Paul Wulff Radio Show Recap – Week Fourteen

A light-hearted radio show last night, as you could probably imagine. I’ll keep it brief and to the point, at least I’ll try to. Here we go:

• Right out of the chute, of course, they talked about the feeling of winning the Apple Cup. Wulff said it was simply a “great day for everyone” and that he was so happy that they found a way to win the game. It wasn’t pretty but they found a way. Wulff said it was great for the fans and that they deserved to celebrate when you consider all they have been through this year, and he thanked them for their patience. But he was especially happy for his seniors. All they had been through in their career and then this season, to go out and win their last home game vs. UW is very special, and a moment that will live with them for the rest of their lives.
• Bud asked him about the dance, compared by some to the Tommy Lasorda dance when Kirk Gibson hit that famous home run. Wulff said he honestly couldn’t remember what he did at that moment, and that he doubts he could re-create it! All he cared about was getting to the middle of the field to get to his players, and it was just a blur.
• Wulff was asked about Hawaii this week. Wulff said that they are extremely tough at home, one of the best home field advantages around and they get up for BCS opponents. He said sometimes you feel like you are already down 14 points before you even take the field against them at Hawaii. But he said he is excited to see how his players handle it. He especially wants to see how his young players bounce back after such an emotional win, and that no matter what, it will be a good lesson for his young players. However it’s NOT like a bowl game to them. They are not getting there until mid-day Thursday, so they will literally have one day, and then it’s Saturday. They are approaching it as a business trip, and they are going to play a good game.
• A caller asked about the progress the team has made lately, and suggested they watch tape of the Cal game, and then watch tape of the UW game to compare the efforts. Wulff said without question, as a staff they have felt that they were playing better. He stressed again that the scoreboard hadn’t been showing it lately, but there were areas that they were coming along. It’s hard to see it when the end-results have been so poor, but they finally took a step last week.
• A caller asked about Jeshua Anderson’s chest injury, and noted that he seemed to stay in a few plays after it happened and didn’t look very good. Wulff said that Anderson thought he could shake off the injury and tried to play through it, but he just couldn’t and had to leave the game. They will re-evaluate him this week. The caller also asked about getting another QB for this year’s recruiting class. Wulff said right now they have one verbal commit at QB (he didn’t name him but it’s Jeff Tuel, a 3-star QB from Fresno). Wulff did mention that they MIGHT look at another QB for this class, but they have so many areas they want to address with their scholarships that they will likely just take one.
• A caller asked why the PAC-10 has destroyed the tradition of rivalry week at the end of the season, and noted that all those games are now spread out over multiple weeks. Wulff said he agreed and wished it was like it used to be, and then hinted that something might be in the works? One thought was that the PAC-10 would move all the rivalry week games to the week of “championship week”, when the BIG 12 and SEC have their title games. Jim Sterk was in the room and Bud yelled out “what’s the deal Jim?” and Sterk just kind of shrugged and said “no comment”. Maybe the cat is out of the bag? Anyway, they also mentioned that the WSU 2009 schedule hasn’t been released or finalized in any way, so there might be some movement there.
• A caller asked about the offensive line for next year, and how they are looking. Wulff said he was pleased with how the youth has played this year, thrown to the fire so to speak, and they are looking better and better. But he also pointed out that they only have ONE senior in their entire 12-man offensive line rotation, so 11 out of 12 will all be back next year. They also have some young players redshirting right now that they are really high on who will step right into the mix next year (Zach Williams?). Personally I’m excited to see how that o-line looks next year with another off-season of lifting and eating right, and a season of game experience under their belts. They might really take a big step next year.
• The same caller asked about Gary Rogers and his attempt at a medical redshirt. Wulff said that Rogers has applied for it, but they really won’t know until this spring if they allow it. They really don’t know how it will go, but Wulff said he believes right now that it’s a long shot at best. The rule is that if you lost two full seasons due to injury, you could apply for that sixth year, but that isn’t exactly the case with Rogers. We’ll see. On a side note, Jake Locker applied already for an extra year of playing time and UW sources said he was denied the extra year, based on the fact that he played a full month of this season, plus his other year he missed was due to a redshirt, not an injury.

  
  The caller asked about how Marshall Lobbestael is doing. Wulff said that he is doing really well in his knee rehab right now, and they are pleased with his early progress. However, he said that he will very likely not be available this spring as they want to take it easy. But they are confident that he’ll be OK by fall camp. That is one of the hard parts of this season, losing Lobbestael so early in the year when it looked like he was going to get an excellent opportunity to learn on the fly. They really like him, and the kid has showed something to be excited about in the future.

• A caller asked about the worst play in the playbook right now, the “jailbreak screen”. Even Jim Walden howled about it during the broadcast, and why they were still running that play was beyond him. Wulff said he agreed, and the timing has to be perfect on a play like that. However “we didn’t actually call that play this week.” Turns out Lopina checked off into the jailbreak screen play, and it obviously didn’t work out. It was a good read, as the defense was coming on a blitz, but it just didn’t work. Wulff said that play is great against the blitz, but we honestly haven’t been blitzed a whole lot this season.
• A caller asked about the impact of having Dick Bennett talk to the team, and does Wulff use him at all as a resource? Wulff said that he does talk to him, and they talk about all sorts of things. But mainly they talk about the tough seasons in rebuilding, and what Bennett’s experiences were compared to what Wulff has gone through thus far. Wulff then went out of his way to say that “when you are rebuilding, there are tough things that all programs go through. And you can’t really listen to the outside criticism that always comes with it. Only people on the inside of the program REALLLY know what is going on.” Kind of some sharp criticism from Wulff for all the crap that has been written about them this year? But Wulff said that’s just part of the deal when you are trying to turn it around, and there will be some things they do that aren’t popular. Wulff also said that Bennett has given him some great advice, as far as doing things the right way, staying on course with his plan, don’t veer too far off the right path. But also don’t be afraid to re-evaluate what you are doing, and always think about the things you are doing and their impact on others.

