Questions about job security starting to miff Paul Wulff

By Brady Henderson

Three straight losses have re-ignited questions about Paul Wulff’s future at Washington State, and the coach is getting tired of answering them.

That much was evident during Wulff’s weekly conversation with “The Kevin Calabro Show” on Thursday, when he defended the progress the program has made since his hiring and called the speculation about his job security “B.S.” and “ignorant.”

“This whole thing about fighting for my job … we’re building a program and we’ve got a damn good young football team, one that people that know football … know we’ve got a really good football team that’s improved drastically,” he said. “I don’t get caught up in all that B.S. talk because they have no idea about how far we’ve come and where we’re headed. It’s just ignorant talk.”

Washington State coach Paul Wulff called the speculation about his job security “B.S.” and “ignorant.” (AP)

Wulff is 8-36 in three and a half years as Washington State’s head coach. He said a lack of scholarships have further complicated his efforts to fix the “ugly” situation he inherited. The program went 20-26 from 2004-07.

“What people don’t understand is when you walk into the worst program in the BCS four years ago it’s not going to get fixed in a couple of years,” he said. “When you’re dealing with 72 scholarships the first [year] and 73 the second in an 85-scholarship league, in the best conference in America, I’m not sure what people expect.

“You’re not going to get anything fixed really quick, and I’ve stated that all along.”

Wulff’s Cougars are 3-4 this season after losing to UCLA, Stanford and Oregon State. Some considered last week’s game against the 1-5 Beavers a must-win, both in terms of the Cougars reaching a bowl game and Wulff keeping his job beyond this season. Washington State lost 44-21.

Wulff pointed to the fact that Washington State was competitive against UCLA and Stanford, saying the Cougars “dominated the game in a lot of ways” against the Bruins before losing a late lead and that they played the unbeaten Cardinal “probably better than anybody has in the country.”

“We’re not far off,” he said. “We’re playing really good football a lot of the times. We didn’t have a great game this last week; the team we faced did. We’ll be back. [Expletive], we got knocked down in the seventh round. We’ll be right back up and we’ll be fighting in the eighth round.”

Washington State plays at No. 7 Oregon on Saturday. Their four remaining opponents after that currently have a combined record of 17-11.

Athletic director Bill Moos told “The Kevin Calabro Show” on Wednesday that any coaching change he might make won’t happen until the season is over.

Wulff, a graduate of Washington State, said all the talk about him possibly losing his job “really gets old.”

“I came here to fix a program,” he said. “You could have brought another coach in here when I got the job and they probably would have ran after a year or two and put this program even in a worse situation, because it was that ugly. And most people would — they wouldn’t want to put their name to it.

“But being my alma mater, I’m [going to] fix it, and I’m [going to] fix it right. That’s what I’m doing.”

Notes

Quarterback Jeff Tuel won’t play this weekend due to shoulder and calf injuries, and Wulff said he may miss next week’s game as well.

Wulff said it’s “very unlikely” that Tuel would be granted a medical redshirt because he has played past the mid-point of the season.

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