Friday afternoon, former Washington State head coach Paul Wulff told CougFan.com that he has joined Jim Harbaugh's coaching staff. Eric Branch indicated Wulff would be replacing former offensive assistant Bobby Engram who left the team after this past season for a job as Steelers wide receiver coach.

Wulff was head coach at Washington State from 2008-2011, following eight seasons as head coach at Eastern Washington University. Wulff struggled at WSU, finishing with a career record of 9-40 and was replaced this offseason by Mike Leach.

I had a chance to chat with our Washington State blogger, Brian Floyd, about Wulff. After the jump, he has a rundown for us about Wulff, who has led an interesting life in getting to this point. He also has some thoughts on where Wulff can contribute. Since getting this from Brian, we learned that Wulff is filling the Engram role. While that is a general offensive assistant role, I would imagine he would get a chance to focus on areas of expertise.

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On Thursday, San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh joined KNBR radio for a half-hour long chat. Coach Harbaugh had some interesting things to say as per usual, keeping 49ers fans on the edge of their seats awaiting the 2012 season.

The first thing that Harbaugh had said that would please fans was when he expressed his adoration for his job. "Just very fortunate to do what I love, and work hard at it. Just very blessed to be doing something I love," Harbaugh said about coaching the 49ers.

As the conversation began, Harbaugh shared some kind words about Junior Seau before getting into discussion about the team. The 49ers coach was asked early on about the schedule, using it as an opportunity to talk about the week one match against the Packers.

Harbaugh commented, "That’s who we’ve been studying and that’s what I want our team focused on, winning that first week." He then added, "We’re going to concentrate and do our best to find a way to win the opener." He admitted to already watching film on Green Bay and views this as a statement game to the rest of the league. I expect the 49ers to look sharp in week one.

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The San Francisco 49ers strong season naturally leads to other teams attempting to poach coaches and front office personnel to help improve their own situations. The NFL Network reported earlier today that defensive backs coach Ed Donatell was denied permission to interview for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator under new head coach Greg Schiano. Teams cannot deny a coach a chance to interview for a head coach job, but they can deny the opportunity to interview for any other sort of coaching ladder promotion.

I have always found this practice curious in part because of any concern that an assistant coach might grow to resent it. I would hope most coaches are professional enough to understand what's going on with it, but I could see it being a frustrating part of the coaching process. After all, if things go south with the secondary, Donatell could be on the hook and find himself back at square one if he were fired. It just makes for an interesting dynamic.

In somewhat related news, the St. Louis Rams have apparently narrowed down their GM list to Vikings player personnel director George Paton and Falcons player personnel director Les Snead. This means 49ers player personnel director Tom Gamble has been eliminated from consideration. The 49ers front office has done great work, and with Trent Baalke signing a three year contract extension the unit will stick together for a little while longer.

As the NFL moves towards its conclusion with the Super Bowl in a week and a half, teams with fired coaches have moved to wrap up their coaching hires. The latest news indicates the Indianapolis Colts have hired Ravens DC Chuck Pagano while the Oakland Raiders have hired Broncos DC Dennis Allen. They join Jeff Fisher (Rams), Joe Philbin (Dolphins), Romeo Crennel (Chiefs) and Mike Mularkey (Jaguars) as "new" head coaches in 2012.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still looking for a new coach but seem to be nearing finalists, with no 49ers candidates mentioned among them. The Colts were reportedly going to interview special teams coordinator Brad Seely, but whether they did or not, he would seem to be off the list. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman interviewed for the Penn State job, but that also went to another person.

As we move towards the 2012 season, much of the coaching staff looks like it will be retained. There is a chance an assistant could try to get a promotion into an OC or DC position with one of these new staffs, but there is no news to indicate that is happening at this point. The 49ers coaching staff had some downs to go with a lot of ups in 2011, but the team is moving in the right direction. Give this group a full offseason to work together and I can't help but be optimistic moving forward.

The close of the 49ers season opens the door for coaches to interview for other positions around the league and it is starting to heat up. FOX Sports is reporting that 49ers special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Brad Seely is going to interview with the Indianapolis Colts for their head coach position. The Colts fired Jim Caldwell and their GM after a 2-14 disaster of a season.

Seely actually began his coaching career with the Colts in 1989 as their special teams/tight ends coach until 1993. He has spent most of his NFL coaching career as a special teams coach, with some offensive line coach experience at the college level. 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh has indicated several times that Seely is a guy he leans on for advice.

