Utah State's Charlie Weatherbie acts like a little boy at times, climbing flagpoles after big wins, asking aged Las Vegas showgirls how old they are as they welcome his team to town for 1993's Las Vegas Bowl II or waving his arms wildly to get the Aggie crowd into the game.
But he took Wednesday's disappointing news like a grownup.He got a call Wednesday morning from Oklahoma State interim athletic director Dave Miller, who said Weatherbie's alma mater had chosen Colorado assistant Bob Simmons as its new football coach, bypassing Weatherbie, a popular figure in Stillwater after quarterbacking some of the Cowboys' greatest successes.
Weatherbie had been one of six candidates to interview for the OSU job vacated Nov. 22 when long-time coach Pat Jones resigned.
"It's been kind of a dream," Weatherbie told the Deseret News of his quest to coach his alma mater. "It's something I've been working for for a long time. But the timing was not right, so I will do the best I can here," said Weatherbie.
"I guess the Lord's got a different plan for Charlie Weatherbie and his family," he said.
While OSU is Weatherbie's dream job - and still a future possibility since he's only 39 - coaching an alma mater can be perilous. Fans expect immediate results from alumni coaches.
Weatherbie says he had thought about that while making the job bid, remembering a passage from the Bible that says, "`A prophet's never welcome in his hometown.' That crossed my mind several times," Weatherbie admits.
He still wanted the job.
Weatherbie says the uncertainty of the weeks since Jones's resignation have not hurt Aggie recruiting. Four players visited campus last weekend and two verbally committed to USU, he said.