So we had a little fun yesterday, beginning a series of potential coaching replacements for Bill Doba. But guess what? Today’s a new day, and Sterk told the Spokesman that it isn’t such a slam-dunk that Doba will be replaced. Sterk talked about a variety of issues, and to me at least, it seems like a bunch of contradictions. Let’s break it down:
“Now is not the time to make a decision for something like that,” Sterk said in a recent interview. “I’ve always (felt) you sit down at the end of the season and see where we are. There’s a lot of football to be played yet.”
Ok, fair enough. I don’t think anyone gains anything right now with letting Doba go at midseason. The season is already a mess, but why sink it even more by removing the coach? We’ve been advocating a weeks now, but I’ve never believed doing it now would do any good.
“We’ve been through the toughest part,” of the schedule Sterk said, noting this year’s schedule is almost a flip of last season’s. “We have more home games than away games coming up. Who’s to say whether we are going to win or lose each of those … they are winnable games over the next five.
“So how the team responds, how they play, who knows, but I expect them to be competitive and to come roaring back after this break.”
Ok, so, it’s at least mathematically possible that the Cougar offense can suddenly turn it around, and that the offense can start scoring 30+ a game, and that the special teams will suddenly be average. Likely? No. Possible? Yes. It’s also possible the sun won’t rise tomorrow. But I’d bet the mortgage payment that it will.
For his part, Doba, 67 and in his 19th year in Pullman, isn’t worried.
“I’m getting great support (overall), and great support from Jim Sterk,” Doba said.
Doba’s getting great support? How is that? Maybe the golf outing donors or the ones that he sees face-to-face at dinners, etc, are just fine with the guy. Look, nobody has ever argued against Doba the human being. Everyone loves him, inside and outside Pullman. So of course it’s going to appear that he’s getting support. WE LIKE BILL. But it’s not working as our head coach.
But Sterk won’t give Doba a public vote of confidence.
“That’s why I’m not going to make a statement like that, because those can be the death knell,” Sterk said with a laugh. “I’ve seen it too many times.”
Ok, now we’re talking. No WAY could Sterk give him a public vote of confidence right now, because it would be a flat-out lie if he said Doba is totally safe.
“I was just at Pac-10 meetings, and (USC athletic director) Mike Garrett, who can be pretty critical of things, he said he loves Bill Doba,” Sterk said. “(Doba) gets the most out of his kids that he’s ever seen with any coach. And Mike knows football. He thinks we have a great staff. He just hates to come up here and play because he knows they may have the superior talent, but our coaching staff will prepare (our players) pretty well and they know how to coach.
“People in the business, football coaches, A.D.s, they know we have a pretty good staff.”
This is the BIGGEST JOKE in the whole article. Mike Garrett likes Bill Doba? WELL DUH. Why wouldn’t he like Bill Doba? Doba’s the nicest guy in the Pac-10, and his team isn’t good. Who wouldn’t like to play WSU right now? Kick their asses, and then shake hands and hug and joke and talk about where to go have dinner afterwards, or go have a drink or whatever. Every program in the Pac-10 LOVES BILL DOBA for that very reason – great guy, and you can kick the crap out of his team in the process.
“At that time our weight room was probably one of the top five in the country,” Doba said of the end of the Mike Price era. “I know Jason Gesser for one, because I walked him in there, he walked in and said, ‘Man, I’ve got to lift weights here.’ That sold him and sold several kids.
“Now that weight room is probably one of the top five in the Pac-10.”
Let me get this straight – Bill Doba is saying that the WEIGHT ROOM is the reason we went 30-8 over a 3-year span? A weight room?? Hey Bill, if it’s all about facilities, wouldn’t Oregon be winning 10 games every year? I know Oregon is hot-n-sexy right now, but did you know that they haven’t won a bowl game since 2001? And that they’ve lost at least 5 games in 4 of the last 5 seasons? What a cop-out, blaming what he considers a mediocre weight room on a sinking program.
Then Doba says this: “Our facilities are very adequate,” Doba said. “They are good enough to win, they are good enough to train kids, they are good enough for everything. But they aren’t flashy, they aren’t new.”
Please. You can’t have it both ways. First he blames the success on a great weight room and alludes to the sinking program because it’s not flashy anymore. But he also then says the facilities are good enough to win?? WELL IF THEY ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN, then you and your staff must be the problem!
Finally, money (and at the end of the day, isn’t it always about money??):
Sterk also admitted money plays a factor in every decision about coaches. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t,” Sterk said. It would cost WSU around $2.8 million to make a change at the end of the season, according to staff contracts examined for this story. The nine WSU assistant position coaches have contracts that run through the 2008 season with total guaranteed money of more than $1 million. Doba, who received a five-year contract when he was hired in 2003, had his contract extended through the 2009 season two years ago. If he is let go at the end of this season, he is due in the neighborhood of $1.8 million. There would also be an additional cost of bringing in a new staff. The going rate for a head coach and staff is at least $3 million a season. Doba is 10th among Pac-10 coaches in salary and is the only conference coach who doesn’t make a million dollars in base salary and other compensation.
Yikes. That’s a lot of dough to oust old Dobes and staff. A LOT of dough that quite frankly, the football program doesn’t have lying around in big piles. One wonders if Sterk isn’t trying to soften the blow of keeping Doba around with this next part:
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