Portland State Vikings – The Best College Football Team In Oregon

This article was written by a Portland State alumnus. We have had very little to cheer about when it comes to football. Now that Oregon and Oregon State are joining forces to be collectively horrible on our TVs every Saturday, it is with gleeful pleasure to see my team 3-0 while getting almost zero attention. I may not get many chances to write columns like this in my lifetime, so I am seizing this opportunity, just as I hope Portland State seizes its own opportunity.

According to most headlines from this past Sunday, the blood moon came early. The sacrificial blood of both Ducks and Beavers spilled over the state of Oregon, a red-orange-green bloodletting that signaled the end of national attention in the state. Oh, the humanity! Last Saturday night, it was time to come to terms with reality. Oregon, coming off a 62-20 defeathering of their souls by Utah, was exposed as a mediocre team with big questions at its quarterback position and even bigger questions on defense if they decide to play any this year. Oregon State, coming off a 42-24 loss to Stanford, at least has hope. Oregon State is a young team in the midst of a rebuild and looks like a program trying to move forward. Oregon just looks like a mess, a team whose identity is located somewhere in Tennessee. So, as both Oregon and Oregon State look to be in trouble early, is there anything to get excited about in Oregon when it comes to college football?

How about the Portland State Vikings? Yes, the undefeated Portland State Vikings. You know, that team located near the heart of downtown Portland on Broadway. That FCS team from the Big Sky Conference who beat Pac-12 (ahem) powerhouse Washington State Cougars in Pullman, marking the first time Portland State has beaten a Pac-12 team. Since then, Portland State has beaten Idaho State and Western Oregon in convincing fashion, making a statement that this team may be for real.

Ranked 17th in the FCS, the Vikings look to have a real defense, as displayed in their 31-0 win over Western Oregon. Except nobody really saw it because the game wasn’t televised. Their special teams are reportedly actually special and their offense is doing enough to go alongside their touted defense. The Vikings are 3-0 on this young season with a big test against 3-1 North Dakota State next Saturday at Hillsboro stadium. It might be time to start jumping on the bandwagon of this often overlooked football team from Portland State University, a bandwagon powered by the sweat of Ralph Nader and the bones of John Locke.

There is a reason the Vikings have often been overlooked in football. They have never won any division, conference or national titles. Although at one time, the university owned the best slogan in all of college athletics. Since 2007, a year after the relatively successful head coaching term of Tim Walsh, the Vikings have posted a 21-45 record under Jerry Glanville and the recently ousted Nigel Burton. New head coach Bruce Barnum has now taken the reigns and ignited something special under the feet of Portland State. Burton was named as a permanent replacement to lead the Vikings in December of 2014, and he looks like he might be the solution Portland State has long been looking for at head coach since the Pokey Allen and Tim Walsh eras.

The Portland State Vikings are, as of right now, the best college TEAM in Oregon. They play as a cohesive unit. They seem to know who they are and what they can and can’t do. And they are winning. Will this sudden burst of success last the season? Will these winning ways extend past this year and into the next? That remains to be seen. But as the Ducks fall out of the limelight and as the Beavers continue the search for their own identity, it’s time we embrace this group of Vikings. They could be on to something special this year, and it would be a shame to miss it because we are too busy lamenting on the state of those other Oregon teams.

Of course, the Vikings could lose next week and Oregon could route Colorado and with Oregon State on a bye week, the state of college football in Oregon would go back to normal. But, I don’t want normal. I want the Vikings to win next week and continue to win in the following weeks. It would be nice, for at least one year, if a group of kids without X-Boxes in their locker rooms or a different uniform to wear every quarter, could to be able to sneak away with the spotlight and gain some attention of Oregon football fans. Oregon and Oregon State seem to be doing their part in making that happen; now it’s up to Portland State to do theirs. Go Viks!

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