SPOKANE — Washington State University football coach Paul Wulff is turning to business books instead of playbooks in his effort to reverse the worst season in team history.
Wulff, who was hired last December, said Tuesday that a friend recently gave him some literature on how organizations can promote major changes, which he needs for the Cougars (1-8, 0-6 Pacific-10).
He’s learning that it’s difficult to get people to buy into organizational changes that might challenge their comfort zones.
“It’s kind of ironic when you read things like this, and we are going through the same things,” Wulff said. “As we are moving forward we want to be on top of what happens next.”
“People don’t change real quick. That’s a process,” Wulff said. “It’s easy to make decisions to change, but people don’t change quick. We are in that mode now.”
The next obstacle for the Cougars comes Saturday when Arizona (5-3, 3-2 Pac-10) comes to Pullman. Arizona needs a win to become bowl eligible for the first time in a decade.
Wulff, in his weekly conference call, also downplayed the notion that players were quitting on a team that is getting blown out by historic margins each week.
After the 58-0 loss at Stanford last week, quarterback Kevin Lopina and defensive back Romeo Pellum both suggested that some players on the team had quit.
“We have some people on the team who are competitors and they’ll get down about this, and then we’ve got some who just want to quit,” Lopina said.
“People are not trusting the coaches, what the coaches are teaching us. That’s our downfall right now,” Pellum said.
Wulff attributed those comments to frustration with losing.
“I don’t think anybody has quit,” Wulff said. “Some players are frustrated and tired of answering the same questions.”
There’s no denying that this is a trying season for everyone connected to the WSU program.
The Cougars rank worst in the nation in points allowed, 49.2 per game, and second to last in points scored, 12.3. That’s a double whammy that is rare for a BCS team.
They’ve been outscored 169-0 in the past 10 quarters of play. They’ve given up 1,343 yards while gaining only 395 in that span.
They’ve already surrendered more points in Pac-10 play, 350, than any other team in league history with three games left to play. The previous record was 333 set by Cal in 2001. Washington State is yielding 58.3 points per Pac-10 game, well above the record of 47.3 allowed by the 1970 WSU team.
The Cougars were shut out for the second straight game, a first since 1969, after going 280 straight games in which they scored at least a field goal. They have not been shut out in three straight games since 1925. The team record is four straight in 1903.
“I don’t spend time on records we are breaking or not breaking,” Wulff said. “It doesn’t matter to us right now.”
“It’s more about reconstruction,” he said. “We have a plan and I am sticking to it.”
After losing five more turnovers Saturday, the Cougars are tied with Wyoming for worst in the nation with a net minus 2.22 a game, having lost 29 and gained nine.
Wulff said he expects quarterback J.T. Levenseller to play more in the final four games.
Neck stingers have left three players questionable: Defensive end Kevin Kooyman, linebacker Myron Beck and guard B.J. Guerra. Wulff expects Beck to play.
After Arizona, the schedule gets a little easier. The Cougars travel to Arizona State (2-6), host Washington (0-8) and finish at Hawaii (4-5).
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