Eastern’s Wulff named top coach
Add another honor to the glowing list of accomplishments for the 2004 Eastern Washington University football team.
Paul Wulff was named the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year on Tuesday, the second time the fifth-year head coach has been honored by his peers. He shared the honor with Montana coach Joe Glenn in 2001, his second season.
“Obviously this is a great thing for our coaching staff,” Wulff said. “I’m very proud of the way our kids responded to the coaching. When the kids respond to coaching and the hard work by our coaches, you generally get great results on the field and we’ve had that this year. I’m proud of our staff and the kids.”
The 14th-ranked Eagles play at No. 1 Southern Illinois in the first-round I-AA playoffs Saturday, the fourth playoff appearance for Eastern and first under Wulff.
The 37-year old Wulff guided Eastern to a 6-1 conference record, sharing the championship with Montana, and 8-3 overall. The Eagles were picked to finish second but after losing two non-conference games on the road, won eight of their last nine games, losing only 31-28 to Montana.
Eastern ranks fifth in the nation in scoring offense and sixth in total offense.
Wulff is a 1990 graduate of Washington State. He joined the EWU staff in 1993 and was the offensive line coach and strength coach in 1997 when the Eagles won the Big Sky championship and advanced to the I-AA semifinals.
Eastern has never had a losing season under Wulff, who has a 33-22 record. His first team was 6-5 overall and 5-3 in the conference, finishing tied for second. In 2001 the Eagles went 7-4 and for the first of three consecutive years were 3-4 in league play. The two seasons prior to this one, EWU was 6-5 overall.
The Eagles had 10 players selected to the all-conference first team on Monday, including the offensive MVP, quarterback Erik Meyer.
Wulff is also one of 16 finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award, which goes to the I-AA Coach of the Year.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for the other coaches in the conference,” Wulff said. “I’ve been in the league for 12 years and the coaching is outstanding right now.”