Wulff looks to future

PULLMAN – Paul Wulff held his final news conference of the 2008 football season Monday afternoon and talked extensively on … 2009 and beyond.

Who can blame the first-year Washington State coach?

The Cougars were 2-11 this season, the first time in school history they had lost that many. They also were 1-8 in Pac-10 play, gave up a conference and NCAA record 570 points and yielded 60 or more points a BCS-record four times.

“(It was a) learning experience in so many ways,” Wulff said of his first WSU season. “After one year, we can look at it all, make some adjustments and probably make our biggest strides as a program.”

One thing Wulff didn’t have to learn was no season is an utter failure if it includes an Apple Cup win, which this year did, a 16-13 double-overtime comeback two weeks ago.

And he promised there would be more moments like that next season.

“We’ll be a much improved football team this next year, there’s no doubt about it,” Wulff said. “For a lot of reasons. We will have a lot of players back who will be bigger and stronger and they’ll understand the system a lot better.

“I pray to God we don’t have five quarterbacks that have to take snaps. I don’t believe (the injuries) will be an issue again. We have some key players coming off redshirt that will make dramatic improvement on our football team.”

The Cougars started the season with Gary Rogers at quarterback, saw him go down with a neck injury against Portland State, and had to use Kevin Lopina, Marshall Lobbestael, Dan Wagner and J.T. Levenseller at times under center.

The injuries to Lopina, also hurt against PSU, and Lobbestael, lost to a season-ending knee injury against Oregon State, forced Levenseller to use a planned redshirt year.

Of all the injuries the Cougars suffered – starters missed a total of 73 games to injury – Wulff said Lobbestael’s was the most devastating.

“He would have had a chance to play in nine games,” Wulff said, “and he would have helped in all of them.”

Wulff said the Cougars are going to be stronger next year through a more intense weight-lifting program featuring more accountability.

“They have to embrace it,” Wulff said. “They don’t have a choice. … If we have players that can’t embrace that, they have to go someplace that will allow them not to develop.

“As coaches we have to make sure they make a lot of improvement in the weight room. … For us to take a huge step as a program, every single individual has to take ownership of that. And the way to do it is to get yourself bigger and stronger as a player.”

But Wulff tried to temper expectations about a huge strength improvement in one year.

“I think you see some change,” he said of next year, “but I’ve been around long enough to know, when you have a good weight program, you don’t reap the true fruits of its labor for three to four years.”

And building long-term program success is also a layering process, according to Wulff.

“We’re going to be a young football team,” Wulff said. “We’re not in a situation where we have a lot of fifth-year seniors, fourth-year juniors, yet. But that’s what we have to get to. Once a program can cycle itself … that’s when you get solid teams.

“That’s not what’s gone on here the last X-amount of years. It went away from that concept so we sit where we sit because of not staying the course.”

But now WSU is back to it.

“For us to get back to that, we have to redshirt players like we did this year, bite the bullet, and start layering the team that way,” Wulff said. “That’s how you’re going to get it done here.”

Looking ahead

Wulff said all positions need strengthening through recruiting, but the priority areas are receiver and defensive line. The Cougars are looking for immediate help in both areas. … WSU has seven coaches out recruiting this week. … When asked which players he was expecting to provide leadership over the off-season, Wulff mentioned Lobbestael and Kenny Alfred on offense and Louis Bland, Tyree Toomer and Xavier Hicks on defense. “Those are players that have that personality,” Wulff said. … There are a number of players who redshirted that Wulff expects to contribute next season, including Cal transfer running back James Montgomery and junior college transfers Zack Williams, an offensive tackle, and Bernard Wolfgramm, a defensive lineman. Many of the redshirts, including offensive tackle Tyson Pencer (shoulders) and defensive linemen Jessy Sanchez (shoulder) and Wolfgramm (knee), have already undergone surgery. More are planned, with the team doctor booked for most of December. … The competition for quarterback should be intense, with Lobbestael probably unable to go in the spring. He’ll battle with Lopina, Levenseller and freshman-to-be Jeff Tuel, of Clovis West High in California, who has committed to signing in February. … Though Wulff doesn’t expect any more Academic Progress Rate problems this year (WSU was docked eight scholarships in May), the Cougars won’t sign 25 first-year players – the maximum – in February. Wulff expects to sign 17 or 18 high school seniors, two or three junior college athletes and use the rest of the available scholarships for nonscholarship players such as linebacker Myron Beck, who would count against the initial total because he hasn’t been on campus for two years.