Erickson mum on way out

PULLMAN — Dennis Erickson had just climbed aboard a Beechcraft Beechjet with Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love shortly after noon on Sunday, but he wasn’t going to get away without someone letting him know what he was leaving behind.

Doug Gadwa, a 1979 Idaho graduate and the president of Inter-State Aviation, Inc., at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, strode over to the plane and doffed his Idaho Vandals hat. Reaching into the plane, Gadwa extended the hat towards Erickson.

“Something to remember us by,” Gadwa offered.

A muffled thanks could be heard from inside the plane, and moments later the door slammed shut. Erickson was headed for Tempe, Ariz., and his short tenure as Idaho’s coach was over.

Earlier, as he walked towards the private plane under a maroon-and-gold umbrella – his two large green suitcases being ferried onto the plane nearby – Erickson declined to say anything about the meeting he had with Idaho’s players that morning.

“I really don’t have anything to say,” the coach said.

In all, Love, senior associate athletic director Don Bocchi and their two pilots were in Pullman for about 40 minutes. While they waited, the plane got an additional 100 gallons of fuel in each wing for the flight back to Arizona and Erickson arrived at the one-room airport lounge to greet his new boss with a casual, “Hi, Lisa, how are you?”

Love, who arrived in the jet at 11:43 a.m., also declined to comment when asked a series of questions while she waited for Erickson. Love said she does not talk about her searches, and would not say when she had first contacted Erickson or what the nature of that conversation was. She did make a point of registering a quizzical, surprised look when asked about a rumor that Erickson had been called initially about a reference for Mike Price.

Asked when an official announcement would be made concerning Erickson’s hiring, Love said: “I can’t tell you that either. We still have some work to do.”

But when pressed for details about the negotiations still left to do, Love again passed on the opportunity to comment.

As the plane rolled down the taxiway, Gadwa and his son Wesley, currently a mechanical engineering major at Idaho, said they would offer a final farewell over the radio as the plane took off.

“Have a safe flight,” the younger Gadwa said with a grin, “and go Vandals.”