November Hues Give Price Blues

To dream of November augers a season of indifferent success in all affairs.

-Gustavus Hindman Miller, The Dictionary of Dreams

Mike Price swears it doesn’t keep him up nights.

Perhaps it should.

Instead, he professes to sleep deeply - which, for all we know, leaves him vulnerable to visit, in the subconscious, imagined Apple Cup heroics and bowl invitations and all the other desserts of November.

And, hence, Washington State’s indifferent success in all affairs football come this wicked and worthless month.

It’s a theory. That’s all we have - theories.

Oh, we have some facts. Well, one fact. And the fact is that while they play for one of the most successful coaches in school history, the Cougars under Price - in the 30 days November hath - have been protagonists in one of the grimmest fairy tales in college football.

There have been circumstances extenuating and circumstances excruciating, but the bottom line is a record severely in need of expurgating: Since 1989, when Price signed on, the Cougars are 4-16 in November - 0-10 on the road.

We bring this up - again, we can hear Price sigh - because, well, here the Cougars are again: in November and on the road for two games, at UCLA and Stanford. Either there will be an epiphany or the same old, same old - in which case Price and the Cougars figure to have their December free to begin fashioning answers for the inevitable question of next November.

“No, it hasn’t kept me up - we haven’t lost in November yet this year,” Price said, a touch of impatience shading a light-hearted tone.

“It was a big concern for me, but then I realized if you win in November you’re going to have a great year and if you don’t win in November you won’t have a great year. It’s really that simple. How many 4-7 teams won their last three games? If you find some teams like that, let me know. I’ll contact them to see if they’re doing something different. But the search goes on.”

The search takes us to Marilyn, a Spokane astrologer on referral from the Open Door Metaphysical Bookstore. This is not where Joe Paterno and Steve Spurrier shop for game plans, no, but extreme times call for extreme measures.

Mike Price is an Aries, born April 6, 1946 and…

“That’s it,” Marilyn stops us.

It is?

“This last April, Saturn went into Aries,” she advises.

We wonder, silently, if that’s anything like the tight end going into the two-deep zone.

“It creates a lot of tension,” Marilyn says. “He has a lot of intense pressures around him on every front, and winning is one of them. All of his security systems are threatened.”

Security? His contract runs through 2000?

“He has some security issues he has to deal with,” she repeats. “He’s been hit so hard that his self-confidence is rather low and will change his patterns regarding winning and losing. A coach, a team leader, has a certain energy that’s put into whatever’s being done. If he has any kind of worry inside of his heart, whether he’s aware of it or not, people in his group will pick up on it as well. It may be subtle - a common link everyone on the team has, something in his voice - that might trigger that response.”

In general, we ask, is November a star-crossed month for the average Aries?

“Most Ariens would be concerned with, at least at the beginning of the month, how relationships with others are going,” Marilyn reports. “They also have a concern with other people’s money. He’s probably real concerned at this point with how the financial situation of the team would be affected by this continuing process.”

Well, when the Cotton Bowl payout is $2 million per team…

No park - no ring - no afternoon gentility -

No company - no nobility -

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease

No comfortable feel in any member -

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,

November!

- Thomas Hood

In the old Roman calendar, which began with March, November - from the Latin novem, or nine - was the ninth month. Price’s teams fare splendidly in the ninth month; his September record at WSU is 20-12. So if he could just scrap this Gregorian nonsense…

But, no, this is the calendar he’s stuck with - along with this first-half happy reputation. Martin Stadium regulars are used to being up at halftime - so used to it, in fact, that many drift away at intermission and never return. Well, the same might be said of Price’s teams. In his 15 seasons at Weber State and Wazzu, he is 38-26 for the first four games of the season and 21-40 for the last four - and a dismal 5-24 at WSU. Only the 1992 Copper Bowl team led by Drew Bledsoe had a November above .500 - 2-1.

Those are numbers he can’t ignore, and he hasn’t.

He claims to have done some research “two or three years ago” on college programs that won three games in November, with the intent of polling their philosophies - more or less hitting in practice, more conditioning, whatever.

“And it was the Top 25 teams,” Price said. “Period. If you win three games in November, you’ll be in the Top 25. If there was a secret and I knew it, I’d bottle it and sell it to the other 85 teams that aren’t in the Top 25 every year.”

In other words, duh.

But there is some reasonable ground between 3-0 each November and 4-16 over the course of eight years. And a number of programs comparable to Wazzu have found it. You need look no further than WSU’s own conference, the Pacific-10. During the same time frame - 1989 on - Oregon is 12-10 in November, Cal 11-10-1, Arizona 11-12. Stanford, remarkably, is 17-6 - with but one more bowl appearance in that stretch than the Cougars.

Arizona State hasn’t finished in the Top 25 in any of the past eight seasons, but the Sun Devils are 14-11 in November. The same goes for Baylor (11-10) and LSU (13-12). Indiana (7-17) and Maryland (4-14-1) are more Couglike in their November success - but what program would the Cougs have us compare them to, ASU or Maryland?.

The crazy part is, even with the god-awful November record they’ve compiled, the Cougars have twice gone to bowls and finished in the Top 25 under Price. Change four games from wins to losses in that 4-16 and it could have been four bowls - or (heavens) an upgrade from the Copper and Alamo bowls.

“Thank you for calling the Psychic Readers Network. This is Julie at extension 13647. Can I get your name?”

We tell her “Mike.” OK, we’re lying. If she’s a real psychic, she smokes us out in a second - but then, she doesn’t get our $3.99 a minute, either.

