Wulff evades WSU talk

BOONE, N.C. – On a week when he wanted every ounce of his focus to be on his Eastern Washington University football team, Eagles coach Paul Wulff spent way too much time – in his opinion, at least – talking about the vacant head coaching position at his alma mater, Washington State.

Wulff was quizzed several times in recent days about his interest in replacing Bill Doba at WSU and did his best, in each instance, to deflect the attention back to his 14th-ranked Eagles (9-3), who will take on two-time defending national champion Appalachian State (10-2) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs on Saturday in the Mountaineers’ Kidd Brewer Stadium.

“It’s not a good time to ask that question,” said Wulff, who would almost certainly embrace the idea of taking over a Pacific-10 program, especially at the school where he played. “Right now, with the opportunity our football team has, that has to be the most important issue we have.

“We have an opportunity to compete for a national championship and go play a two-time defending national championship football team, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this program. If (the WSU job) comes up down the road, we’ll deal with it at that time, but right now our focus is on our football team and the big game we have this weekend.

“That’s really what matters to me, and I know our kids and coaches, too. That other stuff will have to take care of itself down the road.”

Eagles quarterback Matt Nichols is among many who feel Wulff would be a good fit at WSU.

“Look at his record over the years,” Nichols said of Wulff, 40, who has Eastern in the postseason playoffs for the third time in four seasons and has been named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year three times in his eight years as the Eagles’ head coach. “He’s done some great things with some good teams, but he hasn’t had many of those absolutely amazing guys, which shows how good a coach he is.

“Anybody who comes in here and plays, he can make it work and get them into the playoffs. And to be able to turn around a 3-8 season (in 2006) to a 9-3 season right now and still have a shot of moving on in the playoffs just shows a lot about him.

“He’s a great coach, and I think if (coaching at WSU) is something he would like to do, he should definitely be considered for it.”

Eagles know how to fly

For the second week in a row, Eastern was forced to fly the majority of the way across the country to play a quality opponent on its home field.

Last week it was a 3 1/2-hour flight to Lake Charles, La., to face No. 2-seeded McNeese State. On Thursday, the Eagles flew nearly 4 hours on the way to Boone, N.C., for Saturday’s game against ASU.

“Again, I think it’s what you make of it,” Wulff said of having to make a second cross-country trip in as many weeks, “I think this team is capable of handling anything, so I’m not really worried about it. I just think our kids will deal with it and we’ll move forward and do what we have to do.”

Nichols and his teammates seem to welcome the travel.

“We’ve played well on the road, so we just consider ourselves a little bit of road warriors,” said the sophomore quarterback from Cottonwood, Calif. “And we don’t mind leaving home right now, because there’s a couple of feet of snow on the ground.”

Set a wake-up call

The Eagles flew here a day early to acclimate themselves to the 3-hour time difference, but there is no getting around the fact that when Saturday’s game kicks off at 12:05 p.m., it will only be a few minutes past 9 in the morning in Cheney.

“That’s another issue and hurdle our kids are going to have to play through,” Wulff said, “but it is what it is. We practiced at 9 in the morning during two-a-days, and last week we did on Thanksgiving.”

The Eagles also practiced Thursday morning before boarding a chartered plane to Bristol, Tenn., and then making the 90-minute drive here.

“But have we ever played a game at 9?” Wulff asked. “Never have, so that will be a first.”

Here comes the loud crowd

Wulff was asked about dealing with the noise and craziness inside Kidd Brewer Stadium.

Even though the stadium seats 16,650, crowds upward of 25,000 routinely show up, using the grassy hillsides and walkways as viewing points.

“We don’t play in a lot of atmospheres like that,” Wulff said. “The closest thing we play in is (Washington Grizzly Stadium) at Montana, which I’m assuming is very similar in terms of environment. And we played at BYU with 65,000, so I think our kids are accustomed to that to a certain degree.

“It still doesn’t push the facts away, however, which are you’ve got a noise factor and you’ve got nobody rooting for you, so there’s an issue with volume and communication being disturbed. We just have to be mature about handling it, and block it out as best we can.”

Thumbs down on that film

The Eagles have not spent time as a team watching Appalachian State’s 34-32 road win over Michigan on Sept. 1, and with good reason, according to Wulff.

“It wasn’t a game (film) we exchanged,” he said. “I know people who have the ballgame, but it was just such a long time ago that I don’t know how relevant it really is for us right now.

“We want to focus on a football team that is similar to us and maybe have more recent games to watch so we can see how they’re playing now versus September.”