ESPN College Football

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Everyone from former coach Mike Price to former Nebraska star Turner Gill is being mentioned for the vacant head football job at Washington State University.

The team and coach Bill Doba reached an agreement for Doba to step down on Monday, and there is no obvious replacement candidate.

Athletic director Jim Sterk said the program would conduct a nationwide search for a replacement, and he did not offer a timetable for the hire.

Among some Cougar faithful, there is much desire for a return of Price, 61, the only coach to lead Washington State to two Rose Bowls.

Price was the only coach Sterk mentioned as a possible candidate during Monday's news conference. Price, coach at Texas-El Paso, declined comment when asked Monday whether he was interested in the job.

Sterk said the ideal candidate will have been successful at the top level of college football.

"The person or his staff has to know the Northwest; that helps as far as the recruiting base," Sterk said, although he also noted that basketball coach Tony Bennett is from the Midwest and has taken the program to a current No. 6 ranking.

"I'm not limiting us as far as the geographic or the background of a person necessarily, but we will take that into consideration when we are discussing candidates," Sterk said.

"You have to have at least the experience as a player or as a coach at the Pac-10, the BCS level," Sterk said.

Price, 61, had an 83-78 record at WSU from 1989-2002. He took the Cougars to their first Rose Bowl in 67 years and to four other bowls.

Price left to take the head job at Alabama before the 2002 Rose Bowl, but never coached there after he was ousted following a scandal stemming from his actions in a Florida topless bar. Price landed at UTEP, where he has posted a record of 25-23 in four seasons.

There is also speculation that WSU President Elson S. Floyd, who is black, might push for a minority hire to help diversify an overwhelmingly white athletic department. Washington State has had minority basketball coaches in George Raveling, who is black, and Kelvin Sampson, a Lumbee Indian, but never a black head football coach.

According to the Black Coaches and Administrators organization, there are only six black head coaches at the 119 major-college football schools. They are Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom, UCLA's Karl Dorrell, Washington's Tyrone Willingham, Kansas State's Ron Prince, Miami's Randy Shannon and Gill at Buffalo.

Doba, who was 30-29 in five seasons, is the first football coach to be pushed out at WSU since Bert Clark in 1967.

All Doba's assistant coaches have been retained for now, but the new coach will decide if he wants to keep any, Sterk said.

Whoever replaces Doba will take over a 5-7 team that returns eight defensive starters and seven on offense.

Sterk has surprised people with his hiring in the past.

His choice of retired Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett to rebuild the basketball program five years ago was a surprise. This year he hired University of Washington coach June Daugherty to rebuild the women's basketball program.

Sterk said former Oregon athletic director and WSU football player Bill Moos will serve as a consultant to identify candidates, working with an advisory committee that will include Doba and Ken Casavant, WSU's Faculty Athletics Representative, among others.

Speculation in the media and on-line quickly brought forth a slew of names, who may or may not be interested, or may or may not be considered. They include:

•  Paul Wulff, Eastern Washington head coach and a WSU player from 1986-89. He is 53-39 at EWU and has taken the Eagles to the Football Championship Division playoffs for the third time in four years. They play at Appalachian State on Saturday, and Wulff on Tuesday declined to speculate on the WSU job, saying he was focused on leading the Eagles to a national title.

"It's not something right now I want to deal with," Wulff said. "If it happens down the road I'll deal with it."

•  Craig Bray, the Arizona State defensive coordinator, who was an assistant at WSU from 1988-89 and 1994-99.

•  Dave Christensen, Missouri assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, who coached at Western Washington, Eastern Washington, Spokane Falls and Washington.

•  Gill, University of Buffalo head coach who is a candidate at Nebraska.

•  Bob Gregory, Cal defensive coordinator who played at WSU in 1984-86.

•  Bobby Hauck, Montana head coach, who has kept the Grizzlies among the elite FCS teams and coached at UCLA and Washington.

•  Dirk Koetter, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator, a former Boise State and Arizona State head coach well connected in the Northwest.

•  Tim Lappano, Washington offensive coordinator and former assistant at WSU from 1987-91.

•  Jim Michalczik, Cal offensive coordinator and WSU player from 1986-88.

•  DeWayne Walker, UCLA defensive coordinator.

•  John L. Smith, St. Louis Rams scout, who was an assistant at WSU before taking head jobs at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville and Michigan State.

•  Chris Petersen, Boise State head coach who is 23-2 in two seasons, but at $850,000 a year in pay already made substantially more than Doba.

•  Scott Linehan, St. Louis Rams head coach, who is 11-17 with the NFL team. He's from Sunnyside and played at Idaho.

•  Pat Hill, Fresno State, who is 83-55 in 11 years.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press