Great points Roost!

I know you said to post these on the Blog Hawk, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. You’re the computer saavy one out of the bunch.

SEAN: I’ll send you guys a document that walks you through how to do it. I always try to look but it’s easy to miss that there are new comments, plus it would be cool to see you guys throw up a headline that we could “discuss” back -n- forth.

Anywho, with the distraction of LOI day going on, some haven’t seen the news that Doba’s contract got extended until 2009. Sweet. The key is going to be for him to keep his staff around and they strike me as faithful to the man. I just have to think that with a stadium expansion, a few more seasons of good recruiting, a bowl game or more this program is going to get nothing but bigger and stronger. Possibly dominating. With that comes more of the thing that can intice good coaches away, MONEY. Or in this case keep them in Pullman. Having said that, as long as Doba sticks around, I feel a coach or two leaving wouldn’t retard the building of the strong WAZZU football program that IS going to happen. Especially, since Doba has already proven himself at putting together a good staff.

The thing that could set the program back is a scandel. Anybody see Doba being involved with something like that? He’s so clean he squeaks when he walks. Having him until 2009 is key. Read Jim Walden’s book, he gives a good examples of how much coach turnover screws up a program and, conversly, how coach longevity builds a program. Plus Jim’s funny and its an easy read (big print and lots of pictures).

SEAN: I COULDN’T agree more, having Doba extended to ought-NINE is great! If you saw Pflugrad’s comments, that was used against us in recruiting as far as “Doba is going to quit” rumors. There actually were a few people in those luxury message boards that posted a few months ago they had heard he was feeling like retiring early, but you know how rumors go in cyberspace. Absolutely no doubt, though, that was a great move to basically guarantee to today’s kids that if you sign on the dotted line, Doba and as much of his staff that he can control will be here long-trem.

I also agree that as things move forward the next couple of years, as we return to bowl game success and unprecedented excitement around the program, I have that feeling that we are going to take some hits in the coaching ranks. All the great programs have it happen to them, but the truly great ones adjust and move on. I would think that Pflugrad will be the #1 guy to go, as he was a finalist for I think Montana State 2 years ago, but it went to Bobby Hauck? He’s also not a long-time Coug and really doesn’t have his roots here, he more or less fell into our laps when ASU fired Snyder. He’s got head coach aspirations, so we’ll see what happens in the near future there.

I also think that Akey is going to be a hot commodity after our D rises back near the top again this year and even more of his players make NFL rosters next year (Derting the headliner), well, it’s only natural that he’ll be pursued.

Oh yeah, I read Walden’s book too. Very good, funny read with good WSU stories all over the place. I wonder what Price’s book will look like once he hangs it up for good, I would imagine he’s got some great tales!

Rooster, are you going to the football dinner on 2/25? Put me down – IN INK – that I’m going. We should even meet up here in Bellevue and then go down together. Todd says they might unveil more public info on the new stadium renovation, can’t wait to see that! Oh yeah, and he SAID WE ARE GOING TO HAVE CRIMSON ENDZONES next year! I’ve been pining for that ever since Seahawks Stadium opened and how good that color looked on the field, and Todd brought it up like 2 years ago to Sterk. They later found out it’s pretty expensive to do, a few hundred thousand, but they finally relented and will do it this year!