Seely has received quite a bit of praise for his work as a special teams coach. While the 49ers did suffer the cruel irony of special teams costing them the NFC Championship Game, the unit was otherwise stellar all season long.

The folks at Stampede Blue have the head coach search covered so keep an eye out for more updates from them. Of course, we will also have info as it becomes available. More importantly, if you want to win tickets to the Super Bowl, tweet your prediction for the next Colts head coach to @jimirsay. Personally I think they should cancel the Super Bowl this year, but I'm guessing the NFL will choose otherwise.

Allow us to take a quick break from looking at the (totally awesome) New Orleans Saints game and, of course, the (infinitely more awesome) upcoming game against the New York Giants for a bit of offseason news. That's right, there is going to be an offseason for us at some point, though hopefully it won't be until some point in February. Around the league, head coaches are losing their jobs and teams are looking to bring in some fresh blood.

Could the 49ers be a candidate to lose some of their coaches to those teams? It's certainly a possibility, with Vic Fangio and Greg Roman both regarded highly, not to mention some key position coaches like Geep Chryst, among others. Thus far, there's been no solid rumors of 49ers coaches going anywhere, outside of the official news of Roman interviewing with Penn State.

One possibility was discussed on Twitter yesterday, and I wanted to open up discussion on it and see what you good folks think. With the Indianapolis Colts being without a head coach and possibly without Peyton Manning next season, some wondered if Roman could be a candidate to take over there. I certainly see it as a realistic possibility, given Roman's history with Andrew Luck, who is the guy that many believe the Colts will take. ESPN even went as far as to report that Luck is the pick, citing sources. So Roman does make sense, on top of the fact that he's on the up-and-up anyway.

Personally, I really like Roman and what he's been able to do, but I would be happy for him if he found a head coaching gig. I'm OK with a scenario in which he leaves because I know the main offensive system will remain in place with Jim Harbaugh, and we've got someone like Chryst on the staff. Especially given the article Maiocco posted yesterday about how Chryst called the final two minutes of the Saints game. How would you react?

Tuesday morning, 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman confirmed his candidacy for the Penn State coaching job in an interview with New Jersey's ESPN 97.3. It turns out Roman is from a town in New Jersey that is a few hours drive from Penn State, so this is a career opportunity that provides a great family opportunity as well. Roman is currently a finalist for the job and it sounds like a decision will be made in the next week or so.

49ers President/CEO Jed York made an appearance on Chronicle Live yesterday (stream after the jump) to discuss a variety of topics and he had a chance to touch on the Greg Roman news. He made some excellent comments about some of his old discussions with Bill Walsh and how Walsh understood that if you want to bring in the best people for the coaching staff, you're going to lose those kinds of people as well.

As MM pointed out in the link above, potentially losing Greg Roman would not be the end of the world. While Greg Roman is the coordinator, he is not the sole play-caller. I recall a point earlier in the season when Michael Crabtree caught a red zone touchdown and after the game he mentioned how the wide receiver coach had made that particular play-call. Having an offensive-minded head coach makes any transition from Roman to whomever (Geep Chryst, maybe?) that much easier. It's not a simple process, but it is not nearly as complicated as it could be.

This is all of course assuming Roman gets the job. The laundry list of rumored candidates is extensive, so one of a number of people could end up with this job.

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An interesting bit of news hit came out on Twitter earlier this morning:

I have learned 49ers OC Greg Roman is a candidate for the Penn State job. He interviewed a month ago and recently talked again with PSU.

— Tom Dienhart (@BTNTomDienhart) January 2, 2012

The Penn State head coach search has taken a lot of time to get figured out and has involved a number of candidates. Roman reportedly interviewed for the position a month ago and is getting another opportunity to chat with PSU. Bill O'Brien has been considered one of the lead candidates in recent days, but now Roman is reportedly a finalist for the position. According to Eric Branch, Roman was offered the Tulane head coach job earlier this year but turned it down.

It will be interesting to see how this scenario plays out over the next week. The 49ers are preparing for a divisional round game and will be getting the game-plan set. If Roman gets the Penn State job, I would like to think he would stick around San Francisco until the conclusion of their playoffs. However, the whole recruiting process remains an issue as colleges often want guys going right away so they don't fall behind in the process. If you follow college football a bit closer than me (which is a lot of people), feel free to throw out your thoughts on whether getting the job would mean Roman leaves town before the end of the playoffs or after.