The Front Row with MARK NELKE Nov. 27, 2011

Saturday's Apple Cup notwithstanding, I'm pulling for Paul Wulff to get a fifth season to coach the Washington State football team.

Yes, his 9-40 overall record as Cougars' coach after Saturday's loss to the Washington Huskies hardly looks encouraging. But WSU's four wins this season were the most since the Cougs went 5-7 in 2007.

WSU went 2-11, 1-11 and 2-10 in Wulff's first three seasons, and were largely uncompetitive in the first two. Last year the Cougars were more competitive, and this year WSU threatened to break through and qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2003, when the Cougs went 10-3 and beat Texas in the Holiday Bowl.

That was also WSU's last winning season.

So the question is, does Wulff get credit for the Cougars' steady improvement, or does he take the fall for collapses that cost WSU a possible bowl game?

WSU rallied to beat Colorado in its Pac-12 opener, and played Stanford and Oregon closer than many would have expected. But the Cougs let one slip away at UCLA to start a five-game skid, which included a 23-point loss to a bad Oregon State team at Seattle. It was one of just three wins by OSU all year.

After an impressive victory over Arizona State at home, WSU still had bowl hopes, but couldn't beat Utah at home in the snow. After starting 3-1, the Cougars lost seven of their last eight.

With the Idaho Vandals sitting at 2-9, idle this week before next Saturday's season finale at Nevada, I've been asked if football coach Robb Akey is on the hot seat.

I don't see how.

I think he gets a mulligan this season. The Vandals started the season with two of its top wide receivers injured, then put up a stinker of a loss in the opener to Bowling Green, and never really recovered. Part of the reason was an offense that was abysmal much of the season.

Two years ago, in Akey’s third season, Idaho went 8-5 and played in a bowl game for the first time since 1998. Last year, the Vandals were less than a minute away from a win that would have made it two bowl games in a row.

This year was a big step backward, with losses to Virginia (21-20 in overtime), Louisiana Tech (24-11), Hawaii (16-14), New Mexico State (31-24) and Utah State (49-42) particularly galling.

Next year three of the top programs in the Western Athletic Conference — Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii — leave the WAC for the Mountain West, replaced by some schools whose names escape me.

And no more mulligans will be awarded then.

Besides, the University of Idaho needs all the exposure it can get these days, and Akey is the college’s best representative, with his exuberant personality.

Of course, it helps if the team is winning.

I guess I’m glad the NBA lockout is almost over, but I’m not sure I would have missed it if they hadn’t played at all this season.

With the NFL in full swing, the battle for BCS positioning in college football heating up, and college basketball getting going, there were plenty of sports to pay attention to.

I guess the three games on Christmas Day that will serve to open the shortened, 66-game season will give us something else to talk about that day — after we’ve gotten caught up on everybody’s job, their family and how their truck runs.

I kinda miss the Blue-Gray Game.

Don’t you think it’s about time Samantha gets her own sandwich?

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.