College football: Cal Poly Mustangs promote Woodland native Paul Wulff to head coach
There is an old saying in sports that nothing quite beats the role of an assistant coach. Coach up your guys, go home and leave the other heavy lifting to the head coach.
Then again, there’s nothing quite like being the head coach. Paul Wulff understands both roles. A longtime assistant coach, including stints at Sacramento State and UC Davis, Wulff on Tuesday morning was elevated from Cal Poly assistant to head coach, replacing Beau Baldwin, who accepted the offensive coordinator post at Arizona State after posting a 4-21 record with the Mustangs.
This is the the third time Wulff, a Davis High School graduate and Woodland native, will head a program. He guided Eastern Washington of the Big Sky Conference from 2000-07 and led his alma mater, Washington State, from 2008-11. He led Eastern Washington to two Big Sky championships and was named Coach of the Year three times.
Known for his class, Wulff also understands all manner of heartache and grief. His mother, Dolores, disappeared when he was growing up in Woodland in 1979. Though her body was discovered 48 days later, it was not identified until Wulff submitted a DNA test in 2020.
On Thanksgiving 2020, Wulff and his family lit a candle in their Pismo Beach home, a reminder of who was only there in spirit. She was buried in Yolo County next to other family members.
“It’s time for my mom to truly be next to all of her family,” Wulff told The Sacramento Bee then. “Forever, I didn’t want to let anyone down, and that’s why I worked so hard in high school as a player, so hard in college, and as a coach. I’ve always been extra motivated. I feel I owed people who cared about me, and I owed my mom.”
Wulff, 55, has credited his Davis High coach Dave Whitmire for believing in him and challenging him. Wulff said he needed football and the weight room to unleash frustrations over what happened to his mother, always wondering if his father, Carl, was involved, as the family long suspected. Wulff excelled in the trenches for Davis in 1984-85, and Whitmire taught him how to long snap. That skill helped seal a scholarship to Washington State, where Wulff started four years at center from 1986-89.
Wulff was rocked by more tragedy when his first wife, Tammy Allen, died from brain cancer in 2002 after a five-year fight. Wulff remarried and has three children with his wife, Sherry.
“Paul is as good as it gets, just a great man and coach,” Baldwin told The Bee earlier this season. “Any program is lucky to have him. I know we sure feel that way.”