Join Team Rossi's O-Line

A messsage from former Coug and Seahawk great, Robbie Tobeck:

Dear Team Rossi Member,

As a former Seattle Seahawk and Washington State Cougar, I know the importance of building a cohesive team who can work together to secure a win for everyone. Team leadership and hard work are essential to success both on the football field and within our own state. But today, our state is in desperate need of new team leadership. Our current governor, Christine Gregoire has built a culture of failure in Olympia that needs immediate change and that's why I'm writing to you today.

I'm supporting Dino Rossi in his campaign to be our next Governor because I know he's the right candidate who will bring the change we need. Dino is proof that if you do the necessary hard work and you are willing to do what it takes to build a great team, you'll achieve success.

So, I'm asking you to take the time today to join me on Dino's team by following this link. Early supporters are essential to the Rossi campaign, so we're working hard to get as many supporters as possible to make a financial commitment by Monday, December 31st.

The polls show this race is already a dead heat. There's no doubt in my mind that the Rossi campaign will need to build a strong offensive line early on to block negative attacks from Christine Gregoire and the special interests supporting her failed agenda. Will you join the Rossi campaign's offensive line today by making a special donation of $61 in honor of my Seahawks number?

Our goal is to raise $100,000 online by the 31st and we're less than $10,000 away from this goal. Please make your immediate donation today to help us reach our goal by December 31st!

I have been proud to call Washington my home for many years. As a family man and businessman, I have a personal stake in this election. I'm as concerned as my friends and neighbors about the tax increases, crowded roadways, unsafe neighborhoods, and my children's education. I'm ready for new leadership- I'm ready for a leader who will go to Olympia and bring real reform to our state.

Because of the competitive nature of this campaign, Dino needs each and every one of us to make a commitment today to his campaign. There's no doubt in my mind the negative attacks will start any day now. As Dino's supporters, we need to band together to build an effective offensive line to combat these attacks. Your immediate gift of $1,400, $1,000, $500, $250 or even $61 will go a long way in helping to build the "Rossi O-Line." Please join us today!

Thanks for your time,

Rob Tobeck

P.S. Your support is needed to elect Dino as our next Governor. He knows how to lead an organization to produce positive results for our state. Please join me in helping Dino build a winning team by making a generous donation of $61 or more today so we can reach our goal of raising $100,000 online by December 31st! Thank you for your support.

The Price is Not Right

Former WSU Cougars football coach Mike Price is staying at UTEP.

Bill Doba, A Class Act To The End

As expected, Bill Doba got the boot today. I wish him a good retirement. He was a true gentleman, which distinguished him from the last two coaches we had here.


As one would expect, his goodbye was pure class.

"I've been lucky as hell ... it's been a great ride," Coach Bill Doba said, adding that he was happy to have spent the last 19 years in Pullman helping coach a Pac-10 team.


Following brief remarks by WSU Athletic Director Jim Sterk, Doba thanked the university, his family, the coaching and support staff as well as former university president Lane Rawlins and Sterk. Doba said he was leaving with "no animosity, no regrets".


"I hope to be remembered a player's coach," Doba said.

Doba Out?

I am disappointed to say the gentleman, Bill Doba, head football coach of WSU is done, according to many news reports I have seen. So far nothing official. But you usually don't get something like this incorrect too often.

I would like to say to Doba, thank you for the respectful football team you have had and being a leader of character and sportsmanship. I hope the news is incorrect and we can see some of your recruits come in and play your system.

If the news is true, here is what I would like to happen:
Price brought back for his offense mindedness and recruiting.
Gesser in a QB coach? Doba back as DC? Those things might not be out of the realm of possibility...

He's back... are you?!

We can reuse the campaign that UI used for Dennis.

Pullman a "Big-Box Clone of A Thousand Other Places"?

Not according to The Sporting News' Tom Dienhart.

In a column about college football recruiting headaches, he writes:

Washington State

I've never driven on the moon, but I have driven from Spokane to Pullman — it's gotta be the same. It's just gotta. In addition to a remote location, Wazzu is handicapped by a modest budget and glorified high school stadium. And getting attention amid the wheat fields of eastern Washington is tougher than getting to Pullman.

"Renovations expected to boost revenues for WSU, local businesses"

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Anticipation for the renovations and expansion to Washington State University’s Martin Stadium is spreading.

“(WSU) has done a lot to improve the look of campus and its first impressions,” said Jim Sterk, WSU athletic director.

For starters, chain-link fences and port-a-potties will no longer pop up in the middle of campus on game days.

“That is something we wanted to improve and that is something that will improve in the first two phases of renovations,” Sterk said.

Phases one and two — which began Dec. 4 — will add more restrooms and concession stands. They also will improve the circulation of fans in and out of the stadium, as well as around it.

