WSU Football | Wulff retains Broussard

PULLMAN — New Washington State football coach Paul Wulff has added current Cougars running-backs coach Steve Broussard to his staff.

As expected, Wulff also officially added two more coaches who had been with him at Eastern Washington — Travis Niekamp and Malik Roberson — to his coaching lineup.

The additions bring the total to six, with three more hires to be made. No assignments have been announced.

On Tuesday, Wulff announced that EWU assistants Jody Sears, Todd Sturdy and Rich Rasmussen would be on the WSU staff.

Wulff and Broussard were WSU teammates in the late 1980s.

Wulff indicated Tuesday that he may take another member from Bill Doba's staff.

One candidate is offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller, who also coaches wide receivers. Levenseller's son, J.T., is scheduled to enroll at WSU as a scholarship quarterback in January after "gray-shirting" this fall.

What kind of team?

So what kind of team will Wulff be coaching?

The Cougars return six starters on offense and eight on defense from their 5-7 season.

The biggest question is at quarterback, where record-setter Alex Brink is gone.

Backup Gary Rogers threw only 16 passes the entire season in mop-up duty and completed only four. He was intercepted once.

Rogers will be challenged by redshirt freshman Marshall Lobbestael, with Kevin Lopina and Cole Morgan in the mix.

One concern is whether receiver Brandon Gibson, who caught 61 passes for 1,043 yards and made the tying and winning touchdown catches in the Apple Cup, turns pro a year early. He will make that decision based on which round an NFL panel tells him he is likely to be taken.

If Gibson departs, the Cougars will be without their top four receivers from 2007 because Michael Bumpus (64 catches), tight end Jed Collins (52 catches) and Charles Dillon (34 catches) all were seniors this past season.

Another worry is whether the team loses starters because of academic casualties. A couple of starters are said to be in academic jeopardy.

Cougars strengths next season will be the offensive line, where four of five starters return, and linebacker, where all four starters are back.

The Cougars will play a 13-game schedule next year that starts with Oklahoma State in Seattle at Qwest Field on Aug. 30. Other nonleague games will be a visit by Portland State on Sept. 20 and road games at Baylor on Sept. 13 and the season-ender at Hawaii on Nov. 29, one week after the Apple Cup in Pullman.

Home Pac-10 games will be against California, Oregon, USC, Arizona and the Huskies.

NOTES

• Wulff's wife, Sherry, is a nurse who graduated from University High School in Spokane and studied nursing at WSU.

• Wulff's preferred defense is a 4-3.