WSU Search Ends With Paul Wulff

After a couple of weeks of rumors, lists, phone calls and interviews, Washington State finally has their man. Several media outlets are reporting tonight that WSU will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM to introduce Paul Wulff as the next head football coach. He reportedly beat out former Michigan State coach John L. Smith and Oklahoma assistant Kevin Sumlin for the head job.

While Wulff hasn't coached at the division-I level, he does come to WSU with an impressive record of 53-40 at Eastern Washington, where he's been the head coach the last eight seasons. If you aren't too familiar with EWU, you aren't alone. Cheney, WA is one of the most difficult places to recruit to in the nation, and they have one of the smallest venues (8,000 seats) and football budgets in college football. Yet Wulff has won coach of the year honors in the Big Sky on four separate occasions in those eight seasons. Wulff's EWU Eagles just wrapped up their season a week ago, where they lost 38-35 at Appalachian State (remember them?) in the Football Subdivision Playoffs.

Wulff is a former center at WSU, where he started for the last three years of his career and earned All-Pac-10 honors in 1989. He's one of the only WSU players to ever play for WSU coaching legends Jim Walden, Dennis Erickson and Mike Price in his playing career. He is known for exciting offense, where his Eagles led the nation in total offense on two occasions, and finished second in total offense in two other seasons. And for those hoping for a reunion from glory days gone by, former coach Mike Price publicly pulled out of the running on Saturday, a day before things started to finalize for Wulff and WSU. While not exactly the splashy hire that some Cougar fans were hoping for, Wulff at age 40 is seen as a coach on the rise, and should inject some energy and passion into the program.