Wulff makes strides in recruiting
PULLMAN – Ask Paul Wulff how his first weeks as Washington State Cougars football coach have been and he smiles.
“It’s been hectic, but it’s starting to slow down,” he said Tuesday during an interview in his Bohler Gym office. “We’re starting to get into a routine. … The pieces are starting to slow down and they’re starting to settle, but by no means are we where we’re going to be.”
Getting to the place Wulff wants to be may take a while.
“The lack of depth has probably been the biggest surprise for me and our staff,” he said. “Knowing that we have a lot of holes, but at the same time we have a lot of opportunity for players.
“That’s the encouraging thing out there for all these senior-to-be, junior-to-be, sophomore-to-be kids out there looking to play college football. They have a lot of opportunity in the next few years to come in and have an impact on a program.”
If it sounds like Wulff’s recruiting hard, he is. It’s been taking up most of his time. The next few weekends will be packed with visits by potential Cougars, who will get to know Pullman and the new coaching staff.
“It’s going good,” he said of the recruiting. “We’re still trying to find players out there we don’t even know of. That’s our biggest challenge. The kids we do get to us, we feel like they’re going to be high character, good solid people.
“We want kids who can have success on the field and in the classroom, kids who will stay here for their career. So we have to do our best to make sure our retention is good once we get them here. That’s what we’ll be working on.”
Wulff isn’t sure he can find enough of those kids in the short time available this year, but he’s trying.
“I don’t know if we’re in the position to do that,” he said, “we’ve got to get as many as we can get.”
But don’t think the new era means the former players are being forgotten. Wulff held a team meeting Tuesday afternoon and has been meeting with small groups and individuals whenever possible.
“We want to lay a foundation for recruiting coming up and (present) our expectations of them, the basic fundamental accountability expectations as we move through this next month,” Wulff said about Tuesday’s meeting. “To just kind of lay that out there. We’ll gradually continue to insert information (about) our expectations as we move along this semester.”
The Cougars may lose some returning players.
“I think it’s a reality,” Wulff said. “We’re going to set our standards and they will be high. If it’s too hard for them, then that’s going to have to happen.
“We have to set our expectations. It would be great if every kid bought into (them) and moved forward. They’re going to be a little higher than they’ve been here. It’s the only way we can get this turned back on the upswing.”
After getting his feet on the Palouse soil, Wulff has one request of Cougar Nation: Be patient.
“We’re building the foundation,” he said. “But it could take us a while to get where we want to be.”
Gibson will return
The cupboard isn’t as bare as it could have been, thanks to the news Wulff received Monday.
Wide receiver Brandon Gibson will not enter the NFL draft and will return for his senior season.
“My decision is based on purely what I wanted to do,” said Gibson. “I think I’m going to stay.”
Gibson, who set a single-season receiving yardage mark with 1,180 for the Cougars in 2007, went through the NFL draft evaluation process and was informed by phone early this month he would probably be a middle-round pick.
While Wulff is happy to have Gibson back, he also has some goals for the first-team All-Pac-10 performer.
“Obviously, when you have a player who has proven he can make plays back on your team, that’s only a bonus,” Wulff said. “For Brandon, we need him to be a better player than he was, because there is a tremendous amount of room for him to improve. Believe it or not.”
Gibson said the process was a tough one and he’s glad he doesn’t have to go through it again.
“It was grueling,” he said. “I was waiting to see what I wanted to do. I was at home just chilling, and it was a question that came into my head every single day.
“I’m glad it’s over with. Now I can focus on school and hopefully winning some more games.”
Gibson said the coaching change played no part at all in his decision, even the choice to retain wide receiver coach Mike Levenseller, whom he praised throughout a teleconference.
“I can’t worry about that,” Gibson said. “With this whole process, it’s kind of selfish. I’m not a selfish person, but I had to purely base everything off me.”
But the new coaching staff is in his thoughts.
“It’s a starting-over process,” said Gibson, adding he hoped to meet all the coaches this week. “It’s like getting a new girlfriend and learning everything about them.”
Roof back to school
Wulff said East Valley High graduate Andy Roof has re-enrolled in school and will walk-on in the fall.
Roof was dismissed from school after a second alcohol violation last summer. According to Wulff, Roof has gone through treatment and has been reinstated.
•There will be some position changes in the spring, with Andy Mattingly’s (Mead) probable move to defensive end among the more prominent alterations.