Doba, Cougs refocused
PULLMAN – Mike Price gathered his assistant coaches on a December day in 2002 and told them the head position at Alabama was his for the taking.
Around the room the WSU coach went, soliciting opinions from his lieutenants. Some were enthusiastic in telling the boss to go for the new gig, with its prestige and power in the college football landscape.
Then a senior member of the staff – the one with the most to gain from Price’s departure – had a question.
“Why?” Bill Doba asked.
The defensive coordinator’s skepticism did not sway Price, and as a result Doba assumed the head coaching mantle at WSU within hours. It was the job that he never actively sought, given to him via a knock on the door from Price, a phone call of congratulations from athletic director Jim Sterk and a courtesy chat with university president V. Lane Rawlins.
Today marks the start of fall camp and the fourth season for Doba at the helm, and for the 66-year-old head coach this may end up being a defining year in any number of ways. Change at WSU since his move from defensive coordinator to head coach was not instantaneous, but over time since that December meeting the program has become his, for better or for worse.
On the field, the Cougars are a different team – not one starter from the Holiday Bowl win in December 2003 is still around. Off the field, Doba has put his own stamp on WSU, dispersing his ethic in the coaching and playing ranks.
“To be honest, the program where it’s at now isn’t anywhere near where it was when Doba took over,” Troy Bienemann said of the atmosphere surrounding the Cougars. A captain on last year’s team, Bienemann started as a freshman under Price and then for three years under Doba. “Price is known everywhere for being a players’ coach and being a father figure to just about everyone on the team. Coach Doba, he’s more of a detail- oriented guy. He’s more about form and structure than Price was, which isn’t for the bad or good. It’s just two different styles.”
Over the last 12 months, Doba and his coaching style have faced their most severe tests. The bottom dropped out on the 2005 season, with a series of close losses, near misses and questioned decisions resulting in a 4-7 record. A week after spring practices ended, Doba’s wife of 44 years, Judy, died following a prolonged bout with cancer.
Doba spent much of the summer with family and friends in the Midwest, far removed from Pullman and his normal duties as football coach. But by all accounts he’s returned to WSU more focused and more determined.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” linebackers coach Leon Burtnett said. “Really and truly, I think he needs it more now. He doesn’t have Judy to go home to. In all of his mindset, it’s surrounding this football team. I think that’s true for anybody that has something like that happen. What’s left for him? His family isn’t here. It’s football. This football team is his family.”
After his wife’s death in April and in the time since he’s returned to Pullman, the community around Doba has been generous with support.
His assistants have remained loyal – just one coach has departed since Doba’s move to the big office. Sterk has gone out of his way to credit a “quality staff” time and time again, even after the team’s struggles last season. And approximately $11,000 has poured into local charities in Judy Doba’s name over the spring and summer.
Still, the pressure of expectations remains omnipresent, and many are expecting the coach to produce wins soon. A 10-13 record in 2004 and 2005 threatens to relegate the team’s successes from 2001-03 to historical footnote status, and without a rise back to prominence a return to long-term cellar dweller status looms.
“We need to get going,” Doba said. “Eighth isn’t good enough, I know that.”
Sterk also recognizes that there is an added element of urgency in 2006.
“I think it’s an important year that way. This is probably one of the toughest schedules we’ve had too, from top to bottom,” he said. “Last year was a freakish year with all those late losses and then Bill going through it with Judy. It was just a really tough, tough year for the hearts and souls of the coaches, the players, the fans and everybody. You don’t want to go through one of those, but I think you learn lessons from them too.”
Even within the locker room, a sense of urgency pervades. Now that seniors like Bienemann and Will Derting have moved on, few have played any role whatsoever on a collegiate winner, and the team’s new leaders acknowledge that youth has been a detriment in the recent past.
Mkristo Bruce, a captain of this year’s squad, said seeing the head coach go through so much has the team focused on the fall ahead.
“We don’t ever want to see Coach Doba in that kind of pain. Coach Doba, I tell everybody, is the most loyal, stand-up guy I’ve ever met,” Bruce said. “We just decided to work hard to show him that we are committed. That’s the best way we could show it. This team, we bonded. We’re the closest we’ve been in five years.”
No matter what happens, 2006 could well be a season that foretells the future of Cougars football. And especially after the year that was, no one person is more closely tied to that future than Doba himself.
“I think before maybe he was closer to retirement, but less (so) now,” Sterk said. “In my mind, I think he’s refocused and really I think looking forward to this year and looking forward to the players. He’s immersed himself in what’s ahead of him as a head coach of this program.”