SEATTLE — If Paul Wulff sounded like a beaten man on Tuesday morning, it had more to do with a minor sinus problem than any sense of his impending fate.
After weeks of defending his tenure at Washington State University, Wulff wasn’t in the mood to conduct any PowerPoint presentations.
When asked during Tuesday’s Pacific-12 Conference media call whether he had considered the possibility that Saturday’s Apple Cup could be his final game as head coach of the Cougars, Wulff was short and to the point.
“I don’t think like that,” he said. “We’ve got a great, young football team. This is a great young team that’s getting better and better all the time.”
Wulff has spent a good part of this season defending his four-year tenure at the school where he once played on the offensive line. While his 9-39 career mark as head coach is difficult to ignore, his team has started to show signs of progress.
The WSU media notes for the Apple Cup game point out as much, with a statistical comparison of the past three seasons. The comparison shows the Cougars (4-7 overall, 2-6 in the Pac-12 this year) have made huge jumps in total offense (from 119th in the country in 2009 to 115th last season to 36th in 2011) and total defense (from 120th to 115th to 82nd).
Wulff also seems to have his players behind him, which is a huge step for any coach whose future is publicly questioned.
WSU cornerback Nolan Washington, a sophomore from Kennedy High School in Burien, said Tuesday that the Cougars are behind Wulff and they’re not treating Saturday’s Apple Cup game against Washington as a win-one-for-the-coach affair.
“We love each other, and we all play hard for this program,” he said. “We’re just focused on UW. We can’t control what happens to the coaches. We just want to win this game.”
Washington admitted that it’s been hard to ignore the ongoing discussion of Wulff’s job status during this season. The topic has been a hot one on both sides of the state, especially after WSU athletic director Bill Moos made public comments about the program needing to take a significant step in the right direction.
“We hear it every now and again,” Washington said. “But (fans and media) don’t really focus on that because we’ve been winning. They’ve been more focused on us possibly making a bowl (until Saturday’s loss to Utah). After this week, we’ll probably get a lot more questions about it.”
When the question was posed to Washington on Tuesday, he said that Wulff has done enough to deserve more time at WSU.
“Look at the program and where it came from,” the Cougars’ starting cornerback said three days after an overtime loss to Utah knocked WSU out of bowl contention.
“We were literally just a few steps from getting to our goal of going to a bowl game. Look at the last play with (WSU wide receiver) Marquess (Wilson, who fell just short of the goal line at the end of the Utah game) — another step, and we could’ve been there.
“I think (Wulff has) done enough work this year to grant him another year. But I don’t know. I can’t control that.”
What makes Saturday’s game interesting is that Wulff may still be in control of his own fate.
An exciting win over the Huskies would leave WSU one victory short of bowl contention while matching Wulff’s win total from the previous three seasons combined. It would also give the Cougars a 2-1 record down the stretch — all against bowl-eligible teams — with only an overtime loss tainting the mark. And Wulff would carry a respectable 2-2 mark in Apple Cup games during his tenure.
On the flip side, a loss to UW would leave the Cougars with a 4-8 record and with seven conference losses — something that has happened in each of Wulff’s first three seasons at WSU. After a promising 3-1 start to the season, the Cougars would have gone 1-7 and finished alone at the bottom of the Pac-12 North standings.
One game shouldn’t singularly carry a man’s future in its balance, but this weekend’s Apple Cup might be that rare opportunity for a coach to make or break his immediate career.
For all the time Wulff has spent defending his tenure to reporters and fans in recent weeks — Tuesday was not such an occasion — he might have to make his loudest statement this Saturday evening.
That is by earning an extension through his team’s final performance on the field.
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