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2018 Season chances of winning

martymoose said:
Alan said:
Canzano interviews Coach Barnum who predicts better days ahead: https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2018/08/canzano_portland_state_coach_b.html
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Interesting comments about our stadium situation.
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Until Mr. Merritt Paulson came to town, PSU had a place to play football: Portland Civic Stadium. Portland had a downtown stadium that hosted baseball, college and high school football, and college and professional soccer. Mr. Paulson now essentially "owns" the facility and has rid it of baseball, high school football, college soccer, and PSU football which has been effectively banished to hinterlands. Although I am aware that never is a very long time, Viking football will never draw in Hillsboro. To think so is delusional. PSU football needs a home downtown. If it can't find one it needs to either get out of the game or move down and play at one of the PPS high school fields.

Also, why isn't softball playing in-town at Irv Linn Stadium? Why isn't soccer playing at one of the numerous in-city pitches?
 
Alan said:
martymoose said:
Alan said:
Canzano interviews Coach Barnum who predicts better days ahead: https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2018/08/canzano_portland_state_coach_b.html
Click to expand...

Interesting comments about our stadium situation.
Click to expand...

Until Mr. Merritt Paulson came to town, PSU had a place to play football: Portland Civic Stadium. Portland had a downtown stadium that hosted baseball, college and high school football, and college and professional soccer. Mr. Paulson now essentially "owns" the facility and has rid it of baseball, high school football, college soccer, and PSU football which has been effectively banished to hinterlands. Although I am aware that never is a very long time, Viking football will never draw in Hillsboro. To think so is delusional. PSU football needs a home downtown. If it can't find one it needs to either get out of the game or move down and play at one of the PPS high school fields.

Also, why isn't softball playing in-town at Irv Linn Stadium? Why isn't soccer playing at one of the numerous in-city pitches?
Click to expand...

While I can't really say the same for his cronies, Paulsen has never called for the demise of PSU football. On the surface, it seems like he is willing to work with PSU in trying to find dates and alternatives for football games (I am not privy to what goes on behind the scenes, however). While Hillsboro has been a good alternative at times, it is still Hillsboro. We are Portland State, we are not Hillsboro State and we should be playing in Portland (our jerseys at least say ""Portland" on them and not "Alaska"). Hillsboro should always be a "temporary" home and never should be considered "permanent".

My issue with the stadium is the free ride for a team that participates in a league that is rumored to be losing close to a million dollars a year. While one can tune in to a game on TV and see the crazy crowds at Seattle and Portland, at any other place there are plenty of seats available (attendance looks like one of our football games). The league still hasn't made any inroads towards being a viable league on the world stage, and the US men's team was conspicuously absent during World Cup this year (imagine if the Dream Team did not qualify for the Olympics what that would do for basketball). If the league were to fold, where does that leave Paulsen and the Timbers? What does that do to Providence Park which Alan correctly stated that the Timbers drove off baseball, football and soccer? I say Providence Park becomes another ghost venue similar to Memorial Coliseum.

It is imperative for PSU football to stay connected to Providence Park (or whatever they want to call it).
 
MLS is a league DESIGNED to lose money. To make the correct assessment, take a look at Soccer United Marketing. Of course, there's a lot of nuance to this, because you have major markets where the league is buried and second tier markets where it's kicking butt. Furthermore, look who's actually (1) building stadia, and (2) eh, expanding one with his own money. That "free ride" comment is laughably ill-informed. But one last... maybe the best thing to happen to American soccer would be the death of MLS BECAUSE of what would replace it. Just food for thought there.

In an earlier rant, it was inferred to focus on "the fault" (as if it were a problem to be solved) being Merritt Paulson. So let's rewind back a moment. Paulson buys this outfit in 2007 and starts throwing around the idea of renaming the Beavers to Wet Sox or something like that. Meanwhile, while there's a whole staff of baseball people trying to give the guy ideas, he needs only take a look at what's actually happening in the stands. It wasn't long after the purchase before the organization literally started advertising series-by-series sales of luxury suites for the Beavers. Meanwhile, he points to the 3,000-per-night in the North End for Timbers games at that time and shows the staff who's actually paying the bills. Which- mind you- is only something he might have casually aided. The reason I mentioned that Portland State MUST worry about attendance first is that it drives everything at this level. Portland only financially got MLS because of Merritt Paulson's father. It mostly got MLS because of Timbers Army. (A quote from a former journalist and still author in town- "Seattle has fans because they got MLS; Portland got MLS because they have fans.") Paulson, the city, the media, the people NOW in the organization Paulson runs... while Paulson really wants to push the team among the $$ elite in town, they all know in the back of their minds where the bread is buttered. This city has had serious turnover, so it doesn't respect the history of this matter, and won't for the foreseeable future. This is the Church Of What's Happening Now. To make a dent in that, Portland State has to be a better Portland State.

