Big Sky: All part of EWU family

When Charlie Wulff first started attending high school football camps at Eastern Washington University, he was an unknown and undersized offensive lineman out of Woodland (Calif.) High School.

But he had an uncle who believed, albeit not wholeheartedly, that he might eventually make it as a college player in the Big Sky Conference.

It helped, Wulff said, that his uncle just happened to be Eagles head coach Paul Wulff, who proved to be right on with his early assessment of his nephew.

Saturday afternoon Charlie Wulff, still relatively unknown and undersized, will make the 15th start of his college career at center when 24th-ranked EWU (5-3 overall, 3-2 in the Big Sky) faces conference rival Northern Colorado (1-8, 1-4) in its 81st annual homecoming game at Woodward Field.

Kickoff is set for 2:05 p.m. and Wulff, a 6-foot-1, 270-pound junior, will again anchor an offensive line that has helped the Eagles put up some impressive numbers this fall.

“I knew when he first came to our summer camps he had a chance,” Paul Wulff said of his nephew. “He was a good football player in high school, but he wasn’t very tall, and that scared a lot of recruiters away. I’ve never been shy, though, about taking good football players, and I don’t get too caught up in height and weight issues.

“I just felt like he was tough enough and would eventually play for us.”

The younger Wulff redshirted as a rookie in 2004, lettered as a backup center the following year and started the last 10 games of the 2006 season. He has started five of eight games this fall as the Eagles have overcome a 1-2 start in conference play to climb back in contention for a postseason playoff berth.

“He’s improved a lot since a year ago, no question,” Wulff said. “He definitely brings us some toughness, he and Chris Carlsen. Those two guys aren’t maybe the most gifted, but they’re certainly two of our toughest players.”

Both Wulffs insist that being blood relatives has had no lasting affect on their player-coach relationship.

“The first year or two I was leery of that,” said Paul, who also helps coach the offensive line, “But it’s reached the point now where it doesn’t even faze me. If anything, I’m probably a little harder on him that most of our guys, but that’s OK He responds better to that.”

Charlie claims he’s never noticed any difference in the way he gets treated.

“He seems pretty even keel out there as far as his affection goes,” he said. “Besides, I think I’m harder on myself than any of my coaches have ever been. Whenever I screw up, it really agitates me, so I don’t know if (Paul) is ever really harder on me.

“I just know it’s been a long time since I’ve played for anybody else.”

Davis might return

Eastern Washington’s sophomore wide receiver Tony Davis, who has missed the last five games with a shoulder injury, has been practicing with the team on a limited basis this week and coach Wulff said there is an “outside chance” he could return for spot duty against Northern Colorado.

Prior to separating his shoulder in the Eagles’ 28-21 loss to Portland State on Sept. 29, Davis had caught 13 passes for 94 yards and one touchdown.

Wild night in Portland

As expected, the hottest topic of conversation during the Big Sky’s coaches’ conference call this week was Weber State’s 73-68 road win over Portland State on Saturday in a game that featured a Division I-record 20 touchdowns, the most points scored in a collegiate football game and a Big Sky and Football Championship Subdivision-record nine touchdown passes by PSU freshman quarterback Drew Hubel.

First-year Vikings coach Jerry Glanville, although badly disappointed with the loss, said he went into the locker room after the game and asked his team, “What about our freshman quarterback?”

“They all cheered for him,” Glanville said, “but I had no idea he had thrown nine touchdown passes, because the game had gone so unbelievable that I wasn’t keeping up with who scored what.”

Quick kicks

Conference-leading and fourth-ranked Montana (8-0, 5-0) can clinch at least a share of its 10th consecutive Big Sky title by beating visiting Portland State (2-6, 2-3) on Saturday. … PSU has not won at Washington-Grizzly Stadium since 1987, when the Vikings were still an NCAA Division II team. … Montana’s Bobby Hauck and EWU’s Wulff can both pick up their 50th career coaching victory with wins this weekend. … Five Big Sky quarterbacks – PSU’s Hubel (485), Sacramento State’s Jason Smith (396), Montana State’s Jack Rolovich (346), Weber State’s Cameron Higgins (334) and EWU’s Matt Nichols (328) – threw for more than 300 yards last weekend. Prior to that, Nichols and Portland State’s Brian White were the only two who has accomplished such a feat.