like the Big 12, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference, the head coaches are becoming more and more high-profile, and if they win games they will get the power.

This power comes from the fans, who booed Al Bohl at a pep rally at the Final Four because they spend a lot of money and invest a lot of time. The boosters are also important because they give money, and if the coach who is winning says the athletic director who is sitting and collecting should go, then the boosters will agree.

It’s very similar to the music industry. The more success an artist gets, the more power and pull they will get around their label and in the public eye.

I’m not trying to say the athletic director is a job that can just be thrown around. But when you deal more with behind the scenes work and aren’t the one on the court winning and losing games in front of thousands, it’s hard to make a case for yourself.

To the average sports fan, an athletic director just hires and fires coaches, works with budgets and maybe a few other things that may include kissing a little ass, but I’m not too sure on that one. But all the hard work they do, whatever that may be, usually goes unnoticed.

The bottom line for an athletic director is that if your coaches are more high profile or, should I say, more successful in sports, than don’t be surprised if your job falls into hot water from time to time. Just try and be friends with the coaches as best you can.

The interesting thing about Williams and his situation is that he still hasn’t decided on where he is going. If he goes to North Carolina, Bohl should be pissed because it will seem as though he was fired for nothing.

I would feel bad, but it’s not like I care that Bohl fired Terry Allen — he’s a good coach and doing a fine job for Iowa State.