Update: Wulff Interviewed Friday Night; Jim Walden Loves Paul Wulff, Hates Mike Price

Updated 1:30 PM 12/8/07 – Paul Wulff has officially been interviewed by the Cougars. The Spokesman has the details. If you’re scoring at home, that’s now three names that have been through the official process – John L Smith on Thursday, Kevin Sumlin on Friday and now Paul Wulff Friday night. We’ll see where it goes.

I had mentioned this a week or so ago, about Jim Walden’s interview on KRKO 1380. Walden has gone out of his way to explain why Wulff is the guy to hire, and it’s a good listen, even if it is a week or so old. Check it out. The recruiting angle in-state is a good point, as well as Wulff’s background. The other thing about this is to listen to his opinion of Mike Price. No, coach Price, Walden will not buy you a mug down at the Cottage, a pitcher at the Page, a pop at the Village (if it’s still there?), or even a calzone at Sella’s!

Another good listen is Wulff on with Jeff Aaron of 1380. Good stuff. You can catch it here.

One thing to like from hearing Wulff? He considers himself an offensive coach. Wide open on offense. Led the Big Sky in offense 4 of the last 5 years, even #1 in the nation 2 of the last 8, ranked as high as second a couple of other times. Lots of spread option, no-huddle, dictate to defenses what they want to do. VERY aggressive, he even says they’ve had a game where they’ve done nothing but the 2-minute drill on every play! Best of all, he’s adaptable on offense and they are not predictable (read: Not the same, tired, one-back offense). And of course, a former lineman who has a lot of pride in what the big uglies up front do on a week-to-week basis.

Meanwhile, sources claim that Oklahoma co-OC/passing game coordinator Kevin Sumlin interviewed yesterday, per the Spokesman. The same story says that John L interviewed on Thursday. But the Times comes out and says that they claim that Sterk is off-campus doing these interviews! So which is it? We’re working on our source to see what the real deal is, but it’s pretty murky. See what happens when you don’t communicate? Speculation/rumors/Internet blogging blabber!

What do you think of Sumlin? He’s been a pretty mobile coach with a background of job-hopping, but that can be looked at in so many different ways. He’s doing what it takes to climb that ladder. WSU background as a grad assistant from 88-90, so he does have at least SOME NW/WSU roots. He’s mainly been a Big-10/Big-12 guy, though, from Minnesota, Purdue, and then Texas A & M and finally Oklahoma. The buzz is pretty positive about him, and I doubt they would interview him if they didn’t think he was a viable candidate. And Oklahoma’s offense is pretty strong, with young Bradford tearing it up as a frosh this year at QB. And we know they can run the ball with a guy like Adrian Peterson from last year.

The obvious weakness is no head coaching experience on any level, but you need to start somewhere. Supposedly he’s a good recruiter, but how can you quantify a claim like that? The article mentions he helped land Taylor Stubblefield at Purdue, but that is already being disputed and some say that it was really Greg Olson that really got Stubblefield. So who knows.

John L? He is who we think he is. But to get an interview is one thing, to actually get the job is a whole different deal, we know this. So it might have been a courtesy chat more than anything else. Someone posted in the comments yesterday, calling himself SpartanFan, and said STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS MAN! But he laid out some points as to why:

Let me tell you a bit about John L Smith….

I am a Michigan State Spartan. Born and raised. I’ve seen every game played by the football team since 1983.

Here are some tidbits about The L:

1) I can remember the day he was hired by MSU. His current team, Louisville was playing in a bowl game, and word spread throughout the stadium that he was leaving AS THE GAME WAS BEING PLAYED. It was a total boondoggle. And the funny thing is that the Louisville fans, almost to a person, were saying “Good Riddance”, “Your act has worn thin”, “He’s not the real reason the team is any good anyway”. I thought it strange at the time, and just wrote it off as sour grapes. But in the end it was all true.

2) MSU had two major recruits during John L Smith’s tenure: Charles Rogers and Jeff Smoker.
a) Charles Rogers– a pot-smoking slacker who later became possibly the biggest bust in the history of the NFL draft.
b) Jeff Smoker– one of the top QB recruits at the time, shocked everyone by leaving Manheim PA for East Lansing. JoPa was pissed. By Smoker’s junior year, in what was supposed to be his Heisman Trophy campaign, Smoker left the team mid-season, and checked himself into rehab, leaving the team virtually QB-less. What’s more, the unpublished fact was that Smoker’s coke habit was so bad, and that he was so deep into his dealer that he had been threatened physical harm, and that Smoker ran off to rehab to avoid getting a little payback. There were also rumors about point-shaving, but once Smoker claimed a medical addiction, it became an untouchable subject.

3) John L Smith teams are woefully unprepared. He seemed literally unable to make any kind of adjustment to the game plan on the fly, just standing on the sideline with that goofy look on his face.

4) His team’s are in poor physical shape and wear down during the season.

5) His “cowboy boot and mountain climbing” schtick is just that. All hot air and no substance at all.

Cougars, I implore you. Do NOT allow this man to become coach of this team. Do some research and draw your own conclusions. But don’t just let that man walk in and take the job without asking some very serious questions about how that man handles a program.