“It’ll just be a nicer place to come for the games,” Sterk said. “That benefits the students, the season-ticket holders, the casual ticket purchasers and the first-timers … they get a better impression of coming to games at Washington State University.”

Sterk said he is even more excited about the third and fourth phases of the stadium project, which are scheduled to begin in 2008. These will help increase revenues and make WSU’s football program fiscally sound in the future.

“As costs of scholarships and travel and salaries continue to go up, we need to look for ways of generating more revenue in athletics so we are not a burden to the institution,” he said.

The third and fourth phases will expand the stadium by adding suites and premium seating on the north side and additional upper deck seating on the east end. Once finished, these phases will increase the capacity by approximately 7,700 seats.

“Because we are the smallest stadium in the conference, we don’t have the advertising, radio and TV deals that our counterparts in the Pac-10 have,” Sterk said. “To generate significant revenues out of premium seating will help us in the future to be more competitive.”

More seats mean more spectators can find their way to the games. With an increase in fans, an increase in revenue is expected to come.

“Bringing more people here will be a great asset,” said Fritz Hughes, executive director of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce. “It will affect the city very positively.”

Hughes said Cougar fans spend an estimated $11 million on a Pac-10 Conference game day. Those dollars are spent on everything from tickets sales and T-shirts to accommodations, gas and food.

Now, we just need more places in Pullman for all these new visitors to spend their money instesd of spending it somewhere else.

Top Ten Stories of 2006, Part I

Here we go again with another annual Palousitics tradition. This is my take on the biggest stories in Pullman and the Palouse, counting down from Number Ten to Number One. See if you can guess what they will be.

2006 will be remembered as the year of gridlock, delay and frustration. We're still waiting for Wal-Mart to be built, Fred Russell to go to trial, and free speech and academic diversity to be respected at WSU, just as we were at the end of 2005...

10. Cougin' It

Only the Republicans had a worse November than the WSU Cougars football team. Prior to the Arizona game on November 4, the Cougs were sitting pretty, ranked #25, having defeated bowl bound UCLA, Oregon State, and Oregon, and almost upsetting USC, with the team's first bowl berth since 2003 virtually guaranteed. Then the wheels came off, with the season culminating in one of the most humiliating Apple Cup losses in recent memory. Yet another year with no bowl and calls went out for Coach Bill Doba's head. The departure of defensive guru Robb Akey to Idaho in December does not bode well for a team that has lived off its defense for the last few years.

9. Water Issues

2006 seemed to be dominated by water issues, from worries over aquifer depletion and development, to water "summits", to talk of a reservoir in Moscow, and to the Washington Department of Ecology's ridiculous proposed stormwater regulations for Pullman. You can count on water being an even bigger issue in 2007, for the worse.

8. New WSU President

After WSU President V. Lane Rawlins announced that this would be his last year on the job, a search began for a new president. Controversy swirled around the process, as both students and the public felt disenfranchised from input. After seemingly in camera deliberations, the Board of Regents announced in December that Floyd Elson, President of the University of Missouri, would be the first African-American President of WSU. As the Vulcan proverb states, "Only Nixon can go to China." Perhaps it will take a minority president to rein in the out-of-control political correctness that plagues the campus and made WSU the subject of national embarrassment after national embarrassment. Hopefully, Elson can also heal the town-gown rift that has developed over the Wal-Mart issue, as a minority of faculty from the College of Liberal Arts has held up the Supercenter project for over two years despite wide support among townspeople.

7. Moscow's Left Turn

In November 2005, Mayor-Elect Nancy Chaney proclaimed that "Moscow was on a new path, and that it was a green one." Mayor Chaney and the Gang of Three (city councilmen Aaron Ament, Bob Stout, and John Dickinson) have certainly lived up to that promise in 2006, although some may think it is more red than green. Starting with getting rid of the Pledge of Allegiance at council meetings and trying to run New St. Andrews College and Christ Church out of town, Her Honor and the council have been busy. After three decades of retail dominance, Moscow's business-friendly reputation was quickly disemboweled by a big-box ordinance, a dark-store ordinance, a living wage ordinance, the rejection of various proposed developments, and a proposed retail store size cap. The coup de grace was a council vote denying the rezone of the Thompson property, prompting Wal-Mart to pull its plans for a Supercenter in Moscow in June. The residents of Pullman and Whitman County have been delighted with these developments, seeing a chance to restore the economic balance, but Moscow residents fought back, forming the Greater Moscow Alliance in May. Latah County resisted pressure to create its own big-box ordinance, but that probably will change as the new Latah County Commission will have a Democratic majority.

