Sterk said the department has been planning for the sanctions, and said it shouldn't negatively affect the team's ability to sign players. However, he is still concerned that the problem won't go away for some time.

"It'll be a lingering number because (the NCAA APR) has a four-year rollover," Sterk explained. "If you look at it, we've had a blip last year with people leaving. We'll have to deal with it and move on."

After a couple of weeks of rumors, lists, phone calls and interviews, Washington State finally has their man. Several media outlets are reporting tonight that WSU will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM to introduce Paul Wulff as the next head football coach. He reportedly beat out former Michigan State coach John L. Smith and Oklahoma assistant Kevin Sumlin for the head job.

While Wulff hasn't coached at the division-I level, he does come to WSU with an impressive record of 53-40 at Eastern Washington, where he's been the head coach the last eight seasons. If you aren't too familiar with EWU, you aren't alone. Cheney, WA is one of the most difficult places to recruit to in the nation, and they have one of the smallest venues (8,000 seats) and football budgets in college football. Yet Wulff has won coach of the year honors in the Big Sky on four separate occasions in those eight seasons. Wulff's EWU Eagles just wrapped up their season a week ago, where they lost 38-35 at Appalachian State (remember them?) in the Football Subdivision Playoffs.

Wulff is a former center at WSU, where he started for the last three years of his career and earned All-Pac-10 honors in 1989. He's one of the only WSU players to ever play for WSU coaching legends Jim Walden, Dennis Erickson and Mike Price in his playing career. He is known for exciting offense, where his Eagles led the nation in total offense on two occasions, and finished second in total offense in two other seasons. And for those hoping for a reunion from glory days gone by, former coach Mike Price publicly pulled out of the running on Saturday, a day before things started to finalize for Wulff and WSU. While not exactly the splashy hire that some Cougar fans were hoping for, Wulff at age 40 is seen as a coach on the rise, and should inject some energy and passion into the program.

"Because of the Internet and all the negative stuff, we have some kids we have offered and I think they want to commit but they want to wait and see if the Internet is going to fire me," Doba said Tuesday.

The Cougars are the only Pac-10 team without a commitment, according to recruiting Web sites.

Doba has become a target for unhappy Cougars fans who use Web sites and message boards to unleash their frustration. There even is a Web site dedicated to getting him fired.

"When you're battling with offensive linemen and trying to get in there, the quick hands help get them off you," Andy said. "And it also helps in the aggressiveness and toughness aspect when you're getting hit in the face and stuff."

The 2007 season has been a titanic disaster for WSU. Now 2-5 after a 53-7 embarrassment of epic proportions at Oregon, WSU takes the week off to try and regroup. But not only are the natives restless, even the media is starting to sound the alarms that this should be the end of the Bill Doba reign in Pullman.

First it was Howie Stalwick, freelance journalist who covers WSU for various publications, saying that with WSU sinking every week and no real end in sight, the end is near. Then WSU alum and P-I writer Jim Moore added on yesterday, alluding to how you can basically feel it in the air, that Doba's run out of time and most likely it will end upon the completion of the season.

Maybe the most damaging of all was Bud Withers of the Seattle Times writing last week about the disastrous recruiting under Bill Doba's watch. How bad has it been? Basically Doba and staff have whiffed on over 50% of the players they signed on letter-of-intent day from 2003 - 2005. What I mean by whiff is that over 50% of the players who signed on the dotted line aren't even in the program anymore. Poor recruiting has led to a shaky position in regards to depth, where many backups are far too young, inexperienced and just not very good Pac-10 level players. WSU is traditionally a thin program anyway, but when the recruiting is this bad, it's almost impossible to compete with the power programs in the Pac-10.