Cougars lose Pflugrad to Ducks

PULLMAN – Robin Pflugrad, Washington State’s football recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach the last five seasons, has accepted an assistant coaching job at Oregon.

Pflugrad has also served as WSU’s assistant head coach, responsible for running some coaching meetings and occasionally practices in Bill Doba’s absence. At Oregon, he will be the wide receivers coach under head coach Mike Bellotti and offensive coordinator Gary Crowton, a noted expert in the passing game.

Pflugrad and his wife are originally from Eugene, Ore., so this will be a move home.

“The hardest part was leaving Coach Doba – that was very, very painful,” Pflugrad said Friday. “I anguished over it, I really did.

“But he was the one that said, ‘Your family is there and that’s where you should go.’ “

Pflugrad’s first day with the Ducks will be Thursday. In 2001, he had interviewed for the same job at Oregon, but the position ended up going to Dan Ferrigno, who recently left Eugene to take a job with California.

It’s unknown whether WSU will look internally or externally to replace Pflugrad, but his work as recruiting coordinator will be the most difficult to replace. WSU is a notoriously tough place for recruiting, and Pflugrad oversaw some of the school’s better-regarded incoming classes on the heels of the team’s three 10-win seasons this decade.

Since becoming head coach, Doba has been largely hands-off in recruiting, leaving the administrative tasks to Pflugrad.

Pflugrad said his new job will include some recruiting duties, but it’s still uncertain just how much oversight he’ll have for the Ducks in that department.

“It was just kind of a situation that opened up and one that I felt very comfortable with,” he said, “to be back coaching wide receivers, which I’ve done for I guess about 19 years of my coaching career.”