6. Rural Residential Zoning

At a seemingly glacial pace, the revised Whitman County rural residential zoning ordinance seems to finally be on the verge of approval. The changes will eliminate the three year moratorium on development of farmland that have (deliberately) frozen growth in the county since the mid-70s. Unfortunately, the new ordinance added many new onerous restrictions on house color, landscaping, buffer zones, hilltop development, etc. These proposed changes sparked widespread opposition from county residents and Schweitzer Engineering Labs during 2006 on the basis of restricting private property rights and lack of affordable housing. After a legal analysis over the summer, many of the conditions were found to be illegal and stricken. Sadly, some of the restrictions seem bound to go through into the final version. As proof of how much pent up need there is for housing in the county, Colfax annexed 1,200 acres of land in July. Already, 2/3 of that has been bought up by developers.

Congratulations Coach Robb Akey

Coach Robb Akey, the WSU Defense Coordinator has been given the job as the new U of Idaho head coach. I am saddened to see him leave WSU, but I have nothing but respect for him and I am excited to see how he does rebuilding their program.

The Autumn of Our Discontent

As if we didn't have enough to be depressed about already this month:

An election that left Eastern Washington residents out in the cold as Seattle-area Democrats increased their majority in the state legislature

The intimidating tactics of liberal WSU professors chilling free speech on campus

Growth in Pullman is frozen due to yet another costly, lengthy, and ultimately futile PARD appeal

Another post-Thanksgiving Arctic blast

Now comes this from the Seattle Times:

Cougars won't go bowling for the holidays

The college team whose motto was "finish" but failed to do so in November got some expected bad news Tuesday: Its season is finished.

Washington State, which had entered November ranked 25th with a 6-3 record then lost consecutive games to Arizona, Arizona State and Washington, will be home for the holidays.

The Cougars' slim chances for a bowl were extinguished when the Emerald Bowl, to be played in San Francisco on Dec. 27, Tuesday exercised its right to pick UCLA as the opponent for Florida State (6-6).

The Bruins are expected to lose to USC on Saturday and finish 6-6, 4-5.

The decision by the Emerald Bowl meant that the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Dec. 24 had no choice but to pick Arizona State (7-5, 4-5) as its Pac-10 representative because ASU was the only Pac-10 team with a winning record and no bowl.

Left out of the bowl picture are WSU (6-6, 4-5) and Arizona (6-6, 4-5).

"I feel badly for Arizona and Washington State for getting left out, but I don't think anyone imagined we would have eight bowl-eligible teams," said Pac-10 spokesman Jim Muldoon.

Teams with 6-6 records are eligible to play in bowl games with which their league has a contractual arrangement. The Pac-10 has arrangements with six bowls. A 6-6 team can't be invited to fill an at-large berth in a non-affiliated bowl if there are teams with winning records available, which is the case this year.

"I have been disappointed the previous three weeks so this is the fourth week in a row," said WSU athletic director Jim Sterk, who had been lobbying for WSU and said he wasn't surprised by the announcement.

Sterk and Muldoon said the size of the Los Angeles television market worked in the Bruins' favor.

Sterk also said he figured the Emerald Bowl didn't want Arizona State because coach Dirk Koetter has been fired and will be coaching his final game for ASU.

Jim Donovan, executive director of the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, said Tuesday his bowl had been "leaning in the direction" of picking UCLA over Arizona or Washington State if those had been the choices. However, he said no decision had been made.

The Pac-10 bowl picture fell into place Tuesday when the Bowl Championship Series "released" California (8-3, 6-2) from consideration from a BCS bowl. Cal then accepted a berth in the Holiday Bowl. Oregon State (8-4, 6-3) already had been ticketed to the Sun Bowl. Oregon (7-5, 4-5) announced it was headed to the Las Vegas Bowl, and the Emerald Bowl announced its choice of UCLA.

The Cougars haven't been to a bowl since 2003, when they beat Texas in the Holiday Bowl.

Sterk acknowledged that many fans are upset with the Cougars' failure to get to a bowl after positioning themselves at 6-3. Sterk said he remains committed to coach Bill Doba and said, "I think he's a very good leader."

The Good Professor

With all the news lately about the nutty professors, we can't lose sight of the fact that there are some GOOD professors at WSU. This was a story in today's Seattle P-I:

WSU's P.A. voice doubles as mayor

PULLMAN -- Election or not, eventually the good citizens of this city likely would have bestowed Glenn Johnson with the title anyway.

Mayor.

Here he is, the old professor, sitting in his office at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State, with all the energy and passion of the students he still loves to teach.

Still on his docket are two broadcasting classes a semester, which he teaches with the same intensity he arrived with when he first stepped onto campus in 1979.

Add to that, for the past 27 years, his duties as the public address announcer for WSU football and basketball games.

