Doba settling in nicely with Cougars

By: DAVID HAMMEL - Staff Writer | Wednesday, December 24, 2003 10:06 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Bill Doba practically shouts his one-word response, jokingly acting somewhat startled. Retire? Why would he have thought of that? Just because a little over a year ago, he was a career assistant football coach three months past his 62nd birthday? That's silly.

"I'm just a young guy. Sixty-three is young," said Washington State's engaging rookie head coach.

Retirement is for people tired of their jobs, people with nothing new to experience. That's not Doba, who had long since abandoned his head-coaching aspirations when the Cougars anointed him their leader two weeks before the 2003 Rose Bowl.

After nine years as Washington State's defensive coordinator and 14 years as a Cougars assistant, Doba has proved more than capable. He kept a team predicted to finish seventh in the Pac-10 Conference in contention for a Bowl Championship Series berth until the final week of the regular season and directed the Cougars to a berth in the Holiday Bowl. Washington State, ranked 15th nationally, will meet No. 5 Texas on Tuesday at Qualcomm Stadium.

In many ways, Doba possesses the wide-eyed enthusiasm for the job of someone much younger. He speaks with vigor of the enjoyment he receives from walking into a recruit's living room and being the sole person responsible for offering a scholarship.

He admittedly wasn't looking forward to the public speaking part of the head coaching job, but that hasn't been so bad. Doba's straight-shooting, modest approach, weaned from his rural Indiana upbringing, has made him a natural fit among the locals in the sparsely populated wheat and barley fields of the Palouse. And his personable style has endeared him to the media.

"It's been unbelievable. I've had fun," Doba said of his first year on the job. "I didn't ever think I was going to be a head coach in college. Because, being 62, who's going to go down that road? I thought I would have to go to a (Division) I-AA school if I wanted to do that."

Doba never interviewed for the job his good friend and former neighbor Mike Price vacated last Dec. 18 by announcing his ill-fated departure for the University of Alabama. If he had, Doba jokes, the school never would have hired him.

But Doba was the obvious choice to succeed Price, both to school officials and the outgoing coach. At Price's urging, the school announced Doba's hiring the same day Price declared he would leave the Cougars for Alabama.

"It was a great hire. I think the university made the best move," junior wide receiver Devard Darling said. "A lot of people have the utmost respect for him."

To all involved, Doba stood for loyalty, a valued trait in that conservative, family-oriented part of eastern Washington. Many Washington State players cried when Price told the team he was leaving. Many in the Palouse remain upset with him.

Doba's hiring softened the blow somewhat. The man had clearly paid his dues and shown a great deal of loyalty along the way. He coached high school football in Indiana for 14 years. And his first job outside Indiana, as defensive coordinator at The Citadel in 1987, didn't come until he was 47 years old.

Following the Rose Bowl, one of Doba's first actions as Washington State's head coach was to trim his own salary so he could keep and lure assistant coaches.

Being a head coach was never about money for him.

"I was making a decent salary (as an assistant)," he said. "How many color TVs do you need?"

Doba arrived at Washington State with Price in 1989, lived across the street from him and helped him transform the Cougars from Pac-10 doormats into first a respectable outfit, and, lately, a top 10 program. Washington State can claim its third-straight 10-win season with a victory in the Holiday Bowl.

"He continued the Price era, which is very nice," senior defensive end D.D. Acholonu said. "You know, we expect to win every game, which is one thing (Doba) brought to the team.

"The difference now is just more of our demeanor and attitude. Just the way he walks in to a room, he gets the confidence level going."

Contact staff writer David Hammel at (760) 740-3552 or dhammel@nctimes.com.