December 4th Could Determine Wullf's Fate

Washington State University Athletic Director Bill Moos has to be feeling the heat right now. But after all, this is what he signed up for. He had to know at some point he would have to make a coaching change at his Alma mater. I'm sure he didn't think it would be this quick.

Or did he?

Many of the cougar faithful are falling off the bandwagon, in a hurry. The status of the WSU football team is giving a lot of people an uneasy feeling. The losses are mounting and getting old. So are the excuses. When a coach continually blames the players for "being too young and inexperienced", you know you have an accountability problem. Isn't it the coaches' job to get them ready, young or experienced? Last time I checked it is.

It has become Bill Moos' challenge. In 17 years as an athletic director at Montana and Oregon, Moos had only one losing season in football. I'm sure he doesn't want to live through very many more, especially at Washington State. He was instrumental in the hiring of Paul Wulff, he played a key role on the selection committee. Moos wants Wulff to succeed just as much as anyone else, but then again when you start losing your fan base, and the losses keep coming, it may be time to make a change. Or is it?

Paul Wulff has stuck to his game plan on how he is going to run his program. He continues to recruit hard for the best players available, and quality young men. There still is an interest on the part of some of these blue chip high school players, the most recent coming out of the state of Florida, who enjoyed his recruiting visit thoroughly despite the lopsided loss to USC.


So if you are the athletic director at WSU what do you do? Do you hang on and give him his four years? The first year probably doesn't really count because Wulff had less than two months to recruit, given the fact he was hired so late in the process. And it's no secret WSU doesn't have the funds to buy out a guy like Rob Akey, who just signed a new extension at Idaho.


I look for the WSU team to be much improved the rest of the year. Special teams continue to be a huge bright spot in this young season. And more importantly for Cougar fans, the Huskies are struggling too. This weekend's game at USC will be another big challenge for Steve Sarkisian's Huskies.

Many football experts say to retain your job in college football you must beat your rival. John Cooper found out the hard way during his time at Ohio State against arch rival Michigan, he's obviously no longer the coach there. In 1975, the Huskies came back from 13 points down to beat the Cougars 28-27 when Spider Gaines caught a fluke pass from Warren Moon after the ball bounced off the helmet of a Cougar defender in Don James' first Apple Cup.

Exit Cougar Coach Jim Sweeney.

Paul Wulff's career record is 1-1 against the Dawgs. Mark your calendars for December 4Th in Pullman.

It very well could determine Paul Wulff's fate.