Players await decision

This ongoing and highly anticipated holiday break from text books, classes and winter workouts has been fraught with a bit more anxiety than some of Eastern Washington University’s returning football players might have liked.

At the core of their concern is the school’s head coaching vacancy that was created earlier this month when Paul Wulff opted to return to his alma mater and take over the football program at Washington State.

Wulff spent the previous 14 seasons in Cheney, including the last eight as Eastern’s head coach. He accepted the WSU position after leading the Eagles to a 9-4 record that included a first-round win over No. 2-seeded McNeese State in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

When he left, he took five of his position coaches – including both his offensive and defensive coordinators – with him, leaving many of his former EWU players feeling abandoned and confused.

“It was a little depressing,” junior defensive end Greg Peach admitted during a phone interview from his home in Vancouver, “because it wasn’t like we had a horrible season. We went 9-4 and really had a great year, and now almost all of our coaches are gone and we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Wulff and Eastern’s first-year athletic director Bill Chaves met with the players on the evening of Dec. 11, the day Wulff was officially introduced as WSU’s new head coach. Peach was at that meeting, but many of his teammates had already returned home for the holidays.

Chaves, who is conducting the highly secretive search for Wulff’s successor, told those who attended that he planned to conduct a thorough search and made no mention of a specific deadline for making the hire.

“I really didn’t get any idea of what kind of person he was looking for,” Peach said. “He said he was going to look for someone who is going to be there for awhile – like for the next five or ten years, or as long as Wulff was there – for stability.”

Chaves, who, according to several members of his own department, has already interviewed several potential candidates, called many of the returning players who were not at the meeting on the phone, attempting to reassure them that he will, indeed, make the right hire.

Chaves’ call did little to relieve the anxiety of sophomore wide receiver Aaron Boyce.

“He made some good points about how he has to keep in mind the (potential recruits) who are still in high school, as well as the guys on the team right now,” Boyce said from his home in Kent. “But I would hope that our say would be valued, too.

“We made the commitment to the school, you know, and we’ve got some high expectations for next year. So, hopefully, they can bring in a coach who understands that and won’t change everything.”

One returning player who does not seem to share the concerns of Peach and Boyce, however, is sophomore quarterback Matt Nichols, who was named the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for 3,744 yards and a school-record 34 touchdowns this fall.

“Maybe if this would have happened after our freshman year when we really didn’t know what was going on as much, I would have been a lot more concerned,” Nichols said from his home in Cottonwood, Calif. “But, basically, we have all of our offensive skill players and most of our defense coming back, so I feel like whoever comes in, we already know how to play the game and we’re going to make plays no matter who’s calling them.

“I’m pretty confident that no matter what coach we get, everyone is going to keep working hard and get ready for the season like we always do.”

Boyce, Peach and Nichols have heard the names thought to be on Chaves’ list of potential candidates to replace Wulff – names like Fresno State offensive coordinator Jim McElwain, Central Washington head coach Beau Baldwin, former Washington State quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach, current EWU wide receivers coach Joe Wade, Idaho assistant Luther Carr and Toronto Argonauts quarterbacks coach Bill Diedrick. All have expressed interest in the job.

While all of those names have past or present ties to Eastern and are well known by longtime Eagle fans, many remain mystery candidates to the players they hope to eventually coach.

The known names, in the case of EWU’s returning players, are those of Wade, who just finished his eighth season as a Eagles’ assistant, and Baldwin, who spent four seasons as Wulff’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach before taking over as the head coach at CWU last year.

“Obviously, a lot of us don’t know most of those guys,” Boyce said. “So Coach Wade and Coach Baldwin are definitely the favorites throughout the team.”

Added Peach: “Coach Wade has been here for eight years and knows the system and knows the area, so I think he would be a great fit. And Coach Beau, I know him pretty well, too. He recruited me, and I think he would be another good candidate.

“I’m not really sure about all the other candidates. I really don’t know them.”

Chaves, who has said he will not comment further on his search until he names the new coach, has returned to his former home in Texas, where he is still in the process of selling his house and moving his family to Cheney.

Sources from within Chaves’ staff at Eastern have said they know little about how the search is progressing, but doubt that a new coach will be named until after the first of the year.

The delay doesn’t seem to bother Nichols.

“He told me he was going to take his time finding someone to make sure he gets the best guy for the job,” Nichols said of Chaves. “You can’t really put your program in the hands of somebody if you’re not sure about them.

“I think (the lengthy search process) is a very good thing compared to hiring someone right way and then kind of looking back and saying we should have looked at some different guys. I like that he’s taking the time to make the decision.”

As for worrying about changes in the way the Eagles do things, Nichols added: “Now that I have a better grasp of the game and a better grasp of our offense, I’m not too worried about it. Even if somebody does come in and change things a little bit, I feel like I have the ability now to adapt very quickly.

“Plus, we will all have all winter to learn it before spring ball starts.”

Boyce and Peach, however, are a bit more antsy about Chaves’ pending hire.

“I hope they choose it as soon as possible, both for us players and recruiting-wise,” Peach said. “I really feel for those Wazzu players, now. I know what they went through.”

“We’re kind of in a tough spot,” Boyce added. “When you choose a college, you also get to choose a coach and a coaching staff. But we’re in a position now where that choice is out of our hands and in the hands of our administration.

“I just hope they do the right thing.”