Paul Wulff is the man for the job, but the job will take a while to complete.
A four-year starter at center for Washington State from 1986-89, Wulff was hired this past off-season to redirect the Cougars football program after the firing of Bill Doba, who went 30-29 in five seasons but failed to qualify for a bowl game and left a trail of incidents in his wake. Eight scholarships were lost because of a poor NCAA Academic Progress Rating, and several off-season arrests clouded the coaching search, most embarrassingly the charge that junior safety Xavier Hicks poured rubbing alcohol into a teammate’s contact-lens case.
Wulff was the head coach at Eastern Washington for eight years before accepting the job in Pullman, earning the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year award three times and making the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in three of the last four years.
His first acts as WSU head coach involved cleaning up the program. He released quarterback commit Calvin Schmidtke from his letter of intent (Schmidtke had an arrest record) and dismissed a projected starter at defensive tackle, Andy Roof, following an arrest on assault charges. Starting defensive tackle A’i Ahmu was also suspended this season for failing to appear in court on an alcohol charge, but he is expected to play against the Ducks.
Washington State hasn’t performed like Wulff’s EWU teams yet. Before their 48-9 blowout win against FCS opponent Portland State, the Cougars were last in both total offense and total defense among Football Bowl Subdivision teams. But if anyone is able to put his program’s troubles in perspective, it is Wulff.
When Wulff was 12 years old, his mother, Dolores, disappeared, and authorities suspected his father, Carl, an alcoholic, in her disappearance. A case against Carl Wulff was never fully formed, and he was estranged from his children until his death in 2005. Paul Wulff’s first wife, Tammy, succumbed to a five-year battle with brain cancer in 2002, at the age of 39. (Wulff has since remarried and has three children.)
Would anyone have guessed the Pacific-10 Conference Offensive Player of the Week was a Washington State player? And a backup, no less. Third-string quarterback Marshall Lobbestael entered the Portland State game after starter Kevin Lopina and backup Gary Rogers suffered injuries. Lobbestael threw for touchdown passes on his first two pass attempts, and finished the game completing nine of 12 passes for 149 yards and the two aforementioned scores. Lobbestael, a redshirt freshman, is expected to start against the Ducks.
Last season’s leading rusher, Dwight Tardy, will be critical to Lobbestael’s success in setting up the passing game. From there, Lobbestael will have two main targets: senior wide receiver Brandon Gibson (who averaged 17.6 yards per reception in 2007) and senior tight end Devin Frischknecht.
Cougar defenses have been known mostly for their linebackers, and senior Greg Trent is the next standout in line. Defensive end Andy Mattingly led Washington State in tackles for loss and sacks last year, and coupled with Ahmu he will challenge the Oregon offensive tackles all game.
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