Will former star WSU lineman return as coach?

LIKE BILL DOBA before him, could new WSU head football coach Paul Wulff tap an old Cougar trench warrior to be his offensive line coach? Jason McEndoo, one of the mainstays on WSU's 1997 team that advanced to the Rose Bowl, two sources told Cougfan.com was indeed headed back to Pullman, but another source has since said no one has yet been tabbed for the spot.

Two sources originally confirmed to CF.C McEndoo had the job but it now appears the hire is not yet a done deal according to another source.

McEndoo, the one-time Seattle Seahawk and New Orleans Saint, has been offensive line coach for the Bobcats for the last four seasons.

McEndoo, 32, if were hired would be the sixth former Cougar player -- along with Wulff, Malik Roberson, Jody Sears, Steve Broussard and Mike Levenseller -- on the new coaching staff. He was a first-team All-Pac-10 performer and honorable mention All-American on the WSU team that ended the school's 67-year Rose Bowl drought by claiming the 1997 Pac-10 title. The Cougars subsequently lost a controversial nailbiter to national champion Michigan in Pasadena.

Efforts this evening to reach McEndoo for comment were unsuccessful.

McEndoo would replace George Yarno, a standout defensive lineman for the Cougars in the 1970s who spent the last five seasons on Doba's staff. Yarno is believed to be in the running for the head coaching job at Eastern Washington, along with two former WSU quarterbacks coaches -- Timm Rosenbach and Bill Diedrick, Jr.

McEndoo developed a reputation at MSU for producing highly decorated players and for working around injuries. One of his pupils, Jeff Bolton, received the 2005 Rimington Award as the top center in Divsion I-AA. Wulff knows McEndoo's handywork first hand, with MSU and Eastern Washington squaring off annually in the Big Sky Conference.

Before joining Montana State, McEndoo spent three seasons as a high school assistant -- at Lake Washington in Kirkland and Mt. Spokane in Spokane, where he also picked up a master's degree at Whitworth College.

He is a native of Aberdeen, Wash., and was inducted into the Aberdeen High hall of fame in 2000.

In addition to their Cougar lineage, McEndoo and Wulff share a tragic life experience. Wulff lost his first wife to brain cancer and McEndoo, while still a student at WSU, lost his first wife in a car accident when they were en route to Pullman for the start of the school year. Both are now remarried and both have two young children.

McEndoo was with the Seahawks from 1998-99, and earned All-Pro honors one summer when assigned to play for the Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe. He was with the Saints in 2000.