How you get there, I don't know. I do know why Alan talks about the future of the sport of football (and there's kind of a constant social media drumbeat leading into this season about how numbers are down again in HS ball), concerns over concussions are at the top of many people's minds, and most important, insurance costs are only increasing and at a substantial rate.

The contract issue has already been discussed. Paulson hears far more about putting grass in the stadium than he does accommodating PSU. Hillsboro is probably too big for PSU's "ambitions" at this point, sadly. How do you fix that?
 
Well, we went with Davis at QB. My gut says that's the right call with what we have...although I have not seen the incoming talent throw. Anyone else have thoughts??? :roll:
 
faithinviks said:
Well, we went with Davis at QB. My gut says that's the right call with what we have...although I have not seen the incoming talent throw. Anyone else have thoughts??? :roll:
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My thoughts are not with the offense. Whoever we went with out of Eason or Alexander I was OK with. You score 21 points on North Dakota's team last year, you score 28 points on Cal Poly, heck you score 33 on EWU last year, you should win those games. I'm more concerned with the defense (and a kicker).
 
bigskyconf said:
faithinviks said:
Well, we went with Davis at QB. My gut says that's the right call with what we have...although I have not seen the incoming talent throw. Anyone else have thoughts??? :roll:
Click to expand...

My thoughts are not with the offense. Whoever we went with out of Eason or Alexander I was OK with. You score 21 points on North Dakota's team last year, you score 28 points on Cal Poly, heck you score 33 on EWU last year, you should win those games. I'm more concerned with the defense (and a kicker).
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We did give up a tremendous amount of points off of turnovers last season, so perhaps selection of the number one guy was based on who they thought would give it up more to the defense.

Alexander was 90-157-3 (comp/att/int) versus 69-141-6 for Eason. One could say that Eason did go up against two FBS programs last year, so there's that.
 
bigskyconf said:
My thoughts are not with the offense. Whoever we went with out of Eason or Alexander I was OK with. You score 21 points on North Dakota's team last year, you score 28 points on Cal Poly, heck you score 33 on EWU last year, you should win those games. I'm more concerned with the defense (and a kicker).
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Good point. I have said my concern was DB's, Oline and play calling. I guess I'm trying to forget the pain of our recent kicking game. Yes, a kicker is great need. :nod:
 
Kicking this year offers a little more promise - Kennedy has a year under his belt and should do better. Williams is a freshman but looked very good in fall practice. But they're both young. Don't know about punting.
 
Alan said:
How can it be that every year the Vikings are "young" and/or "youthful" and/or "inexperienced?"
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I was just talking about this with a coworker! I think the last 3 years the Viks have been “youthful.” I hope the kicking game turns around this year. Last year was painful to watch, but with a year under his belt I think Graycen will do okay. The new guy Cody has a strong leg and actually came from the same kicking camp as me (Snap-Hold-Kick).
 
Alan said:
How can it be that every year the Vikings are "young" and/or "youthful" and/or "inexperienced?"
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I have made this point before.....here are the facts as laid out on Goviks.com.

93 man roster.
57 players are RS Frosh, Frosh and Soph.
36 are Juniors and Seniors

2 deep depth
Offense
13 FR & Soph
9 Jr & SR

Defense
8 FR & Soph
14 Jr & SR

Add in the special teams and there are:

26 FR & Soph
24 JR & SR

it looks like 12 of the players on the roster are transfers from JC.

I actually think it looks pretty balanced. I would expect that the larger grouping would always be in the lower classes. You want to keep that pipeline full.
 
"We are young..." is coach speak for don't blame me if we lose. Look at the discussion "2015" and what @martymoose posted about team classes. We have been pretty balanced every year since 2015. On top of that, this is Barnum's 4th year of recruiting and yet we still have to bring in 12 JC transfers? :ohno:

It's a new year and we are undefeated so I'm taking a deep breath and keeping my faith. But let's not fall into the trap of believing "we are so young..." for the 4th year in a row. :dunce:
 
TeamHolt said:
DavidKeys said:
If you can make yourself known, we'll find you!
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Well we have about 12 in my group.
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Hope you guys have a great time! I know things can sound a little negative here at times, but we wouldn't be on this forum if we weren't overall supportive of the Vikings.....some of us since a guy named Lomax was roaming the field....heck, maybe some even longer than that. Hoping to be proven wrong about this season....
 
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