Cougars Football | School to make announcement today about Doba
Washington State is expected to announce today whether it is hanging out the “help wanted” sign for a head football coach or sticking with Bill Doba.
A third possibility is an announcement delaying the decision until later in the week.
Meanwhile, Doba said Sunday night, “I’m just going to work until I hear different.”
Doba repeatedly has said he won’t resign.
Doba said he didn’t meet Sunday with athletic director Jim Sterk or first-year WSU President Elson Floyd, the men who will decide his future.
Floyd was seen giving Doba a big hug after the dramatic 42-35 Apple Cup victory Saturday in Husky Stadium.
Doba said when he got back to Pullman he made a ham sandwich, watched some college football highlights on ESPN, then went to bed.
“I got a good night’s sleep,” he said.
Doba, 67, is scheduled to meet with the team this afternoon but said the agenda is to vote for awards and talk about the offseason training schedule. He said he is scheduled to leave on a recruiting trip with quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach tonight.
The thrilling Apple Cup victory boosted Doba’s record as head coach to 30-29 in five seasons. He is 3-2 against Washington.
However, his only winning season was the 10-3 campaign in his first year, 2003, and the Cougars haven’t been to a bowl since then.
Sterk said the Apple Cup win will be taken into consideration but said, “You want to take a full body of work before you make a decision on something like this.”
It would cost WSU $2.8 million to honor the contracts of Doba and his staff if they were fired. Doba’s contract goes through the 2009 season.
The dramatic Apple Cup win had three lead changes and two ties. Doba watched tape of it Sunday.
“Those kids just battled their butts off,” he said. “They kept coming back and coming back. That’s the way they [the seniors] have been all four years. They’ve had a lot of adversity, but they’ve never given up.”
Doba said senior quarterback Alex Brink, who threw for an Apple Cup-record 399 yards and five touchdowns, “looked like a prizefighter when he got on the plane. His eye was all swollen up.”
Brink’s final throw in a Cougars uniform was the winning 35-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Gibson with 31 seconds to play.
After the game, Gibson said he expects to be back at WSU for his senior season next fall but is going to submit his name for the NFL draft and receive the evaluation of how high he might be selected.
Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com