Wulff attempts to ignore fans’ grumbling
PULLMAN – Washington State football coach Paul Wulff spoke candidly about his job status again Tuesday, saying he’s trying to ignore the rumblings out there, although it’s tough to do.
“So many people talk in this world about coaches, in all the sports, it’s just part of our society now, people like to talk about that stuff,” Wulff said in a weekly press conference.
“Ultimately, it all comes back to Bill Moos. He’s the athletic director and he’s the best expert we could all ask for to build Cougar football. If he feels we’re headed in a good direction, that’s his call.”
Moos has said he will make a decision on Wulff’s future after the season. Wulff is in his fourth year of a five-year contract he signed in 2008 when he replaced Bill Doba as the Cougars’ coach.
In that time Wulff’s teams have posted an 8-38 record.
Asked what he would tell Washington State fans to convince them the program is improving, Wulff went back to his first year, when the Cougars were 2-11 and were outscored 570-165.
“It goes back to them understanding this was the worst BCS program in America by a long, long ways when I got here,” Wulff said on the Pac-12 coaches’ conference call earlier in the day. “We’ve been operating the first two years with low scholarship numbers and everything else. We’ve got great young recruiting classes that are still young. It’s a young football team that’s got a bright future.
“It takes time when things are in bad, bad shape. I didn’t make it, but I’m here to fix it. Things like this don’t get fixed in three years, four years, to the level they want.”
As for this season, in which the Cougars started 3-1 but have lost five consecutive games, Wulff pointed to the loss of quarterback Jeff Tuel in the opener. The junior, who fractured his left clavicle, returned against Stanford in the sixth game, but played just a game and a half before being re-injured.
“We lost our leader in the first game of the season and it’s had an impact,” Wulff said.
“I thought this year we had a chance to go to a bowl and, you know what, we still do. (But) I really felt No. 10 (Tuel) had to be a catalyst for that.”
Tuel will not play Saturday night for the 3-6 Cougars against Arizona State and may not play the rest of the season.
After Arizona State, the Cougars have Utah at home and Washington in the season finale in Seattle.