Paul Wulff tasked with ‘raising the bar’ in second season as Cal Poly head coach

Heading into his second year at Cal Poly, Paul Wulff is aware of the task set before him and the challenging nature of what he’s trying to do.

For one, he is no stranger to being a head coach, seeing that this is his third such stint following time at Eastern Washington (2000 to 2007) and Washington State (2008 to 2011).

He’s also no stranger to Cal Poly, having joined the Mustangs’ staff in 2020 when Beau Baldwin – the man who succeeded him at Eastern – was in charge of it.

But the challenge at Cal Poly is particularly unique, and it is one the 57-year-old WSU alum is eagerly facing as Big Sky football programs across the West began practice last week.

“I think we’ve added some things that are really going to help this football team,” Wulff said last month during the Big Sky Kickoff Weekend in Airway Heights. “Usually from Year 1 to 2, it’s really just getting comfortable with knowing what to expect, and we know each other a little bit more. I have great confidence in that with our growth this year.”

A program with a history that dates to 1915, Cal Poly’s golden eras came under Joe Harper, who led the Mustangs to a Division II national title in 1980, and under Rich Ellerson and Tim Walsh, who between 2001 and 2012 coached the Mustangs to winning records in all but two seasons.

Since then, it’s been a tough go.

During Walsh’s final three seasons – 2017 to 2019 – Cal Poly went 9-24. Baldwin took over just before the pandemic season of 2020 – during which the Mustangs were so impacted by injuries and attrition that they played just three games – and in his three years they went 4-21.

Last year, Wulff’s first as head coach, the Mustangs improved enough to win three games, although their lone Big Sky victory came over 0-11 Northern Colorado.

Young players have been one reason for the Mustangs’ struggles, Wulff said.

“When we started building the roster, there just weren’t a lot of players there that you’d probably want to keep around for six years,” he said, “and we’ve been facing schools where we’ve been drastically younger every Saturday, top to bottom, and we’ve taken our lumps because of it.”

That led to a bevy of injuries, Wulff said.

“Now we finally have a group with a lot of players who’ve been through the wars and we can line up on Saturdays with some guys who are 22, 23 years old,” he said. “We’ve been averaging 18 or 19 the last couple of years.”

Cal Poly is one of the three Big Sky teams Eastern Washington doesn’t play this season after the Eagles beat the Mustangs 48-13 last year (Portland State and Weber State are the other two). But Cal Poly does play at Idaho, on Oct. 19.

The Mustangs are also one of five Big Sky teams with a second-year head coach.

“Going into Year 2 for every coach, it’s about raising the bar and being able to hold people accountable to certain expectations and behaviors you’ve tried to implement in Year 1,” Idaho State coach Cody Hawkins said. “Year 1, you’re doing your best, but you don’t know how it’s going to go.”

The 36-year-old Hawkins inherited a program with a similar history to that of Cal Poly. The Bengals have just four winning seasons this century. In 2021 and in 2022, they finished 1-10.

But in 2023, Hawkins’ team showed notable improvement, winning three Big Sky games – including a 42-41 contest over Eastern – with an offense that averaged the fifth-most yards in the 12-team conference.

It’s a team the Eagles will see this season, on Nov. 16 in Cheney. The Bengals haven’t played at Roos Field since 2016.

Eastern will also play Northern Colorado, another team with a second-year coach, on Nov. 9 in Greeley. Ed Lamb’s job with the Bears is also like that of Hawkins’ and Wulff’s: Since the Bears won a D-II title in 1997 and moved up to the FCS in 2006, they haven’t won six games in a season.

The Bears were 0-11 last year; in Lamb’s eight years as Southern Utah’s head coach from 2008 to 2015, his teams never won fewer than three. From the perspective of wins and losses – and Lamb said the goal in Year 1 was to win the game every time they stepped onto the field – his staff failed.

But he still saw improvement in other aspects.

“I can say the difference between Year 1 and Year 2 in terms of my knowledge of who these players are, that part is changing rapidly,” Lamb said, “and I feel so much better about my ability to talk to players both individually and collectively about what our culture is, and I feel like they’re mirroring that back to me.”

Establishing a positive culture is something Lamb, Hawkins and Wulff all talked about – and so did Andy Thompson and Mickey Mental, the Big Sky’s two other second-year coaches at Sacramento State and Weber State, respectively.

But there are key circumstantial differences. Thompson and Mental were promoted from coordinator roles when their head coaches left for other opportunities following winning seasons. Thompson followed Troy Taylor – who was EWU’s co-offensive coordinator in 2016 – who is now Stanford’s head coach. Mental replaced Jay Hill, Weber State’s winningest head coach (68-39) who is now BYU’s defensive coordinator.

“When you inherit a program like Weber State from, in my opinion, the best coach to ever come through Weber in Jay Hill,” Mental said, “it’s (about) finding that balance of what can I tweak and make my own as a person and put my flavor on it a little bit. But the consistencies and standards, those remain the same.”

Thompson led the Hornets to a 8-5 record, including a playoff victory. Weber State finished 6-5, tied for sixth in the Big Sky.

In the Big Sky preseason polls, an immediate turnaround at Cal Poly (or at Northern Colorado or Idaho State) was not predicted by the media or coaches. The Mustangs ranked 11th in the coaches’ poll and 12th in that of the media.

But that’s clearly not what Wulff expects. He sees a team that is ready to build on all that youthful experience it got the past few seasons. (Wulff estimated that they have close to 20 players who could be starters or valuable players this fall who missed a large part of the season last year.)

Then there’s the added degree of difficulty in winning at a place like Cal Poly, which Wulff said presents significant academic challenges to its students, football players included.

“It’s not just about football,” Wulff said. “It’s truly the combination of both, and I’ve never been part of that before. That’s what’s unique about Cal Poly. You’re dealing with elite athletes and elite smart young men. And as a coach, it’s a lot of fun, because as a coach there’s a lot you don’t have to deal with. … You’re dealing with guys that are pretty dialed and focus-driven, and as a coach, that’s fun.”

Now the task is to continue that improvement in a conference Wulff’s been a part of more than he’s been away from since he first joined Eastern Washington’s coaching staff in 1993.

“I’m very optimistic about what we’ve got,” he said.