NCAA Football Washington State Football

The Seattle Times put the Washington State University football program in the cross-hairs on Sunday, reporting on an array of mistakes by players over the last 18 months. 25 arrests in 18 months is a troubling sign, no matter the coach or the program.

Some of it was your run-of-the-mill incidents that occur at campuses across the country. You know, underage drinking, marijuana possession, assault. Not to excuse the behavior, but pretty standard stuff for 18-22 year-olds. But some of it was, well, a little odd. For example, standout defensive end/linebacker Andy Mattingly attacked a five-foot-ten soccer player. With a frying pan. And the soccer player? He had a butter knife to try and fend off the 6-4, 245-pounder who notched 91 tackles and eight sacks as a true sophomore last season. Predictably, the soccer player took the worst of it, suffering a two-inch gash and was "bleeding profusely" according to the police report. As the old saying goes, never bring a butter knife to a frying pan fight.

All that said, the vast majority of these assorted misdeeds happened under the previous coaching regime of Bill Doba. Doba was relieved of his duties in December after a modest 30-29 record. But the real issues surrounding Doba and his coaching staff appears to be what was, or wasn't, happening off the field.

"WSU is a hard school to go to, man," [ex-DB Courtney] Williams says. "You ain't got nothin' to do but get drunk and smoke weed, and not go to class because you're too tired from doing what you're doing."

Sterk said the department has been planning for the sanctions, and said it shouldn't negatively affect the team's ability to sign players. However, he is still concerned that the problem won't go away for some time.

"It'll be a lingering number because (the NCAA APR) has a four-year rollover," Sterk explained. "If you look at it, we've had a blip last year with people leaving. We'll have to deal with it and move on."

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.

"Because of the Internet and all the negative stuff, we have some kids we have offered and I think they want to commit but they want to wait and see if the Internet is going to fire me," Doba said Tuesday.

The Cougars are the only Pac-10 team without a commitment, according to recruiting Web sites.

Doba has become a target for unhappy Cougars fans who use Web sites and message boards to unleash their frustration. There even is a Web site dedicated to getting him fired.