  Most of all, Wulff loves and respects Bennett because of who he is and what’s he’s been through. The guy is a “program builder” and has been through exactly what Wulff is going through right now. He’s a tremendous resource. Look at where the hoops program was when Bennett showed up? Look at it NOW? I know it’s apples and oranges, hoops to football, but it’s still about turning around a culture and changing the way things are done, from the ground up. The road isn’t always a smooth one.

• A caller asked about the D-line play, and how they seem to be stepping up their game a little bit. Wulff immediately pointed out the impact of Toby Turpin, and how well he’s played at nose tackle for the third straight week. He has been a big part of them playing better. Not that they dominated, of course, and UW’s offensive line was pushing on them all game long (and had about 50 pounds per man on each guy), but the line hung in there and fought hard all the way to the end. Wulff also said Ahmu, Mullennix and even Eichelberger did OK out there. Wulff also said that they really seem to like the 3-man defensive front! The players like it, and it also gives them a chance to get a little extra rest as they can rotate bodies in and out a little more by simply not having four defensive linemen on the field at once. Wulff did say that they will likely go back to a four-man defensive line next year, but they have taken to it pretty well this last half of 2008.
• Bud asked about going for it on fourth and one and a half in the first OT. Wulff said that they not only wanted to get the first down, but they really believed they would get it. He wanted to keep staying aggressive in that situation and the sideline was happy they chose to go for it. Wulff wouldn’t say for sure if that was the defining moment, but he did mention that it could be, and that all programs have that “moment where you can build off an experience like that, something they can look back to and think about in the future as to how they went for it and got it in a tough situation.” Besides, Wulff also said “there was no guarantee UW was going to make their field goal, even if they didn’t make it!” and that brought a few howls from the crowd at the radio show!
• A caller asked again about recruiting. Wulff said that it’s going well right now (they just got a new top-100 offensive line commit). But Wulff said that no matter what, he’s never seen a coaching staff work so hard at recruiting. These guys are giving everything they have to find some new talent, and there isn’t a coaching staff around who will outwork them in recruiting. They do believe there are some special players that they will get in this class, and that the hard work is going to pay off.
• Nameck brought up “Cougar Pride” and how even in this tough year, it’s still out there. There was a story of a soldier in Afghanistan who got up at 3 AM to try and listen to the game online. When the Internet connection dropped, he called a friend in Washington and sat on the phone with him for the last hour of the game! Very cool. Nameck also brought up how this is the first-ever time in the 101-year history of the Apple Cup that WSU has won four out of five in the series, and that Matt Mullennix is the first-ever WSU player to be on the team that won four Apple Cup games. No other WSU player has ever won it four times. Very cool. Mullennix’s dad called into the show and thanked Wulff for the win, and that he was proud of Matt. His dad also said that it helped ease the sting of the 1975 game that WSU blew, where UW came from a couple of scores down late to win. That was a game in which Mullennix’s dad played in. Ouch.
• One last look at the UW game – Wulff said the two biggest things were 1) they stuck with the run in the second half, and they knew they had to do that or else they couldn’t win, and 2) they didn’t lose the turnover battle! Wulff said again that they talked at halftime and decided no matter what, they were going to stick with the run. And of course, the run was a huge reason they won. The big TD by Mitz, but there were other times where they ran effectively with Dwight Tardy in the second half and even in OT. The 171 rushing yards were the most since the Portland State game.

  
  And the turnovers, finally, they didn’t lose the turnover margin battle! They only “tied”, giving it away once, but they took one away themselves. It can be a drastic difference when you aren’t giving the thing away three or four times a game, isn’t it? That’s one thing that was kind of lost in all the excitement, that they didn’t play hot potato with the football.

• JT Levenseller – he WILL PLAY this week. Wulff said they “want to get him as many plays as they can this week” and get him some solid game experience. They also brought up the idea of a redshirt in the future, and Wulff said that is certainly a consideration. Unfortunately he didn’t get enough snaps this year and it wasn’t an ideal scenario for burning his redshirt, but we’ll see how that all plays out. He didn’t flat-out say it, but I kind of got the idea that we’ll see a lot of JT this week?
• Finally, one last thing on Hawaii – Wulff said they have been running the same offense this year, and while they’ve played a few QB’s, they are still doing pretty well on offense. But where he said they have improved is their defense. They start nine seniors on defense, and they have a very strong, experienced, active defensive front. Some of their key backups are also seniors, so there is a lot of experience there. Hawaii also has a lot riding on this game. Even though they are 6-5 right now, they have to win this game to be bowl-eligible. If they lose it, they will likely miss out on a bowl game, even though they would be at six wins. So Wulff knows they will be highly motivated this week.

That’s about it for this week. A light-hearted show and a very appreciative crowd, and lots of congrats from the callers. Wulff still kept it in check, but you could tell he’s still on a high from that game. And in a year like this, who can BLAME THE GUY for being happy with how that game went down? Like Wulff said last week, the day he took this job and the whole “Cougars hunt and kill” comment, well, that was said for WSU fans, and deep down he’s a fan as well as the coach. He played at WSU and his Cougar pride runs as deep as anyone. So imagine how you would feel if you beat UW in double-OT?

ENJOY YOUR TUESDAY, and GO COUGS!