Kramer Fills Five Vacancies Ewu Football At Full Strength With Appointment Of Coaches

Mike Kramer had just gone 5-for-5 in his hurried search for five new assistant coaches. He is negotiating his first multi-year contract that is expected to include “a hefty raise.” And he is slightly behind in one of the most important recruiting seasons in his four years as Eastern Washington’s football coach.

So when he was asked earlier this week if he might consider pursuing the vacant head coaching position at Cal State Northridge, Kramer said, “There’s absolutely no way.”

Kramer, who led Eastern to a 12-2 record, its first outright Big Sky Conference championship and the semifinals of the Division I-AA playoffs last fall, expressed interest in the Northridge job last winter after Dave Baldwin resigned.

But after learning that Baldwin’s successor, Jim Fenwick, had stepped down Monday to become the offensive coordinator at New Mexico, Kramer indicated he will not pursue the job this time around.

“A year ago it was something worth studying,” he said. “But I just talked five guys into moving here and I’m excited about what’s going on at Eastern Washington.”

For the past two weeks Kramer has been scrambling to reconstruct a coaching staff that was dismantled in the wake of defensive coordinator Jerry Graybeal’s departure to become the head coach at Weber State. When Graybeal left, he took Kramer’s offensive coordinator J.D. Sollars and part-time assistant and wide receivers coach Ray Williams with him.

Since then, Graybeal has hired Kramer’s secondary coach, Rick Redden, and his defensive line coach, Rick Olson, leaving offensive line coach Paul Wulff as the only remaining full-time assistant.

But by Tuesday morning, Kramer had hired five new assistants, briefed them on recruiting procedures and introduced them to his returning players in what he called “the most important team meeting of my career - just to let the players know that everything is under control.”

Kramer’s hires include Walla Walla Community College defensive coordinator Steve Kizer; former Fresno State and Montana State quarterbacks coach Dave Telford; former Boise State defensive line coach Pete Kwiatkowski and University of Washington graduate assistant Randy Hanson.

Kramer, who earlier promoted Wulff to offensive coordinator, said Kizer will replace Graybeal as defensive coordinator. Telford will coach quarterbacks, Kwiatkowski will coach the defensive line and Hanson will be secondary coach. Volunteer assistant Torresy Smith has accepted a promotion to a restricted earnings position. Smith will coach wide receivers.

“I went 5-for-5,” Kramer said of his hiring effort. “Those are the five guys I wanted from the start. It’s like a whole new job now. I get an opportunity to do some mentoring that I didn’t need to do before.”

Kramer, after serving as an EWU assistant for five seasons under Dick Zornes, was promoted to the head coaching job in 1994, ahead of Graybeal and Sollars, who had been on Zornes’ staff much longer.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FILLING THE STAFF New EWU football assistants: Walla Walla CC defensive coordinator Steve Kizer Ex-Fresno State and Montana State QB coach Dave Telford Ex-Boise State defensive line coach Pete Kwiatkowski Washington graduate assistant Randy Hanson Ex-volunteer assistant Torresy Smith.