Rivalry week on the Palouse
PULLMAN – Playing games against your buddies or neighbors was fine when you were a kid, but when it comes to college athletics, it’s not nearly as much fun.
Which is part of the reason why Saturday’s Battle of the Palouse will be the last for a while.
“It really doesn’t have anything to do with (Idaho head coach) Robb Akey and I being friends,” Washington State head football coach Bill Doba said Monday. “I think you can be friends with somebody and still play against them. You want to beat your buddies sometimes worse than anybody else.
“But I just think the proximity of the two schools, we’re just leaving ourselves open for a disaster.”
Doba went on to explain how often the two schools’ players intermingle socially, and he would rather not have any baggage from a football game carrying weight around the two communities.
“Sooner or later someone is going to say something or shove somebody and you’re going to have an unfortunate incident. We’re going to try to avoid that as much as possible.”
But there sure will be a lot said between Doba and his former defensive coordinator, Akey, in the next week. Only it will all be of a positive nature.
When asked what he misses most about not having Akey, an eight-year Cougars assistant, around, Doba answered quickly. “Just the friendship as much as anything,” he said.
Doba also acknowledged his debt to Akey as an assistant, which contributes to the one worry the Cougars have about playing their old friend’s team.
“He’s going to know us a whole lot better than we’re going to know him,” Doba admitted. “He’s hired two really quality people (as coordinators) and he’s kind of let them go.”
Doba expressed admiration for the Vandals’ offensive variety brought in by coordinator Steve Axman, the former Northern Arizona head coach, and the defensive scheme instituted by Mark Criner, which is, according to Doba, “entirely different,” than the defense Akey ran for the Cougars.
But there is one positive to having Akey on the other sideline.
“I’ll be able to watch him jump and stuff a lot better than I could before,” Doba said.
“He was always standing next to me or behind me and I couldn’t see all his actions.”
Akey’s team is 1-1 after a closer-than-expected loss at No. 1 USC and a closer-than-expected win over Division I-AA Cal Poly.
Still, the Cougars did rout Idaho 56-10 last year in Dennis Erickson’s sole season in Moscow, so there might be a danger of WSU’s players, coming off a 45-17 rout of San Diego State, being a tad too confident.
“Not if you watched our video or were in our player meetings,” Doba said before he listed the recent upsets in college football, including Appalachian State over Michigan. “I keep reminding them … it doesn’t matter what conference they’re in, really, it’s just that team against the one they are playing.”
Especially if they live right down the street.
Notes
Idaho isn’t penciled in on WSU’s future schedules, but other than in 2008 there are openings. … “It will be (renewed),” Doba said of the rivalry and the hiatus. “There will be times when we have trouble scheduling an opponent and they do too. As long as it’s every two or three years, I think it will come back.”
“ Doba said the Cougars came out of the San Diego State game fairly healthy, with only safety – and defensive captain – Husain Abdullah (concussion) a question mark for this week. Linebacker Kendrick Dunn missed some plays with an ongoing shoulder problem but Doba expects him to play. … He also expects defensive end Lance Broadus to get more than the six plays he had against the Aztecs. Broadus, a starter last year who had 7.5 sacks, is coming off shoulder surgery and taking it slow.
“ When asked about the Pac-10’s showing in the non-conference, Doba answered: “Scary, isn’t it?” The conference lost only one game last weekend.