Sports

Choice sits well with team
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Jim Meehan
Staff writer

PULLMAN _ Washington State University athletic director Jim Sterk had Plan B ready just in case football coach Mike Price departed for greener pastures.

It wasn't complicated.

"If I thought someone else out there would fit better and be better with the team and the school than Bill Doba, then you go outside," Sterk said. "I felt I just had to walk across the hall. I slept like a baby last night."

Doba was officially elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach Wednesday -- a promotion that seemed to calm the frayed nerves of players still reeling from Price's decision to bolt for Alabama.

The handoff from Price to Doba didn't take long. It started about 4 p.m. Tuesday with a brief meeting in Price's office.

"Mike came to me and told me he was leaving and that he thought I was going to be the next head coach here," Doba said. "He didn't ask if I wanted to be the head coach or anything. It was, `This is what I'm doing and this is what you should do."'

As it turned out, it was precisely Doba's intentions.

"It's the dream of a lifetime," Doba said.

Doba, 62, agreed to a five-year contract, but financial terms were still under discussion. His base salary figures to be about $500,000 and he could earn as much as $800,000 with incentives. Doba's present base salary is $129,996. He has been WSU's defensive coordinator since 1994. Price hired Doba as part of his first staff in 1989.

"It's the perfect hire," said defensive ends coach Robb Akey, who is expected to become Doba's defensive coordinator. "It couldn't happen to a better individual."

Roughly 18 hours earlier, Price announced his departure in the same auditorium where Doba was introduced at a Wednesday news conference. Players who left Tuesday night's meeting teary-eyed and somber were buoyed by Doba's appointment.

"We're losing a good head coach," senior linebacker Mawuli Davis said, "but we're also gaining a good head coach. A lot of the players were reeling last night and kind of unsure and feeling really bad. I love Coach Price and think the world of him and don't harbor any bad feelings toward him.

"With Coach Doba coming in, it takes away some of the sting."

Junior cornerback Jason David was particularly upset by Price's departure Tuesday night. By midday Wednesday, he sounded like a different person.

"This press conference was a little more uplifting," David said. "I'm excited for Coach Doba and what he's going to do in this program.

"There were a lot of smiling faces. People were sad (Tuesday) because they were upset. Today, this is a good thing going on."

Doba said his immediate goals are to assemble a staff, reassure recruits and continue preparations for the Rose Bowl game against Oklahoma on Jan. 1.

Offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller and Akey will stay at WSU. Defensive line coach Mike Walker said he was leaning toward staying. Robin Pflugrad, the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator, interviewed for the head coaching position at University of Montana on Tuesday. He should learn Montana's decision by the weekend.

"Vaguely, there is a (standing offer for all the assistants to join Price in Alabama)," Pflugrad said. "My thoughts have been on practice and getting ready and the Montana job was forefront in my mind. It would depend on what Coach Price has to say when I get a chance to meet with him."

Secondary coach Chris Ball, offensive line coach Bob Connelly, running backs coach Kasey Dunn and quarterbacks coach Aaron Price, Mike's son, appear to be Alabama-bound.

Mike Price will coach WSU in the Rose Bowl -- and earn a $75,000 bonus in his contract for coaching in a BCS bowl.

"It'll be a little weird the next couple practices," quarterback Jason Gesser said. "Once we realize that he wants to win this game as bad as anybody else and we want to win this game as bad as anybody else, hey, let's go out and do what we've been doing all year long."

Doba said Price deserves to coach in the Rose Bowl. Doing so ensures WSU will have a full staff for the game and Doba will have time to identify new assistants.

"These players want to win the Rose Bowl, some want to win it for Coach Price as much as anybody," Doba said. "The guy spent 14 years here, working hard and he had one goal -- to win the Rose Bowl every year. Players will rally around him."

Doba, too, has been at WSU 14 years, but he immediately made a good impression.

Levenseller was the first of what would become a pipeline of Curtis High graduates to star at WSU. After his playing career, he lived across the street from the Tacoma school but WSU coaches pre-Price never solicited his opinion on Curtis players.

"I came home one day and there's (Doba's) business card on my porch. I looked at it and said, `This must be the new guy at Washington State, that's great,' " Levenseller said. "The next day, there he is waiting for me. He said he'd talked to Coach Price about me. We formed a bond at that moment."

Levenseller became an assistant coach for the Toronto Argonauts.

"And we sat in my living room, and he clinics me because I'd never coached before," Levenseller said. "He spent all this time with me when he should have been recruiting. And not only that, he got real close to my family. I had a little daughter that was sick at the time. He's always been real special to me and my family."

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