Now, top that with the numerous civic responsibilities Johnson, 62, has embraced, from serving on the board of the local chamber of commerce to a seat on the hospital board to serving as the public information officer for the Pullman fire and police departments.

And yes, since 2003 when he won with nearly 98 percent of the vote, he has also been the city's mayor.

"I've always been organized," Johnson said. "Time management skills have always been important ever since I was the manager of two radio stations back in Sacramento when I was starting out in broadcasting."

A Central California native, Johnson is now as synonymous with Pullman and WSU as the rolling wheat fields that surround it. He has been instrumental in improving town-gown relations, moving easily between both worlds, embracing both the community and the university he has grown to love.

"He's been marvelous for the entire community," said Fritz Hughes, a longtime friend who serves on the chamber of commerce with Johnson. "He has invited people to the university to become involved with the community and vice versa. He's about the most genuine, caring person you'll find."

When Johnson arrived in Pullman with his two young children and his wife, Kathy, he was just trying to survive.

"The first three years were really rough," Johnson said. "I didn't know if I was going to make it."

An intense, passionate teacher who preached accountability and respect for the trade, he quickly endeared himself to his students. Johnson is not one for excuses or false praise and he drew the best out of his pupils.

"I remember he threw me out of his class once," said Eric Johnson, an anchor and the sports director at KOMO/4. "He said in that voice of his that I had potential but that I was wasting it. He said maybe I should let someone else who wanted it more to have my spot in class."

Eric Johnson showed up at his professor's office three consecutive mornings asking for a spot in another section of the course. Finally, the prof relented and let the kid come back.

"He had a spot for me, he just wanted to see if I was passionate about it," Eric Johnson said. "That's the thing about Glenn. He cared so much that he wanted you to care as much. That's when I knew I really wanted to do this."

Glenn Johnson's fire for broadcasting and his genuine desire to see his students succeed is why he's still a part of many of their lives.

Take a look at the headshots of the anchors and reporters outside his office and you get a window into what he means to his students. Among them locally are Johnson, Mary Nam and Kathi Goertzen at KOMO and Mark Wright at KCPQ/13.

"I've always wanted to take a genuine interest in my students," Johnson said. "Even the ones who weren't going to make a career of broadcasting. You want them to know that they could succeed in whatever they choose to do if they really believed in what they were doing."

Eric Johnson still calls his old professor several times a year. That's the rule rather than the exception. Some send contracts for him to look over, solicit advice on all matters and drop by to see him when they can.

"He left a gigantic impression on all his students," said Rod Simons, the former KSTW/11 sports anchor now in Minneapolis. "All you have to do is talk to someone who knows him and they'll tell you how important he was to their careers and lives."

Many students who passed through WSU the past three decades knew Johnson only for his voice. That rich, booming timbre that floated over the stands at Martin Stadium on fall Saturdays and through Beasley Coliseum on winter nights.

Alumni young and old can recall his standards, from "That's another Cougar first down!" to "Here come the Cougs!"

Not bad for the former radio broadcaster whose previous experience doing P.A. was as a fill-in for the Triple-A Sacramento Solons.

"Best voice in college P.A.," said Rod Commons, the WSU sports information director and the man who hired Johnson. "That voice, for one. And he just had such a presence. He had just enough pizzazz without being the show."

Of course, calling Apple Cups always meant a bit more. Johnson said he loves this time of year more than the rest for obvious reasons. His favorite memory from the rivalry, though, was a game he didn't call.

"The Rose Bowl year with Ryan Leaf and those guys," Johnson said. "We were sitting at Husky Stadium and after we won people came onto the field. The UW officials were gracious enough to let us celebrate on their field. That was a great time."

I cannot underestimate the regard in which I hold Glenn. We are lucky to have him.

Cougs Goin' Bowlin'!

Congrats to Alex Brink, Mkristo Bruce and the WSU Cougs! Their 37-15 victory today over UCLA at the Rose Bowl makes them bowl eligible for the first time since the 2003 Holiday Bowl season.

Where do you think the Cougs will end up? It almost certainly won't be the Rose Bowl or Holiday Bowl, as we have already lost to USC and Cal. If the Cougs win out against the Arizona schools and the Fuskies, they will likely be headed down to Mike Price's new hometown, El Paso, for the Sun Bowl. The Las Vegas Bowl, Emerald Bowl, or Hawaii Bowl are also in the mix, depending on how well we finish and how the other PAC-10 contenders (Oregon, Oregon St., UCLA, Arizona State) fare.

I was just down in El Paso, and while the Sun Bowl is more prestigious (and nothing against El Paso), Las Vegas or Honolulu seem like the better holiday destinations for the fans (the Hawaii Bowl is on Christmas Eve). San Francisco in late December? C'mon.

Go Cougs! See you at Martin Stadium next Saturday!