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The Seattle Times put the Washington State University football program in the cross-hairs on Sunday, reporting on an array of mistakes by players over the last 18 months. 25 arrests in 18 months is a troubling sign, no matter the coach or the program.

Some of it was your run-of-the-mill incidents that occur at campuses across the country. You know, underage drinking, marijuana possession, assault. Not to excuse the behavior, but pretty standard stuff for 18-22 year-olds. But some of it was, well, a little odd. For example, standout defensive end/linebacker Andy Mattingly attacked a five-foot-ten soccer player. With a frying pan. And the soccer player? He had a butter knife to try and fend off the 6-4, 245-pounder who notched 91 tackles and eight sacks as a true sophomore last season. Predictably, the soccer player took the worst of it, suffering a two-inch gash and was "bleeding profusely" according to the police report. As the old saying goes, never bring a butter knife to a frying pan fight.

All that said, the vast majority of these assorted misdeeds happened under the previous coaching regime of Bill Doba. Doba was relieved of his duties in December after a modest 30-29 record. But the real issues surrounding Doba and his coaching staff appears to be what was, or wasn't, happening off the field.

WSU already suffered the worst APR penalty among all BCS teams, losing eight scholarships based on academic deficiencies and players bailing out of Pullman. Doba blamed a large part of the problems on the signing class of 2005, where six of the eight APR cases came to Pullman in that class. And Doba himself admitted in the story that he might have been a little easy on the players.

"I wasn't real proud of it, to be honest with you," Doba says. "They're kids ... I guess maybe I might have been too easy on them."

WSU turned to favorite son Paul Wulff, an excellent offensive lineman from the late-80's Cougar teams and a three-time Big Sky coach of the year prospect out of Eastern Washington. Wulff's reputation is strong on the field, but just as strong behind the scenes in terms of discipline and having the head coach mentality. In other words, this is his program and the buck stops at his desk.

In response to the Sunday story, Wulff hopped on the sports radio airwaves yesterday on KJR-AM in Seattle. You can give it a listen here. Most of all it was a chance for Wulff to respond in his own voice, beyond just a couple of lines in the story about what WSU is already doing to correct the problems of the past.

For example, since the APR debacle, academics have taken on a whole new level of importance. In Wulff's first semester in Pullman, the football team just turned in a 2.72 GPA for the spring, the highest in the last 30 years. The goal for this fall is to turn in the highest GPA in team history. And Wulff has already implemented a team "Unity Council", a 16-player group that will sit in judgment in dealing with players who stray off the beaten path. They will recommend punishment to the coaching staff, and the input will be part of the ultimate decision on each player.

The hope here is that it's another level of accountability for a program that needs organization and direction. Will it all work? Time will tell. It could be a few seasons before the bad apples are weeded out of the program. But despite the bad press, things are beginning to turn around under Wulff.