Washington State Is Expected to Name Price as Football Coach

Mike Price, Weber State athletic director and football coach, will be named the football coach at Washington State, a source familiar with the search said Monday.

Washington State officials planned a news conference for today, the source within the school’s athletic department told the Associated Press.

Price met with his staff and players at the Ogden, Utah, school Monday, apparently to tell them he is leaving.

Price, 42, has a 46-44 record in eight seasons as coach at Weber State, including a 5-6 record in 1988. He was a leading candidate for the job when Dennis Erickson was picked two years ago from Wyoming. The Washington State job became available when Erickson left to become coach at the University of Miami.

Price, a native of Everett, north of Seattle, played quarterback at Everett High School and later quarterback at Everett Community College in the fall of 1964.

He transferred to Washington State, where he played both quarterback and defensive back in 1965-66, and completed his collegiate career at the University of Puget Sound, playing both positions.

In 1968, he was co-captain at Puget Sound, and voted most inspirational player by the team.

Before being named head coach at Weber State in 1980, Price served as a graduate assistant and assistant at Washington State from 1969-70 and 1974-77; a full-time assistant at Puget Sound from 1971-73, and an assistant at Missouri from 1978-80.