WSU Football | Wulff rounds out coaching staff

New WSU football coach Paul Wulff completed his staff Monday with the hiring of offensive line coach Harold Etheridge.

Etheridge, who coached this past season at Northern Illinois, coached at Army when new WSU assistants Travis Niekamp and Jody Sears were on the West Point staff.

"Harold brings a tremendous amount of experience and has previously worked with some of our coaches on staff," Wulff said. "He comes highly recommended as a football coach, teacher and recruiter."

Etheridge, 48, was looking for work because Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak retired after this past 2-10 season and Etheridge wasn't retained by new coach Jerry Kill, who came from Southern Illinois.

With his staff completed, Wulff announced their responsibilities.

Todd Sturdy will be offensive coordinator and coach quarterbacks. Rich Rasmussen will coach tight ends and be recruiting coordinator. Steve Broussard will coach running backs and Mike Levenseller will handle receivers.

Broussard and Levenseller are the holdovers from Bill Doba's staff. Among the Doba assistants not retained is Timm Rosenbach, the quarterbacks coach who was Wulff's teammate at WSU and his offensive coordinator at Eastern Washington in 2001-02.

On defense, Sears (cornerbacks) and Chris Ball (secondary) will be co-coordinators. Ball has the title of assistant head coach. Niekamp will coach linebackers; Malik Roberson has the defensive line.

Niekamp, Rasmussen, Roberson, Sears and Sturdy were on Wulff's 2007 EWU staff.

Etheridge is a native of Gallop, N.M., and he played at Western New Mexico. He coached high-school football in New Mexico and Kentucky and has been on staffs at Western New Mexico, Illinois State, Kentucky and North Texas State.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com