Tide Pays Price for Its New Coach

Only days after telling his players he wasn’t interested in UCLA because “I can’t take you with me,” Coach Mike Price is leaving Washington State to become coach at Alabama.

Price told his team Tuesday in an emotional meeting before leaving for the airport, where a private plane provided by Alabama was waiting to take him to Tuscaloosa.

“I just couldn’t pass it up.... I’m getting up there [in age],” said Price, 56. “I’ve got to do this for my family.”

Contract figures were not available, but Mike Riley reportedly turned down an eight-year deal worth $12 million from Alabama, in part because of his interest in the UCLA job.

Price will replace Dennis Franchione, who led Alabama to a 10-3 record despite probation before leaving after only two seasons to become coach at Texas A&M.;

In losing Price, Washington State is saying goodbye to the coach that took the school to its first Rose Bowl in 67 years in 1997.

He needed five years to get them back again -- and in something of a surprise, Price said he still will coach the No. 7-ranked Cougars in their return to the Rose Bowl Jan. 1 against No. 8 Oklahoma.

Washington State has scheduled a news conference for this morning to discuss the coaching situation, and Athletic Director Jim Sterk is expected to announce Bill Doba, assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, will be the school’s next coach.

Doba, 62, arrived in Pullman along with Price in 1989, coaching with him for 14 seasons in which the Cougars went 83-77.

Price’s announcement left some of his players in tears, quarterback Jason Gesser among them.

“He told us he was going to Alabama,” offensive lineman Calvin Armstrong told reporters. “He said he was sorry, and it was a real tough decision, but financially it was the right decision for his family.”

Defensive tackle Rien Long, the Outland Trophy winner, called the news “a shock.”

“There were a lot of different emotions and people in there,” defensive tackle Jeremey Williams said. “We thought he’d be here forever.”

Price doesn’t have ties to Alabama -- a native of Everett, Wash., the closest he has worked to Alabama was as an assistant at Missouri.

However, he is an old acquaintance of Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore, who, like Price, was an assistant coach under Jim Sweeney, the retired Fresno State coach.

He faces a big task at Alabama, with the Crimson Tide still on probation in the aftermath of the Albert Means recruiting scandal.

Price has a folksy charm that will go over well in Alabama -- at least until the first loss. (He once described his wide-open offense as having “more wrinkles than a Shar-pei dog.”)

The impact of probation will make the job more difficult, hence the unusually long contract terms. But Price has experience with a difficult situation in Pullman.

He helped Washington State earn its reputation as a quarterback training ground with such players as Drew Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf and Gesser.

He also made a living off players some other programs wouldn’t take, giving opportunities to those with academic shortcomings and behavioral problems and earning a reputation as players’ coach.

The 1997 Rose Bowl team featured Michael Black, a running back from Dorsey High who served time in two youth facilities for auto theft and armed robbery before he reached the age of 18. Black became a 1,000-yard rusher under Price.

Perhaps most memorably, he allowed receiver Devard Darling to play this year after securing medical approval when Florida State and other schools balked after Darling’s twin brother died after an off season workout at Florida State.

Price took junior college transfers and walk-ons who later became starters.

“I enjoy turning over rocks and finding players others have not recruited,” he once said.

Whether that will work at Alabama -- or whether he’ll need to resort to that route -- remains to be seen.

Now he leaves for a position he called “the premier coaching job in America,” saying he is confident Washington State will survive without him.

“It’s going to sustain itself with or without me here. I can tell you that,” Price said as reports about the Alabama job first emerged. “They can keep on winning without me.”

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Correspondent Howie Stalwick and the Associated Press contributed to this report.