FROM THE ARCHIVES: Cougs break with Paul Wulff

Oct. 9—This story originally appeared in the Tribune on Nov. 30, 2011, the day after Paul Wulff was fired as Washington State University's football coach. Wulff was replaced by Mike Leach, which had a successful tenure on the Palouse. Wulff was back on the Palouse's radar this past week when, as the head coach of Cal Poly, his team lost to Idaho 42-14 on Saturday at San Luis Obispo, Calif.

PULLMAN — Speaking at separate news conferences, athletic director Bill Moos and coach Paul Wulff agreed that Washington State football is undergoing a fundamental change. But they defined it in different terms.

Moos fired Wulff on Tuesday, saying it was a difficult decision but that the Cougars could be "left in the dust" if they don't broaden and energize their fan base.

Wulff, in his turn, said the school is on the verge of a football breakthrough that, in itself, would bring fans back to the fold.

"The great thing about Washington State University and being a Coug," Wulff said, reading a prepared statement before taking questions, "is that we don't do it like everybody else. We stick together and don't eat our own.

"I believe the innocence of Wazzu has been lost today. I leave with a heavy heart, but excited to watch the fruits of our labors ripen over the next few years. (I) and my family thank all the supporters from the bottom of my heart."

Moos, who like Wulff is a former WSU football player, made his announcement three days after the Cougars completed a 4-8 season that left Wulff 9-40 in four years, the worst win-loss ratio for any football coach in school history.

Yet Moos, the former Oregon AD who took the WSU position 22 months ago, acknowledged the improvement the Cougars have made in recent seasons and made almost no critical comments about Wulff's coaching performance. He focused instead on the need to generate enthusiasm among fans and raise money for facility upgrades in a fiercely competitive Pac-12.

"I've got to say, in the 30 years I've been in this business, I've met no finer man than Paul Wulff," Moos said. "Cougars everywhere should be thankful and appreciative for what he's done for our university and this football program.

"Having said that, it's my feeling that we're at a juncture with Cougar football that is critical. We've got an $80 million stadium renovation, another $80 million of needs in the facilities for the sport of football. We have the lowest giving numbers by far in the Pac-12 Conference. And I feel we have apathy in our fan base.

"So it's my plan and my hope to bring in some energy to that fan base, and provide a spark by a change of leadership. And that primarily is the reason for the change I've made."

To which Wulff replied: "I think winning football games generates fans and excitement. And there's a process to winning football games."

Moos said he hopes to name a successor within two or three weeks, preferably one with a track record of success as a head coach at a BCS school. He will assemble no search committee, though he will probably hire someone to screen candidates.

Among those he is considering is Mike Leach, who went 10-for-10 in bowl berths at Texas Tech until being fired after drawing accusations of cruel treatment of a player. Now working as a television analyst, Leach is also considered a candidate at Kansas and elsewhere.

Also on Moos' short list is Kevin Sumlin, who interviewed with WSU when Wulff got the job four years ago and whose University of Houston team is undefeated this season in 12 games.

Mike Bellotti, who coached Oregon to prominence when Moos was AD at that school, is also on the radar screen, but Moos said Bellotti seems less interested than Leach in leaving his TV job to return to coaching.

Wulff is being released with one year remaining on his original five-year contract, so the school must pay him $600,000 over the next year, plus about $200,000 in deferred earnings.

With the new Pac-12 arrangement that splits TV revenue equally among the schools, Moos said WSU can afford to pursue candidates of a higher profile than in the past, admitting he may have to pay his new coach twice as much as Wulff was getting.

The AD said he planned to ask two members of Wulff's coaching staff to stay on board to oversee the program and touch base with recruits, of whom about 18 have verbally committed.

All the assistants have one-year contracts that expire in March, said Moos, who hopes one or two are retained for next season. He's leaving that decision to the new coach.

A number of media outlets have speculated that WSU president Elson Floyd has long been privately critical of Wulff and was the driving force in his firing. Asked about this, Moos said only that he did confer with Floyd before announcing his decision.

"His thoughts were that he hired an athletic director to make these decisions and put his trust in that person," Moos said. "And it's me."

On the subject of fans' enthusiasm, Moos painted a picture of apathy more than discontent. Comments from boosters, he said, were 80 percent in favor of retaining Wulff, and no donor demanded firing the coach in exchange for a donation.

It would be a victory, he said, to get to the point where boosters are "giving enough money where they might even say that."

Moos said he basically reached his decision after his 90-minute talk with Wulff on Sunday, but he wanted to think about it longer before making an announcement. He spoke with Wulff for another half-hour Tuesday morning before divulging his verdict.

"And Paul, of course, was crushed," he said. "He put a lot of his heart and soul into this job, and again he's an alumnus, he's a former Cougar player. It's tough on him, as I knew it would be. We ended it with a handshake."

A few more wins this season, Moos said, would have generated the fan enthusiasm that he sees as so important.

"We've got to get this program into a position to compete," he said. "And we've got to do it pretty quick, or in my opinion we're going to get left in the dust.

"I was hoping this season would take us there, but it didn't. So I had to make a tough decision, to hopefully find a way to get there with another person in the leadership role." — Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.