In defense of Paul Wulff

My opinion might not be a popular one in eastern Washington, but I think Paul Wulff deserves another year…or two.

Today Wulff met with Washington State University Director of Athletics Bill Moos to decide the fourth year coach’s fate, but no decision has been made as of yet. The opinion among Cougar fans seems split, though there may be more who lean toward firing Wulff after his 9-40 record in four years. But to solely look at that number is misleading and does not tell the whole story.

When Wulff took over the downtrodden Cougs four years ago, he inherited not only the worst team in Division I football, but he also inherited a team that had over 30 arrests his first year on campus (not his recruits) and were so bad academically, they actually received scholarship penalties.

If that weren’t bad enough, Wulff has to compete for recruits with Team Nike (Oregon), Team Seattle (UW), The Gonzaga of Football (Boise St.), Teams Los Angeles (UCLA, USC), The Academics (Cal, Stanford) and Teams We Have Hot Weather and Females (Arizona, Arizona St.). It’s tough to draw five-star type talent to the Palouse, so Wulff has to take a different approach (much like Boise St. and Oregon St.): he has to find diamonds in the rough.

Though Wulff hasn’t been successful at finding those at every position (see: offensive line, running back, parts of the defense), Wulff has shown a knack at finding good under-the-radar talent: Tuel—a junior QB who might be a top four QB in the best QB conference in the country; Halliday—a freshman QB who might be the best freshman QB in the conference; Wilson—a sophomore WR and one of the most talented receiver in the conference; and Karstetter—a truly reliable WR. What also deserves to be mentioned it that Wulff has decided against recruiting Junior College transfers for short-term success, instead recruiting almost all high school seniors in an effort to build long-term success on campus.

In fact, the Cougs are top 10 in the country in passing offense thanks to the Tuel/Halliday/Lobbestael connection with Wilson and Karstetter, averaging over 322 yards per game, even though Tuel missed most of this season due to injuries, meaning that a career back-up and a freshman were accumulating all those yards against defenses keyed in on the passing game, since no running game has been found in Pullman.

Patience is something lacking in our sports win-right-now-no-matter-what culture. Remember, in 1983 Duke fans wanted a little-known third-year coach named Mike Krzyzewski fired because he wasn’t rebuilding Duke fast enough (they lost to Virginia and Wagner that year). Almost twenty years later, “Coach K” is the winningest coach of all-time. Wulff is not Coach K and WSU football is a far cry from Duke basketball, but at this point, why not let Wulff get a shot? In his first two years, the Cougs were losing each game by large margins. That changed in Wulff's third year, and this year, the Cougs were literally 5 total yards (UCLA, Utah) from bowl eligibility and a special teams blunder (San Diego St.) away from seven wins.

If he does not return, the next guy will look great because he will inherit a young and talented team—the foundation that Wulff built. The Cougs will not win the Pac-12 anytime soon, but at least they’re competitive again, something that could not be said about the mess Wulff inherited. And the reward could be great for the Cougs as Wulff, a former Coug player, would most likely not leave Pullman for greener pastures (because, let’s face it, while it’s possible to win in Pullman, high-profile coaches are not exactly itching to come to the Palouse); whereas a certain former coach in Texas would probably not be in it for the long haul.

Wulff bleeds crimson and gray, so why not give him another year or two to reap the benefits of the talented recruiting classes he has brought in the past two seasons? On top of that, there have been few off-the-field issues, which was one of his main goals when moving down to Pullman. What’s the worst that could happen? At worst, the Cougs would be in roughly the same spot they are in now: on the fringe of bowl eligibility. At best, they have found an up-and-coming coach who is rebuilding WSU into a powerhouse. WSU is in a division with Stanford and Oregon—who look like they have a stranglehold on the division for the foreseeable future, so why not take a chance and let a Cougar finish what he has started?

Let's say Moos does decide to fire Wulff, Washington State would be nowhere near the front of the line for top candidates. With Arizona State and UCLA in the Pac-12; Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois in the Big Ten; Ole Miss in the SEC; and Kansas in the Big 12 all looking for new coaches, Washington State would get about seventh pick among free agent coaches. If they wait until next year and see what Wulff does, they can either keep Wulff or be closer to the top of the pecking order for a new "big name" coach.

Facts are facts: the defense and running backs need to improve, but the passing game is one of the best in the country, and the Cougs return the most important parts of that passing attack. If nothing else, Wulff deserves to see those guys out.