Price Support

The strangest thing about Mike Price -- besides that he kissed his future wife under the porch in the first grade and never had another girlfriend, or that he wasn’t fired, despite never putting together consecutive winning seasons in his first 21 years as a head coach, or that he started this season with a record of (yawn) exactly .500 -- is that he’s so utterly, completely ... normal.

Often, it seems, coaches of national college football powers are so caught up in themselves and their teams that the real world escapes them.

Price, however, often looks and acts like the proud grandfather he is. He’s 56, graying where he’s not balding and putting on just a bit of a belly, but he’s still got the smile, the energy and the personality to get along famously with the teenagers and 20-somethings he coaches at Washington State.

“I don’t think any coach is as in touch with his players as Coach is,” defensive tackle Rien Long said.

Quarterback Jason Gesser said, “He’s a players’ coach all the way. It’s just the way he acts, the way he does things.

“I remember when I came here on my recruiting visit. I went into a store with Coach Price, and everyone in the store went, ‘Hey, there’s Coach Price.’ He didn’t know who they were, but he’d go and have a five-minute conversation with them.

“He’s good for the community, the football program and the school.”

Not to mention his staff. Coaching college football requires long hours, but Price sends his assistant coaches home for dinner every night. And if a coach’s son or daughter has a game, or a recital, or something else important in the child’s life, chances are the assistant will get the time off.

“There’s not a lot of coaches who understand how important that is; that there’s other things besides football,” said Mike Levenseller, the Cougars’ offensive coordinator. “It makes you a better football coach too. It’s a lot easier to work into the night if you know you can get away to watch your 13-year-old throw the ball around.”

No argument from Kasey Dunn, who coaches the Cougars’ running backs and is special teams coordinator.

“He’s just the best person to work with,” Dunn said. “You see him at practice, always smiling -- he’s exactly that way when he comes to our staff meetings. He always keeps it light, whether you win or lose.”

Price said he always wanted to be a football coach, dating back to childhood, when Walt Price, his father, coached Everett Junior College in Everett, Wash. Price learned a lot about coaching from his father, but he said his coaching philosophy also was influenced when he was a graduate assistant with the 1969 Cougar freshman team and one of his players was killed in a car crash.

“That really got me to thinking,” Price said. “I never told that player how much he meant to me and how much I loved him. I decided then to make sure my players know how much I care for them.”

Price has spent his entire 34-year coaching career at the college level -- 1969-70 at Washington State, 1971-73 at Puget Sound, 1974-77 back at Washington State, 1978-80 at Missouri, 1981-88 as head coach at Weber State, and since 1989 as head coach at Washington State.

“I like the college player-coach relationship you have,” said Price. “The growth; molding a teenager into a young man. But coaches on pro teams make so much money, the NFL is something you might consider.”

Price said he’s been contacted by NFL teams regarding openings for offensive coordinators or quarterback coaches, but has received no firm offers. He said he’s rejected other college head coaching jobs while holding his two head coaching positions.

“I don’t want to say who I turned down,” he said. “That’s not fair to them.”

Born in Denver and raised in Everett, Mike was the youngest of three boys in the Price household. He grew up a Cougar fan, dreaming of following brother Geoff as a football player at Washington State. Geoff now sells real estate in California; the late Walt Jr. was an artist. Price played a year for his father at Everett, redshirted one season and played a year at Washington State, then finished up at Puget Sound.

He played quarterback and safety in college, as he had at Everett High, where he competed for playing time with Oregon State Coach Dennis Erickson. The two have long been close friends, and it was Price who replaced Erickson as head coach at Washington State when Erickson left for Miami.

Price began the 2002 season with a 119-119 record, 73-75 at Washington State. Though the Cougars never experienced consecutive winning seasons under Price until the last two -- and finished last in the Pacific 10 Conference from 1998-2000 -- Price said he’s always been staunchly supported by the administration. It didn’t hurt when he was named national coach of the year after guiding the 1997 team to Washington State’s first conference championship and Rose Bowl appearance in 67 years.

“I like it here,” Price said. “Having three athletic directors, two presidents and numerous vice presidents in between causes you to sometimes wonder, ‘What’s going on?’ Other times, it kind of stimulates you.”

Price still seems hopelessly in love with Joyce, his childhood sweetheart and wife of 36 years. They married when he was still playing at Washington State.

“She quit school [at Washington] to put me through college,” Price said. Joyce also was kind enough to produce two boys who wound up playing and coaching for her husband. Aaron remains at Washington State, where he coaches the receivers; Eric, a former Weber State player and Cougar assistant coach, is now an assistant with the NFL’s New York Jets. Daughter Angie is the wife of Jim Fry, athletic director at Spokane’s Rogers High School and the son of former Washington State sports information director Dick Fry.

This fall, Price signed a five-year contract that automatically adds a year every time the Cougars post a winning record. He’s the only coach to have guided the Cougars to more than one bowl game -- this season’s will be his fifth. The Cougars’ No. 3 national ranking before Nov. 23 overtime loss to Washington was the highest in school history; and if the 9-2 Cougars beat UCLA on Saturday, they will tie for the Pac-10 title, clinch a Rose Bowl berth and equal the school record of 10 victories that Price’s teams have tied twice already since 1997.

Price seems likely to stay at Washington State long enough to break the school record for coaching victories, 93, held by the legendary Babe Hollingbery. Price is in second place with 82 -- but he’s already bought a place where he plans to retire on Coeur d’Alene Lake in Idaho.

“I don’t think I’ll be doing this in 10 years,” Price said.

Cougar coaches and players hope that isn’t the case.

“Coach Price is like a brother for me at times, like a father to me at other times,” Gesser said. “He’s done so much for me.”

Levenseller said, “I don’t just work for him; we all work with him. He’s our boss, but he listens to us. He values our opinion. He very definitely has veto power, but he does listen to us.”

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Writer Howie Stalwick lives in Post Falls, Idaho.