Coach Wulff looks for something to cluck about
It’s way too early to panic, but it’s obvious that the egg laid by the Eastern Washington football team has the rooster concerned about what is happening in the hen house.
Routine conversation revealed that Paul Wulff was as surprised as anyone when the Eagles lost their season opener 37-14 at Nicholls (La.) State and isn’t sure how his team will respond when it plays at Air Force on Saturday.
Asked if there were any doubt his veteran team would bounce back, the fifth-year head coach said, “It’s too early to tell. I’m still trying to find out who our players are that we as coaches can hang our hat on. … The makeup and chemistry of this team is now what we’re trying to figure out. … We’re way too early to formulate exactly how our team is going to perform and react week in and week out. We have to get some character going.”
Asked if any other opening performances by Big Sky Conference teams caught his attention, Wulff said, “I’ll be quite frank, I didn’t even pay attention. I don’t even know the scores of the other opponents (because) I’ve been so focused on our team and what we have to get done to get better.”
He didn’t notice that Northern Arizona threw a scare into Arizona before losing 21-3; or No. 3 Montana edged No. 11 Maine 27-20; or Weber State lost to visiting Southern Utah 34-31?
“Our coaches look (at scores) and I do sometimes, but this week I’ve had no time for that and more importantly I’ve had no desire to even look,” Wulff insisted. “I probably have a different focus right now. Not that I won’t look all year, but I’ve been entrenched to take some steps to get this team going.”
Charity begins at home
The wording in the hometown paper – the Arizona Republic – was charitable, referring to a game-changing penalty against visiting NAU, but Lumberjacks coach Jerome Souers took the high road after the loss to Arizona.
NAU was trailing the Wildcats 7-3 late in the third quarter when Roger Robinson ripped off a 30-yard run to the UA 5. He apparently was a little too exuberant after the play and was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. A lost fumble on the next play ended the threat.
“First off, we don’t take moral victories for a game,” Souers told the Arizona Daily Sun. “We came down to win. I feel bad for our kids because we played hard, but we didn’t play well enough in critical situations to accomplish that.”
There is no doubt Weber coach Jerry Graybeal was livid after the loss to Southern Utah.
“I’m mad, real mad,” the former EWU assistant told the Ogden Standard-Examiner. “Bottom line: I know one thing about teams I’ve coached here: They don’t take themselves out of ballgames because of a lack of discipline. We lost our composure tonight. Our lack of discipline tonight cost us the ballgame.”
Quick kicks
When EWU opened at San Diego State last year – losing 19-9 – 21,145 fans attended. Idaho State lost at SDSU 38-21 before 57,216 this year. SDSU averaged 22,626 last year, but ISU was the pregame for a fireworks show. … ISU quarterback Mark Hetherington went 34 for 62 for 300 yards, two TDs and three interceptions.