One more duty for Doba
PULLMAN – If you are a Cougar linebacker this year, not only do you answer to your position coach like everyone else, you also have to answer to the coordinator and the head coach. All in one guy.
When former defensive coordinator Robb Akey left to become head coach at the University of Idaho, WSU head coach Bill Doba decided to assume more responsibilities with the defense. But he didn’t just add the defensive coordinator title. He also assumed the role of linebackers coach.
“Having coach Doba as our position coach is great,” said junior Cory Evans, who has grabbed the strong side starting spot. “(As) the head coach he knows the program and knows how everything fits together.”
But the linebacker coach isn’t happy right now.
“I wish the head coach would give us more time to work individual (drills),” Doba said.
Of course he was joking, but Doba is serious when it comes to drilling the linebackers. Last year’s linebacker coach Leon Burtnett is now working with the safeties. So the guys who plug holes are Doba’s responsibility.
“It’s different,” Evans said of the change. “Not taking anything from coach Burtnett, he’s a great coach, experienced, but with coach Doba, he’s starting off everyone at the roots, no matter what you know, and he’s teaching technique, from running downhill to dropping into pass coverage, building you up from the floor.”
There might be a simple reason for that.
“They are a little bit inexperienced,” Doba said, noting the only senior in the group, Chris Baltzer, is coming off a knee injury and has yet to practice.
The leader of the unit is Greg Trent, who started five games as a freshman in relief of the injured Will Derting, including an Oregon game in which Trent had 13 tackles.
Last year the middle was Trent’s alone, and he responded by recording 77 tackles, second-most on the team. Now he heads a group with the one senior and a couple of new players who are expected to play significant minutes.
Trent understands the pressure the new guys are under in joining a veteran group. Heck, he had to do the same thing two years ago.
“I know how it is coming out of high school and trying to learn the rhythm of a different level and how confusing it can be,” he said. “It will just take a little time.
“The people who had been here before are just trying to step up and the people who just got here are just trying to learn the rhythm.”
That rhythm was drummed in all summer, with Trent saying the off-season workouts have led to a group that is not only in good shape, but is smarter about their roles.
“We all kept our head in the playbook all through spring and everything, so we’re ready,” he said. “We stayed in the playbook because we had a lot of new guys coming in. They worked real hard and we all just studied. We all have one objective and that’s to win.”
That objective took a hit early, when Jason Stripling, who was penciled in as a starter after spring, was declared academically ineligible over the summer. Then Mead High’s Andy Mattingly, basically a fourth starter, sprained his ankle last week. He’s been out since.
But those losses have been somewhat mitigated by the emergence of junior college transfer Kendrick Dunn, who has moved ahead of veteran Alex Hamill as the starter on the weak side. Hamill has missed practice time recently with an injury that might sideline him for an extended period (he should find out more today), but that’s not the only reason Dunn is playing more.
“Kendrick has just made more plays,” Doba said. “We watched the film and Alex just hasn’t made as many plays. I don’t know if it was whether his leg was hurting or what, but the other kid was making more plays.”
Whoever emerges as the starter, they’ll be expected to fill the role linebackers have filled for years at WSU.
“Just get into the gap and hit people,” is how Trent describes it.
If not, they have to answer to a lot of people, but just one guy.
Position outlook
This is one group that can’t afford any more losses. Trent is the only returning starter, though Evans was the fourth linebacker in WSU’s 3-4 scheme last season. Dunn and Hamill are battling for the weakside spot and expect Mattingly to play a lot of downs and in a lot of spots when he heals.