So, if you follow the Cougars closely, I’m not telling you anything new when I tell you that Paul Wulff has been named the new head coach of the WSU Cougars football team. If you don’t, then certainly the question is, “who the hell is Paul Wulff?”

Well, Paul Wulff was once an offensive lineman from California who played center for the Cougars in the 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989 seasons under the direction of Jim Walden, Dennis Erickson, and then finally Mike Price. As the head coach at Eastern Washington University, he was the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year 2001, 2004 and 2005 and in 1997 and 2001 his teams led the Football Championship Subdivision - why they can’t call it D1-AA I don’t know - in total offense. And in 8 seasons as head coach at EWU he has only one losing season.

Why This Was A Bad Hire
Two big reasons, one is that his teams have not performed all that well on defense. To me, former coach Bill Doba was known for his defenses, and criticized for his offenses. All that screaming and f-bombs seems to have gotten those exactly what they wanted: a more offensive minded head coach. Only problem is that this could come at the expense of the defense, and in the high flying Pac-10, where points are scored at higher rates than any other conference, it would seem that a strong defense is mandatory to compete. For example Wulff’s 2007 team was 6th in total offense and 80th in team defense. Basically, I don’t see the team losing games by 30 points, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more wins. To me, this is the hope that being in games and losing by 10 or less will be more palatable to fans than losing big. To me, a loss is a loss.

Also, what do we know about this guy’s ability to coach at the top level? Nothing really. Yes the FCS is competitive, but it’s not the Pac-10. It would seem that a current Pac-10 coordinator, or someone like Norm Chou, would have made a better hire. Possibly even former Idaho head coach Nick Holt - who has been on the USC staff in recent years - would have been interested in coaching against his friend and former Graduate Assistant of UOP when Holt was a player at UOP, Pete Carroll. In the end, it seems like there is a long list of coaches who have experience and success in the Pac-10 and it would seem that list was not fully exhausted before Wulff was hired. Long story short, experience is a big question mark.

Finally - and this comes more as a result of the Doba firing - firedoba.com is now pretty much paying hosting fees and their url fee for nothing. Even if you wanted to fly the anti-Doba flag, in retrospect maybe firedoba.com wasn’t the best choice.

Why This Was A Good Hire
This was a good hire for Cougar fans who wanted to keep it all in the family. Wulff graduated from WSU and is connected to the most memorable era in Cougar football - the Mike Price era - but, just barely. Wulff is also a guy whose entire football career, coaching and playing, has really been spent in eastern Washington, meaning that when it comes to recruiting - which was said to be an issue with Doba - Wulff should have a leg up. At EWU Wulff has had to find the bargans and players who have slipped through the cracks in Washington, Oregon and California to fill his roster; the vary same mentality should serve him well at WSU. He is still going to need to find bargains, and capitalize on his ability to keep the best talent East of the mountains on this side of the state.

Finally, its good for the fans, critics, writers, and others who have complained over and over about the WSU offense in past years. The offense should see some improvement, and probably open up some. Defensive coaches in my experience tend to be more conservative on offense and visa-versa offensive minded coaches tend to be very aggressive on defense - they’ll do whatever it takes to get the ball back in their hands. So the biggest two concerns I’ve been hearing about - recruiting and offense - have been taken care of. Now the team can hopefully play without the fans cursing their names in the stands. This might be enough to get the fans off their backs and let them just play.

The biggest plus in my mind is that Wulff seems like the kind of guy who will make the WSU job into a career. Once a Coug, always a Coug; Wulff is the kind of coach, who if he works, out, the team may not have to be posting any want ads on craigslist for 15-20 years. Other guys they could have hired - the ones I talked about with the experience - might have just used the job as a stepping stone. It’s nice as a fan to believe that if he works out, we may have found our coach for years to come.

And finally, the best news for the fans that love to hate: firewulff.com is available, so you better act fast.

Go Cougs.