“What I feel is going on with your teams is kind of a general burnout,” Julie tells “Mike.” “I’m sure you knew that already, didn’t you? I feel they get to the point where they don’t care anymore. The newness wears off and they’re just not as excited about it and they quit before the season is really over.”

What about November, we ask? Is there something about November?

“It’s actually a real decent month for you,” she says. “It’s not your highest point - your highest points are mid-summer, August. November is OK. You’ll probably experience a dip in your bio-rhythms after the new year.”

Uh-oh. Signing date.

November is the most disagreeable month of the year.

-Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Well, let’s talk about that. Keeping the peace may have more to do with late-season success - or mere survival - than play calling.

And let’s be frank - aside from the cease-fire of 1991-93, the Cougs of November have often been a fractious lot, splintered by quarterback controversies and talent imbalances. There was the Gossen-Garcia truce of 1989, the Bledsoe-Gossen-Garcia cold war of 1990, the Chad Davis rebellion of 1995. How much those issues had to do with the Cougs getting shut out in November those years is impossible to gauge.

Tensions may have been at their worst in 1994, however, when the Cougars had a defense the country envied and an offense the defense reviled. A particularly foul airi-clearing between defensive tackle Chad Eaton and offensive tackle Clay Reis probably helped salvage the Apple Cup - WSU’s one November victory that year - and a bowl berth.

“Last year, it was kind of obvious we had a lot of people worried about their stats more than they were worried about winning,” said Cougars linebacker James Darling. “The year before that, we had a lot of finger-pointing, especially after we lost to Oregon State. You know, one day Eaton put a sign that said, ‘Transfer’ on Davis’ locker. It was terrible.”

Pretty cold, to be sure, but only because he beat the coaching staff to it.

Two things convince Darling that the 1996 Cougar is a different animal.

“For the first time since I’ve been here, it’s not just the defense winning games, or Drew Bledsoe winning games. It’s a bunch of guys winning games, offense and defense. Guys root for each other. I don’t see any jealousies. It reminds me of high school.”

Secondly, whether it had anything to do with Price’s November history or not, the coach took the occasion of a bye week to meet individually with every player on the team - a task that usually waits until the season is over.

“I think it was just to keep everybody on the right track,” said Darling. “Our position coaches broke down our grades to see if we were getting better week to week. He talked to us about preparing the same way, to make sure we’re doing everything we can to win.”

Hmm. Our friend Marilyn might call that a security issue.

It is popularly regarded as the month of blue devils and suicides.

-R. Charles, The Book of Days

In his own informal survey, Price uncovered factors of a November swoon that he decided were “pretty obvious - late-season injuries, strength of schedule, not having much depth.” Not being in the bowl picture is another obvious issue. In WSU’s case, you might also throw in weather - not the edge of playing the Huskies or a California team in a snowstorm, but of having to practice daily in near-freezing conditions which can hamper enthusiasm, development and conditioning.

The 1993 Cougs lost their only legitimate quarterback, Mike Pattinson, to a broken collarbone and their last four games. Slotback Tim Stallworth’s injury in 1989 was just as debilitating.

And, yes, one of WSU’s November teams is always going to be UW. Yet two of Price’s four November wins have been over the Dawgs. Meanwhile, he’s 0-4 against Stanford.

The problem is, every Cougar team has had to face those challenges in varying degrees - and in every era, faced them better than Price’s Cougs.

Price is a game under .500 at WSU; his old boss, Jim Sweeney, was 33 games under .500 as Wazzu’s head coach. Yet Sweeney was 10-19 in November. Of coaches with comparable tenure, Jim Walden was 14-16 in November - 14-12 in his first eight years - and Jim Sutherland was 14-15-1.

No Cougar coach save for Frank Shively - 0-1-1 in 1898-99 - has a November batting average lower than Price’s .200.

That either makes his overall record more remarkable - or his overall record makes this month all the more maddening.

Happiness in sports is winning on the road.

-Al McGuire

He didn’t say, “in November.” So we will. And in UCLA and Stanford, the Cougs may never find more accommodating opponents.

But our consultants on this project invoke a note of caution.

“This man has got a tremendous amount of energy that’s going to have some positive things going on with it over the next several years,” advised Marilyn the astrologer. “This isn’t a one-time shot, but he may not be entirely aware of it at this time.”

Counseled Julie the psychic, “It looks like this one is going to be a learning November. I think your next one is the one where you’re really going to see results, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see a lot of results this time.”

Discouraged? The November fan is way past that.

In fact, at this point, indifferent success in all affairs is starting to look pretty good.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NOVEMBER ON MY MIND Fast starter A month-by-month look at Mike Price’s coaching record: September 20-12 October 17-16 November 4-16 December 2-0

Top Cougar coaching records (by total victories) Coach Years Overall November Babe Hollingbery 1926-42 93-53-14 35-20-6 Jim Walden 1978-86 44-52-4 14-16-0 Mike Price 1989- 43-44-0 4-16-0 Jim Sutherland 1956-63 37-39-4 14-15-1 Jim Sweeney 1968-75 26-59-1 10-19-0

Cougar coaches in November (by percentage) Coach Years W L T Babe Hollingbery (1926-42) 35 20 6 Warren Powers (1977) 2 1 0 Forrest Evashevski (1950-51) 5 3 0 Dennis Erickson (1987-88) 3 2 1 Jim Sutherland (1956-63) 14 15 1 Jim Walden (1978-86) 14 16 0 Al Kircher (1952-55) 5 8 1 Bert Clark (1964-67) 4 7 1 Jim Sweeney (1968-75) 10 19 0 Jackie Sherrill (1976) 1 2 0 Phil Sarboe (1945-49) 4 10 2 Mike Price (1989- ) 4 16 0 Coaches Pre-1926 54 28 10

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review