Doba might get defensive next year

Facing what appears to be a pivotal year for Washington State football, coach Bill Doba might turn to a familiar face to coordinate his defense: Himself.

"I might give it a shot," Doba said from his office at WSU. "It kind of depends on who I can get in here."

Doba lost his coordinator when Robb Akey left recently to become the head coach at Idaho. Leon Burtnett, linebackers coach and former head coach at Purdue when Doba was on that staff in the 1980s, expressed no interest in the coordinator position, and there isn't an obvious choice on the staff.

"I've got a real good guy in mind," Doba said. "I've just got to see if we can afford to bring him in."

Failing that, Doba will take the position he held from 1994-2002 under Mike Price, and hire a position coach to replace Akey, who, with Mike Walker, handled the defensive line.

Doba said he had already heard from Gary Emanuel, a WSU defensive line coach from 1994-96 who was fired this week by the San Francisco 49ers. But he said Emanuel would want the coordinator position and was calling mainly to network about other possible jobs.

Doba said he didn't anticipate a change in special-teams responsibilities, an area in which WSU struggled mightily in 2006. Running-backs coach Kelly Skipper handles that area.

"I don't think so," Doba said about special-team changes, adding that he thinks Skipper has proven himself solid in that area, but that other issues, mostly depth, sabotaged WSU.

"We may have a little more emphasis, but the reason we didn't have great [kickoff] returns is, we didn't have a great returner," Doba said. "I don't think it's the schemes or the amount of time we put in.

"The coverage team was hampered with some injuries, and we had to put starters in. When we took them out, you saw what happened."

Washington's Marlon Wood had a long kickoff return, one of several big UW plays in an Apple Cup upset in November.

One associate of Doba in the WSU athletic department described Doba as "upbeat" and "re-energized" in an attempt to return the Cougars to a bowl game, something they have missed since Doba's first season in 2003.

Doba has done more off-campus recruiting, an aspect other coaches helped him limit somewhat last year during the illness of his wife Judy, who died last April.

Notes

• Akey has added former Washington assistant coach Steve Axman to his Idaho staff as offensive coordinator. The well-traveled Axman spent the 2006 season as quarterbacks coach at Montana.

• The Web site cougfan.com reported the commitment to WSU of 6-foot-4, 275-pound offensive lineman Steven Ayers of Sehome High in Bellingham. He is ranked as the No. 7 prospect in the state by Rivals.com.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com