SPOKANE, Wash. -- Eastern Washington coach Paul Wulff will
become Washington State's new football coach, a person familiar
with the selection process told The Associated Press late Monday.
The WSU source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to make the announcement.
The Pacific-10 Conference school has scheduled a Tuesday news
conference on its Pullman campus to announce its new coach.
The Cougars have been looking for a replacement for Bill Doba,
who stepped down last month at age 67 after posting a 30-29 record
in five seasons.
Washington State athletic department spokesmen did not
immediately return phone calls for comment and Wulff did not
immediately return a message left at his home Monday night.
The source confirmed Wulff's name was forwarded to WSU President
Elson S. Floyd and athletic director Jim Sterk from about seven or
eight candidates who were interviewed.
Wulff, 40, has made no secret that he wanted to return to coach
at his alma mater, where he was an offensive lineman from 1985-1989
and played on the Cougars' 1988 Aloha Bowl team under Dennis
Erickson.
Doba's assistants were retained temporarily but Sterk has said
it would be up to the new coach to decide whether he wanted to keep
any of them. WSU quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach served as
Wulff's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at EWU before
taking the Pullman job in 2003.
The incoming coach will take over a 5-7 team that returns eight
defensive starters and seven on offense. Despite beating
cross-state rival Washington 42-35 in the Apple Cup last month, the
Cougars missed a bowl game for a fourth consecutive year.
Wulff has been head coach at Eastern Washington, about 90 miles
north of Pullman, since 2000 and was named Big Sky Conference coach
of the year in 2001, 2004 and 2005. This year's EWU team posted a
9-4 record, losing 38-25 to Appalachian State in the quarterfinals
of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs Dec. 1.
The coach served as Eastern's offensive coordinator in 1998-1999
and was offensive line coach at the Cheney school from 1994-1997.
He has a 53-40 record as EWU head coach.
A 1990 graduate of WSU with a bachelor's degree in social
science, Wulff signed as a free agent with the New York Jets, but
did not play because of injuries. In 1991-1992, he played with
Raleigh-Durham and New York-New Jersey of the World Football
League.
WSU's Sterk said when he announced a nationwide search for
Doba's replacement that the ideal candidate would have to know the
Northwest and have a successful record at the top level of college
football.