Winning the Apple Cup over arch-rival Washington is always regarded as a good year at Washington State. But even with Saturday's win, it wasn't enough to save Bill Doba. Washington State has fired Doba, according to several media outlets, and the press conference is scheduled for 4:30 pm today. Doba's assistants were also let go, so this is a full house-cleaning of the football program. Doba has had a difficult time in his last few years at WSU. He did compile a 30-29 record in his five seasons as the Cougar head coach, including a 3-2 record against Washington. But in Pac-10 play Doba was just 17-25, and that includes a coach-of-the-year season in 2003 when WSU went 10-3 and won the Holiday Bowl. After that Holiday Bowl season, Doba went 20-26 overall, and in the end it wasn't good enough. These last four years are also the longest bowl-less seasons at Washington State since the mid-80's.
There is no word as to who the successor will be, although the rumor mill is already churning out the names of UTEP's Mike Price, Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory, and even UW offensive coordinator Tim Lappano have been mentioned in unsubstantiated rumors. However AD Jim Sterk did acknowledge over the weekend that if a change were to happen, that Mike Price would be a name that's on the list.
