On Deck
Bill Doba has heard all the negatives about Pullman.
Too small. Too isolated. Too backward. Too ... Pullman.
Why, people ask, would a Pacific 10 Conference football recruit choose to play for a school in Pullman rather than, say, one in Los Angeles? Or Seattle? Or the Bay Area? Or Arizona?
Doba, bless his heart, doesn’t even have to lie -- and yes, college football coaches do sometimes lie when recruiting teenagers whose exploits get coaches hired and fired -- when extolling the virtues of wheat-engulfed Pullman.
“There’s no better place to live than Pullman, Washington,” insists Washington State’s new head coach and longtime assistant.
“Where else can you go to the grocery store, the post office and fill up your car with gas in half an hour?”
Uh ... Mayberry?
Go ahead, Doba says. Make the snide remarks. Tell the same tired jokes year after year. Rip away to your heart’s content.
All Doba knows is that he just landed his dream job at the school he loves in the city he cherishes. Oh, and one more thing: The next time you want to hurl your venom at Pullman and Washington State, Doba suggests, why not save it for Wednesday? That’s when the Cougars will be playing in the Rose Bowl for the second time since 1998, and virtually every college player, coach and fan in the country will be watching in envy.
“I love Coach Doba,” All-American defensive tackle Rien Long said. “He’s the one who got me here. He’s the one who made me fall in love with this place.”
“You’d be hard-pressed,” Cougar Athletic Director Jim Sterk said, “to find anyone that could have anything but great things to say about Bill Doba.”
It is the ultimate sign of the respect held for Doba that nary a negative remark has been heard in the wake of his hiring, even though, at the not-so-tender age of 62, he has become a college head coach for the first time. He has zero experience in one regard, but a rather lengthy lifetime of experiences to draw from in virtually every other regard.
“He’s old enough to have some wisdom, and he’s just about ready to enter the prime of his life,” Washington State President Lane Rawlins said.
“I feel so great about Bill getting the job,” Mike Price said of his close friend, neighbor and hand-picked successor. “He’s just a great guy. He deserves it.”
Doba, the last holdover from Price’s original staff of 1989, had been defensive coordinator since 1994. Price pushed hard for Doba when head-coaching jobs opened in previous years. Two of those were in Doba’s native state, Indiana, and one of the schools, Ball State, is Doba’s alma mater. Doba never got a sniff, though, and finally gave up hope of ever becoming a college head coach.
“I said last year, I can go to my grave and not feel I missed anything by not being a head coach,” Doba said. “But I think it is every coach’s dream.”
Doba lacks Price’s buoyant personality, but is known for his dry wit.
How will he gauge his success?
“I imagine by reading the newspaper.”
Will it be difficult replacing Price?
“Basically, if you’ve been to our practices, Mike stands and watches.”
Now that you’ll be making more public appearances, will you scan the Internet to find a few jokes to tell?
“You’ve gotta teach me how to turn on that computer.”
“I’m not a great public speaker,” Doba said, perhaps underestimating himself. “I’m not a one-liner and joke teller and all that stuff. I’ve got to get better at that.
“But,” he summed up, “I think the main thing is winning.”
Born and raised in South Bend, Ind., Doba might be the only Catholic football player in South Bend history who did not dream of playing in his hometown for Notre Dame.
“If you live in South Bend, Notre Dame just gets stuffed down your throat so much,” he said.
Doba headed a few hours south to Muncie for college. He played football at Ball State.
Doba spent three years as a high school assistant coach and 12 years as a high school head coach -- all in Indiana -- before landing his first college job in 1977, coaching the outside linebackers at Indiana for current ESPN analyst Lee Corso. After Corso’s staff was fired, Doba found work at Purdue and The Citadel before coming to Washington State on the recommendation of then-Cougar assistant Joe Tiller, now coach at Purdue.
What followed has been the most glorious period in the oft-nightmarish history of Cougar football. The Cougars have won a school-record 10 games three times in the last six seasons, including the last two, and Doba says a healthy core of returning players and incoming talent bodes well for 2003.
“He will continue a winning tradition,” Rawlins said. “I never thought I’d say that about Cougar football.”