College Football | Too late to the party?
Back in mid-December 2002, Washington State was in a spot. Mike Price, its football coach of 14 seasons, had decided to leave for Alabama as his WSU team was preparing for the Rose Bowl.
The athletic director, Jim Sterk, mulled the options: Go on an extended search, conflicting with the run-up to the big bowl, or hire from within.
He chose Door No. 2, naming Bill Doba, then 62 years old. It was understandable, and for most WSU fans, it seemed a popular choice. He was good with the players, he knew the program and knew the state. He was an original member of the Price staff in 1989.
Today, Doba’s five-year reign may be nearing an end. And a look at his age-group contemporaries across the country may be instructive.
Perhaps it’s only circumstantial evidence - after-the-fact stuff that fits in retrospect. But to scan the nation for its older college coaches is to recognize a pattern: They had earned their head-coaching spurs well before they reached their current station.
There are 11 coaches of BCS-conference teams 60 years or older. A common thread: All but one had head-coaching success at a previous college or pro stop, or they succeeded in their current job before hitting their sunset coaching years.
Doba is the lone exception. A former high-school head coach, he got his first college head position at WSU.
The roster:
• Frank Beamer, 61, Virginia Tech. He’s been head coach of the Hokies 21 years.
• Bobby Bowden, 77, Florida State. Bowden has been at FSU since beer was bottled.
• Rich Brooks, 66, Kentucky. Brooks proved himself at Oregon, and had a short run with the St. Louis Rams.
• Lloyd Carr, 62, Michigan. Carr, who resigned this week, won a national title at 52 in 1997 with the Wolverines.
• Dennis Erickson, 60, Arizona State. Space limitations prevent us from listing his résumé.
• Ralph Friedgen, 60, Maryland. He began his head-coaching career with the Terps seven years ago, and has gone 55-30.
• Al Groh, 63, Virginia. Groh did a one-year stint with the NFL Jets in 2000.
• Joe Paterno, 80, Penn State. JoePa began his Nittany Lions career roughly the same year Ford introduced the Model T.
• Steve Spurrier, 62, South Carolina. Spurrier has been an ol’ ball coach at Duke, Florida and in the NFL.
• Joe Tiller, 64, Purdue. Before a productive run with the Boilermakers, Tiller worked up from Wyoming.
So an older coach can’t succeed in his first head stop? Never say never. But the experiences of both Paterno and Bowden, the game’s two oldest, trying to maintain their edge with kids two and three generations younger, may hint at the negatives.
As it regards WSU, combine that hurdle with a coach initially having to feel his way as a head man in a college job with the inherent difficulties of winning at Washington State, and you may begin to explain the Cougars’ struggles.
From the Heart(land)
The Rocky Mountain News obtained a copy of a newsletter sent by Mike Osborne, son of icon Tom Osborne, to customers of his Lincoln-based Cornhuskers merchandising business. It’s a window into a program that’s part of the fabric of the state.
Excerpts: “[After athletic director Steve Pederson] was fired, it was like the iron curtain had been lifted from Nebraska football. Employees lower on the totem pole have described the situation as a dictatorship …
“The team used to be an extension of us. It was like they had come out of the stands and played from us and for us.”
The younger Osborne cited some football people in making the case that Bill Callahan’s West Coast offense had turned the Huskers soft, writing, “As your offense schemes, so goes your defense - the theory being that if your offense is a cerebral finesse construct, then your whole team practices like that. If that is all your defense sees in practice, then your defense becomes soft and passive. You eventually reap what you sow.”
Sound familiar, Washington fans?
Miles and Michigan
A year ago, Nick Saban found himself in a sticky situation - coaching the Miami Dolphins, but involved with the vacant Alabama job. Saban flatly denied he was interested, even disdained the questions as only Saban can disdain.
Of course, he took the ‘Bama job.
Ironically, now the LSU coach, Les Miles - successor to the widely vilified Saban in Cajun country - must finesse a similar situation. Saban had to ride out the protracted NFL schedule; Miles, believed to be targeted by Michigan to replace Lloyd Carr, could have the national-title game Jan. 7.
Miles didn’t exactly quash the Michigan rumors Monday, tearing up when asked about the open job at his alma mater.
“Let it rest,” he said. “I’m playing football for LSU. I love this team. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt it.”
It wasn’t clear whether the tears were for Michigan or the Tigers.
And What’s More . . .
• Oregon State is close to finalizing a deal to play at Penn State next season. Good move - big paycheck in a 107,000-seat stadium, and it’s a team OSU could beat.
• Mississippi officials have said they’re bringing back head coach Ed Orgeron, but his team hasn’t done him any favors. Twenty Rebels are being “disciplined,” the school announced, in the wake of a records request by the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, which says they took radios and pillows from hotels where the team stayed.
• Colorado is pulling out all stops in trying to lure top-rated Ventura, Calif., running-back prospect Darrell Scott. During a visit to CU, some of the piped-in music at Folsom Field was Scott’s own. He combined on the CD with CU freshman wideout Joel Smith, Scott’s uncle.
• Five Texas Tech grads have started a fund-raising campaign to pay the $10,000 fine coach Mike Leach incurred for ripping Big 12 officials.
Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com