WSU Football | Busy days ahead for Wulff, Cougars

Washington State football coach Paul Wulff acknowledges that the Cougars are behind in the recruiting derby, but said they can make up some ground.

"We're going as fast as we can in a short amount of time," said Wulff, who was introduced as the Cougars' new coach last Tuesday.

Wulff said he and the assistants he hired immediately had only a few days on the recruiting trail last week before the NCAA-mandated Christmas "dead period" began.

"There are some kids who haven't heard from us yet who will hear from us," he said Thursday in Seattle.

Wulff said he is aware that rival Washington has received commitments from several of the highest rated in-state recruits. But, he added, that never is a guarantee of future success.

"I take a lot of pride in what we do once they [recruits] get into our program," he said. "Our goal is to develop them better than anyone else can."

The Cougars have 21 scholarships available and four known commitments.

Wulff said he plans to fill the remaining two positions on his coaching staff after Christmas. Of the seven coaches he has hired, the only two with definite assignments are the holdovers from Bill Doba's staff — Mike Levenseller (receivers) and Steve Broussard (running backs).

Wulff said Cougars quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach, who is known to be a candidate for the head-coaching position Wulff vacated at Eastern Washington, remains a consideration for an assistant post at WSU.

Wulff was surprised to hear that some of his anti-Huskies remarks at his introductory news conference seemed to offend some Washington fans.

He had said, "I really don't like purple," and "Dogs hunt and bark, but Cougars fight and kill."

Wulff, who played in the Apple Cup in the late 1980s as a Cougars offensive lineman, said he was just trying to have some fun with the rivalry.

"It's supposed to be fun, isn't it?" he said.

Notes

• Wulff said Rob Oviatt will remain the Cougars' strength coach.

• Wulff said he wants OL Andy Roof to return to the program. Roof, one of the strongest players on the Cougars' 2006 team as a redshirt sophomore, was suspended from Washington State for the fall semester because of alcohol violations. Roof made five starts in 2006 and had been projected as a 2007 starter. "We've been playing phone tag," Wulff said.

• Wulff said he has met Washington coach Tyrone Willingham briefly at conventions but doubts that Willingham remembers meeting him.

• Without naming names, Wulff said some Cougars will have to appeal fall-semester grades to remain in school, but said no one at this point is a definite academic casualty. He said monitoring of academic performance by coaches is something in the football program that he wants improved by his staff.

• Wulff said his no-huddle offense "will have a little of everything," including shotgun snaps. He noted that Eastern played at "two-minute-drill tempo" throughout its 44-15 upset of McNeese State in the first round of the national playoffs.